Rugby league started in Australia in the period 1907–08. The Australian Rugby Football League Board of Control was formed by the
New South Wales Rugby League (NSWRL) and
Queensland Rugby League (QRL) in December 1924 to administer the running of the
national team. George Ball was the first secretary of the Board and John La Maro the first chairman. Prior to this time, the international rugby league was organised jointly by the NSWRL and the QRL. It was only after this time that the Australian team began to wear the now-familiar sporting colours of Green and Gold. Since 1924, rugby league bodies in all other states and territories became affiliated to the Board of Control and ARL. Until 1984 the ARFL Board of Control was effectively run by the NSWRL board, and many Queensland players and administrators throughout this period believed that the NSWRL used this power to the detriment of Queenslanders, especially with respect to national team selection. In 1986 the ARL was incorporated under the name Australian Rugby Football League Limited as a separate entity and
Ken Arthurson was the first executive chairman of the new body. With national expansion of the competition implemented for the
1995 season the NSWRL passed control of the
Winfield Cup competition to the ARL. Following
Kerry Packer's announcement that his
Optus Vision company owned both free-to-air and pay television broadcasting rights for the sport in Australia,
News Corporation, controlled by
Rupert Murdoch, undertook a bold bid to create a rival competition,
Super League (Australia). Super League successfully attracted eight of the ARL clubs. In the
1995 State of Origin series, the ARL forbade the players of those eight clubs from participating in the interstate competition. However, those clubs were allowed to participate in the premiership seasons of
1995 and
1996, while the ARL fought in the courtroom to stop the Super League competition from eventuating. However,
Super League conducted a
rival competition in 1997. Both the ARL and Super League competitions ran parallel to each other that year. At the close of the season, despite having the financial backing of
Optus, the ARL decided that it could not survive if two competitions were run and undertook moves to approach News Corporation and join the national competition that had been created by Super League. As a consequence of the negotiations that followed, the
National Rugby League was formed before the
1998 season from the ARL and Super League competitions. From 1998 to 2012, the National Rugby League Partnership, a power-sharing arrangement between
News Corporation and the
Australian Rugby League (ARL), ran the
National Rugby League competition as a consequence of the
Super League war. Between the 1998 season and the first few months of the 2012 season the ARL had six out of twelve seats on the NRL Partnership board. In 2012 News Limited exited the partnership on condition that the ARL was restructured with an independent board. The ARL was renamed as the Australian Rugby League Commission and restructured on 10 February 2012 and took control of the
National Rugby League competition.
ARL Premiership, 1995–97 From 1995 to 1997, the ARL directly administered the national club premiership competition. Although they only won one ARL premiership in 1996, the
Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles dominated the competition in its three years under the ARL name, winning each minor premiership (1995–1997), and appearing in all three Grand Finals. ==ARL Development==