During the pre-season the
Melbourne Storm defeated the
Leeds Rhinos 18–10 in the
2010 World Club Challenge. The inaugural
All Stars match took place on 13 February at
Skilled Park,
Gold Coast, where the Indigenous All Stars team won 16–12. Significant dates throughout the season include the annual
Anzac Test and
City vs Country Origin weekend, resulting in a shortened round in early May.
Byes take place throughout the
State of Origin period between Rounds 11 and 18 (during June and July). The annual heritage round takes place again in Round 10, a round celebrating Women in League has been earmarked for Round 16, and later in the season a round has been set aside to celebrate Indigenous Australians. For the second successive year the
St. George Illawarra Dragons took out the
JJ Giltinan Shield for winning the minor premiership. The overall attendance record during the regular season was 3,151,039, an increase on last year's record of 3,081,874. This was the second consecutive year that the rugby league attendance record has been broken. On 7 September 2010, Sydney Roosters' five-eighth
Todd Carney won the coveted
Dally M Medal for Player of the Year for season 2010 and was also awarded the people's choice Provan-Summons award
(see 2010 Dally M Awards for full award listing). It was a remarkable return to the field for Carney who in 2008 was sacked by the
Canberra Raiders and deregistered by the NRL for the 2009 season for repeated off-field indiscretions. In 2010, NRL games on New Zealand's Sky network drew average audiences of 60,779.
Rule changes During the 2010 season, a rule change to the
playing field was implemented so that if a player in possession of the ball made contact with the corner post that player would no longer be considered to be
touch in-goal. Proponents of the move argued a series of possible future scenarios made this preventative measure necessary, with
ARL chief executive
Geoff Carr stating, "no one has thought of the possibility of using the corner post as a weapon to defuse a try and we want to stop it before they do". One scenario was that a defending player might manipulate the corner post to put an attacker out of play. A ball that makes contact with the corner post while not in the possession of a player will be deemed to be touch in-goal as before. Melbourne eventually finished the 2010 season with a 14–10 win–loss record, which would have seen them finish 5th disregarding the punishments, with
Manly missing the finals. Statistically, the North Queensland Cowboys were the poorest performing team during the season, winning only five of its 24 matches played which, disregarding the Storm's punishment, would have been their first wooden spoon since 2000. ==Season advertising==