J. J. Giltinan Shield
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The J.J. Giltinan Shield is an Australian rugby league trophy, first introduced for the 1951 New South Wales Rugby Football League season. It was named after the late James J. Giltinan, an entrepreneur who helped to found the sport of rugby league in Australia and who led the first Kangaroo Tour to England in 1908. Giltinan died in 1950 and the Shield was created for the following season in his honour.
From 1951, the Shield was awarded to the winner of the New South Wales Rugby League (NSWRL) Grand Final, replacing the Labor Daily Cup. In addition to the Shield, premiership winning teams received the W. D. & H. O. Wills Cup from 1960–1981, the Winfield Cup from 1982–1995, and the Optus Cup in 1996.
Since 1997 the J.J. Giltinan Shield has been awarded to the NRL minor premiers.
Since the inception of the National Rugby League in 1998, only three teams have won the minor premiership more than once: the Brisbane Broncos (1998 and 2000) who won the premierships in both years, the Parramatta Eels (2001 and 2005) who lost the Grand Final in the former year and lost the preliminary final the latter year and the St. George Illawarra Dragons (2009 and 2010) who won its first premiership in 31 years in the latter year. Only three minor premiers: the Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks (in 1999), the Eels in 2005 and the Dragons in 2009 have failed to make the Grand Final in those years. The last team to win the minor premiership/premiership double were the St. George Illawarra Dragons in 2010. The other teams to do so were the Brisbane Broncos, twice (in 1998 and 2000) and the Penrith Panthers in 2003.
[edit] J.J. Giltinan Shield Winners (1951 - 2009)
1 The Melbourne Storm were stripped of the 2006, 2007 and 2008 minor premierships on 22 April 2010 due to long-term gross salary cap breaches.
