Teams

The lineup of teams remained unchanged from the previous season, with sixteen clubs contesting the premiership, including five Sydney-based foundation teams, another six from Sydney, two from greater New South Wales, two from Queensland, and one from the Australian Capital Territory.

Balmain 82nd season Ground: Leichhardt Oval Coach: Warren Ryan Captain: Wayne Pearce	Brisbane 2nd season Ground: Lang Park Coach: Wayne Bennett Captain: Wally Lewis	Canberra 8th season Ground: Seiffert Oval Coach: Tim Sheens Captain: Mal Meninga	Canterbury-Bankstown 55th season Ground: Belmore Oval Coach: Phil Gould Captain: Peter Tunks
Cronulla-Sutherland 23rd season Ground: Caltex Field Coach: Allan Fitzgibbon Captain: David Hatch	Eastern Suburbs 82nd season Ground: Sydney Football Stadium Coach: Russell Fairfax Captain: Hugh McGahan	Gold Coast Giants 2nd season Ground: Seagulls Stadium Coach: Bob McCarthy Captain: Ron Gibbs → Billy Johnstone	Illawarra 8th season Ground: Wollongong Stadium Coach: Ron Hilditch Captain: Chris Walsh
Manly-Warringah 43rd season Ground: Brookvale Oval Coach: Alan Thompson Captain: Paul Vautin	Newcastle 2nd season Ground: Newcastle ISC Coach: Allan McMahon Captain: Sam Stewart	North Sydney 82nd season Ground: North Sydney Oval Coach: Frank Stanton Captain: John Dorahy → Tony Rea	Parramatta 43rd season Ground: Parramatta Stadium Coach: John Monie Captain: Peter Sterling
Penrith 23rd season Ground: Penrith Stadium Coach: Ron Willey Captain: Royce Simmons	South Sydney 82nd season Ground: Sydney Football Stadium Coach: George Piggins Captain: Mario Fenech	St. George 70th season Ground: Kogarah Oval Coach: Craig Young Captain: Brian Johnston	Western Suburbs 82nd season Ground: Orana Park Coach: John Bailey Captain: Cameron Blair → Ellery Hanley

Advertising

1989 was a watershed year for the New South Wales Rugby League's advertising commencing an association with Tina Turner that would last until 1995. In those years the NSWRL, its ad agency Hertz Walpole and promotions consultant Brian Walsh would fundamentally change the image and popular perception of the game in Australia.

Agency copywriter Paul Knights inspired by the brutal simplicity of the game, saw a link to the lyrics in Tina Turner's 1987 hit What You Get Is What You See^[1] written by Terry Britten & Graham Lyle. Negotiations were assisted by the fact that her Australian manager Roger Davies was familiar with the game and the rights deal was easily done. There was initially no intention to film Tina performing the song but at the last minute an availability appeared in her schedule. The agency and a production crew were despatched to England along with the NSWRL's General Manager John Quayle bearing bags of balls, jumpers and branded goalpost pads. Leading players Cliff Lyons (Manly) and Gavin Miller (Cronulla) were both in England at the time playing for Leeds and Hull Kingston Rovers respectively and made themselves available for the film and promotional stills shoot with Tina. In the finished ad the Tina footage is interspersed with the usual big hits and crowd scenes plus shots of the star players of the time in pre-season training. Lyons appears in the commercial in a hammy locker room shot with Tina.

Initial questions about the relevance of Tina to the Australian game were displaced when the up tempo, sexy ad appeared and the long running and successful association began.

Ladder

	Team	Pld	W	D	L	PF	PA	PD	Pts
1	Souths	22	18	1	3	390	207	+183	37
2	Penrith	22	16	0	6	438	241	+197	32
3	Balmain	22	14	1	7	380	236	+144	29
4	Canberra (P)	22	14	0	8	457	287	+170	28
5	Brisbane	22	14	0	8	398	290	+108	28
6	Cronulla-Sutherland	22	14	0	8	368	281	+87	28
7	Newcastle	22	11	0	11	281	281	0	22
8	Parramatta	22	11	0	11	346	366	-20	22
9	Canterbury-Bankstown	22	10	2	10	280	337	-57	22
10	St. George	22	10	0	12	330	356	-26	20
11	Easts	22	9	1	12	348	346	+2	19
12	Manly-Warringah	22	9	1	12	334	343	-9	19
13	Wests	22	7	1	14	229	389	-160	15
14	Gold Coast	22	7	1	14	223	383	-160	15
15	Norths	22	5	1	16	194	406	-212	11
16	Illawarra	22	2	1	19	256	503	-247	5

Ladder progression

• Numbers highlighted in green indicate that the team finished the round inside the top 5.
• Numbers highlighted in blue indicates the team finished first on the ladder in that round.
• Numbers highlighted in red indicates the team finished last place on the ladder in that round.
• Underlined numbers indicate that the team had a bye during that round.

	Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	21	22	23
1	South Sydney Rabbitohs	0	2	4	6	8	10	12	14	16	16	18	20	22	24	24	26	28	30	30	32	34	36	37
2	Penrith Panthers	0	2	2	4	6	8	10	10	12	12	14	16	18	20	22	22	24	26	26	28	30	32	32
3	Balmain Tigers	2	4	6	6	6	8	8	10	10	10	10	12	12	14	16	18	20	20	22	24	26	27	29
4	Canberra Raiders	0	0	2	4	6	8	10	12	14	14	14	14	16	16	18	18	18	18	20	22	24	26	28
5	Brisbane Broncos	2	4	4	6	8	10	12	14	16	16	18	18	18	20	20	20	20	20	20	22	24	26	28
6	Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks	2	2	2	4	4	6	8	10	12	12	12	14	16	16	16	18	20	22	24	24	26	26	28
7	Newcastle Knights	2	2	4	4	4	6	8	10	10	10	12	12	12	12	14	16	16	18	18	18	18	20	22
8	Parramatta Eels	2	4	6	8	8	8	8	10	10	10	12	12	14	14	16	18	18	18	20	20	22	22	22
9	Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs	2	4	6	6	6	8	8	8	10	10	10	12	13	13	15	17	19	19	21	21	21	21	22
10	St. George Dragons	2	2	2	4	6	6	6	6	6	8	10	12	12	14	14	16	16	16	18	20	20	20	20
11	Eastern Suburbs Roosters	2	4	4	4	6	6	6	6	6	8	8	8	8	8	8	10	10	12	12	14	15	17	19
12	Manly Warringah Sea Eagles	0	0	0	2	2	2	4	4	4	4	4	6	8	10	10	10	12	14	16	16	16	17	19
13	Western Suburbs Magpies	0	0	0	0	2	2	2	4	4	4	4	5	5	7	9	9	11	13	15	15	15	15	15
14	Gold Coast-Tweed Giants	0	2	2	2	2	2	4	4	4	4	4	5	7	9	11	11	11	13	13	13	13	15	15
15	North Sydney Bears	0	0	2	2	4	4	4	4	6	8	8	8	9	9	9	9	9	9	9	11	11	11	11
16	Illawarra Steelers	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	4	4	4	4	5	5	5

Chart

	Qualifying final					Major semi-final					Preliminary final					Grand final
						1	South Sydney	10								Balmain		14
							Balmain	20								Canberra		19
	2	Penrith	12								South Sydney		16
	3	Balmain	24			Minor semi-final					Canberra		32
						Penrith		18
	4	Canberra	31			Canberra		27
	5	Cronulla-Sutherland	10

Grand final

For only the second time ever, the grand final was not an all-Sydney affair. A number of rugby league writers have referred to the 1989 grand final as the greatest ever;^[2] Canberra, who were beaten grand finalists in 1987, had won five games straight in order to make the finals, and in the finals accounted for Cronulla, an emerging Penrith team, and minor premiers South Sydney to qualify for their second grand final, though any loss would have eliminated the side from contention.

Canberra captain Mal Meninga had to overcome a broken arm from earlier in the season and played in a special cast. Also playing for the Raiders were future representative stars Laurie Daley, Bradley Clyde, Ricky Stuart, Steve Walters and his younger brother Kevin and Glenn Lazarus, as well as established stars Gary Belcher, Brent Todd and John "Chicka" Ferguson. Canberra were coached by Tim Sheens.

Their opponents Balmain, beaten grand finalists in 1988, boasted a Test-strength pack including Steve "Blocker" Roach, Paul Sironen, Ben Elias, Bruce McGuire, and inspirational captain Wayne "Junior" Pearce, as well as a backline that included Garry Jack, goalkicking English import Andy Currier, New Zealand halfback Gary Freeman, former Wallaby rugby union winger James Grant, and schoolboy sensation Tim Brasher, were favourites to win. The Tigers were again coached by former Canterbury-Bankstown dual premiership winning coach Warren Ryan.

The pre-match entertainment was provided by Marc Hunter, Debra Byrne, Michael Edward Stevens, boy soprano Ben Hawks & John Williamson.^[3]

Balmain led 12–2 at half time, having scored two tries against the run of play. The first came after an intercept by winger James Grant, snatching an offload from Raiders prop Brent Todd. The second was a great team effort with Paul Sironen steaming over under the posts after lead-up work from Andy Currier and Grant, all starting from a kick ahead by Currier after he had received a perfect offload from Steve Roach.

Canberra had looked marginally the better side in the first half and coach Tim Sheens spoke effectively to his players at the break, stressing that they could be considered unlucky to be trailing. Fifteen minutes into the second half referee Bill Harrigan controversially ruled against Balmain second-rower Bruce McGuire for using offside Raider Steve Walters as a shepherd.^[4] From the ensuing penalty the Raiders kicked for touch and "Chicka" Ferguson set up the Raiders' first try when he escaped an attempted tackle by Currier, passed to Belcher, who also beat Currier to score. The gap was narrowed to 12–8.

Twice in the last twenty minutes Balmain nearly wrapped up the match. Michael Neil was ankle-tapped five metres from the line in a desperate dive by Mal Meninga. Then the Tigers' captain Wayne Pearce lost the ball with the line wide open and centre Tim Brasher unmarked.

Warren Ryan's decisions with fifteen minutes left to replace the enforcer Roach with defender Kevin Hardwick may have been the turning point in the game. Ryan effectively set out to defend a six-point lead, a tactic which ultimately backfired. Benny Elias' field goal attempt hit the cross bar, after he'd earlier had one charged down by Meninga. However, with 90 seconds to go and it seemingly all over for the Raiders, the evergreen Ferguson scored the try of his life. Chris O'Sullivan sent up a searching bomb, Laurie Daley was there to palm the ball to Ferguson who stepped back inside past three converging defenders to score close to the posts, enabling an easy conversion for Meninga to level.^[5]

With Canberra's confidence mounting, the game became the first grand final since 1977 to go into same-day extra time. At this point the Sironen/Roach replacements became crucial with neither able to resume the field for the extra period.

Garry Jack knocked on two minutes into extra time and from the scrum Canberra's five-eighth Chris O'Sullivan kicked a field goal. Minutes from the finish, Raiders replacement Steve Jackson received the ball fifteen metres from the line and made for the tryline, beating two men and then carrying a further three with him. As he was being brought down he reached out to place the ball one-handed on the line.

It was Canberra's first ever premiership; the first grand final won by an out-of-Sydney club; and the first team to win from 4th position. Canberra's nineteen-year-old lock Bradley Clyde was a deserved Clive Churchill Medal winner as the man of the match, though most agreed that a number of Raiders could have won the medal, including fullback Gary Belcher.

Such was the drama of the match that an account of it was written by Thomas Keneally entitled "A movie script that came to life".^[6] This memorable match is now commemorated each year with the 1989 League Legends Cup.

Canberra 19 (Tries: Belcher, Ferguson, Jackson. Goals: Meninga 3/6. Field Goal: O'Sullivan)

Balmain 14 (Tries: Grant, Sironen. Goals: Currier 3/4)

Referee: Bill Harrigan

Attendance: 40,500

Clive Churchill Medal: Bradley Clyde (Canberra)^[7]