Teams

The number of teams competing remained unchanged for the third consecutive year, with sixteen clubs contesting the premiership, including five inner Sydney-based foundation teams, another six from greater Sydney, two from greater New South Wales, two from Queensland, and one from the Australian Capital Territory.^[4]

Balmain Tigers 84th season Ground: Leichhardt Oval Coach: Alan Jones Captain: Ben Elias	Brisbane Broncos 4th season Ground: Lang Park Coach: Wayne Bennett Captain: Gene Miles	Canberra Raiders 10th season Ground: Bruce Stadium Coach: Tim Sheens Captain: Mal Meninga	Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs 57th season Ground: Belmore Oval Coach: Chris Anderson Captain: Terry Lamb
Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks 25th season Ground: Endeavour Park Coach: Allan Fitzgibbon Captain: Gavin Miller	Eastern Suburbs Roosters 84th season Ground: Sydney Football Stadium Coach: Mark Murray Captain: Hugh McGahan	Gold Coast Seagulls 4th season Ground: Seagulls Stadium Coach: Malcolm Clift Captain: Wally Lewis	Illawarra Steelers 10th season Ground: Wollongong Stadium Coach: Graham Murray Captain: Chris Walsh & Dean Schifilliti
Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles 45th season Ground: Brookvale Oval Coach: Graham Lowe Captain: Michael O'Connor	Newcastle Knights 4th season Ground: Marathon Stadium Coach: Allan McMahon → David Waite Captain: Sam Stewart	North Sydney Bears 84th season Ground: North Sydney Oval Coach: Steve Martin Captain: Tony Rea	Parramatta Eels 45th season Ground: Parramatta Stadium Coach: Mick Cronin Captain: Brett Kenny
Penrith Panthers 25th season Ground: Penrith Stadium Coach: Phil Gould Captain: Greg Alexander	South Sydney Rabbitohs 84th season Ground: Sydney Football Stadium Coach: Frank Curry Captain: Michael Andrews	St. George Dragons 71st season Ground: Kogarah Oval Coach: Brian Smith Captain: Michael Beattie	Western Suburbs Magpies 84th season Ground: Campbelltown Sports Ground Coach: Warren Ryan Captain: Paul Langmack

Advertising

1991 again saw the NSWRL use Tina Turner's 1989 version of "The Best" in their advertising. The league's ad agency Hertz Walpole had sufficient extra footage from her 1990 visit to Sydney to add fresh images of Tina to other recent shots of the 1990 finals series and 1991 pre-season training images.

The finished 1991 ad in its full length version shows Tina performing the song in the glamorous surroundings of Boomerang, a palatial harbour-side Sydney mansion. She climbs the Sydney Harbour Bridge and a spectacular final helicopter pull-back shot shows her belting out the anthem from the apex of the bridge. In those days before public access via the commercial BridgeClimb operation this image was as fantastic notionally as it was visually.

Ladder

	Team	Pld	W	D	L	PF	PA	PD	Pts
1	Penrith (P)	22	17	1	4	483	250	+233	35
2	Manly-Warringah	22	14	1	7	391	299	+92	29
3	North Sydney	22	14	1	7	345	303	+42	29
4	Canberra	22	14	0	8	452	327	+125	28
5	Canterbury-Bankstown	22	13	1	8	424	374	+50	27
6	Western Suburbs	22	13	1	8	359	311	+48	27
7	Brisbane	22	13	0	9	470	326	+144	26
8	Illawarra	22	12	1	9	451	291	+160	25
9	St. George	22	11	3	8	388	320	+68	25
10	Cronulla-Sutherland	22	8	3	11	384	441	-57	19
11	Eastern Suburbs	22	9	1	12	337	487	-150	19
12	Balmain	22	8	1	13	351	412	-61	17
13	Newcastle	22	6	3	13	308	424	-116	15
14	South Sydney	22	7	0	15	370	513	-143	14
15	Parramatta	22	6	0	16	351	534	-183	12
16	Gold Coast	22	2	1	19	240	492	-252	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.

	Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	21	22
1	Penrith Panthers	2	3	5	7	9	11	13	13	15	17	17	19	19	21	23	25	27	29	31	31	33	35
2	Manly Warringah Sea Eagles	0	2	4	6	8	10	12	14	14	14	14	16	16	17	19	21	23	23	25	27	27	29
3	North Sydney Bears	2	4	6	6	8	10	12	14	14	16	18	18	20	20	22	22	24	26	26	26	27	29
4	Canberra Raiders	0	2	2	4	4	4	6	8	10	10	12	12	14	14	16	18	20	20	22	24	26	28
5	Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs	2	4	4	4	4	6	7	9	9	11	13	15	17	17	17	19	19	21	21	23	25	27
6	Western Suburbs Magpies	2	2	2	2	4	6	8	10	12	14	14	14	16	18	20	22	22	24	25	25	27	27
7	Brisbane Broncos	2	2	4	6	6	8	8	8	8	10	10	12	14	14	16	16	16	18	20	22	24	26
8	Illawarra Steelers	0	2	4	5	7	9	9	11	11	13	13	15	15	17	17	17	19	19	21	21	23	25
9	St. George Dragons	2	4	5	7	7	7	7	7	9	9	11	13	15	17	17	19	21	23	24	24	25	25
10	Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks	0	2	2	3	3	5	6	6	6	6	6	8	8	9	11	13	13	15	15	17	19	19
11	Eastern Suburbs Roosters	0	0	2	4	5	5	5	7	9	11	13	13	13	15	15	17	19	19	19	19	19	19
12	Balmain Tigers	0	0	1	1	1	1	1	1	3	3	5	7	9	9	9	9	11	13	15	17	17	17
13	Newcastle Knights	2	3	4	6	7	7	9	9	9	9	11	11	11	11	11	11	11	11	13	15	15	15
14	South Sydney Rabbitohs	2	2	2	2	4	4	6	6	6	8	10	10	10	12	12	12	12	12	12	12	12	14
15	Parramatta Eels	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	2	4	4	4	4	6	8	10	10	10	10	10	12	12	12
16	Gold Coast Seagulls	0	0	1	1	3	3	3	3	5	5	5	5	5	5	5	5	5	5	5	5	5	5

Chart

	Qualifying final					Major semi-final					Preliminary final					Grand final
						1	Penrith	16								Penrith		19
							North Sydney	14								Canberra		12
	2	Manly	16								North Sydney		14
	3	North Sydney	28			Minor semi-final					Canberra		30
						Manly		26
	4	Canberra	22			Canberra		34
	5	Western Suburbs	8

Grand final

On the sunny afternoon of Sunday, 22 September the Sydney Football Stadium was packed to capacity with a crowd of 41,815 for the rematch of the previous season's grand final, and Canberra's third in a row.^[5][6][7] The day also featured a tribute to the original 'Gladiators', Norm Provan and Arthur Summons on the Winfield Cup trophy's 10th anniversary (in the 50th grand final played) as well as a rendition of the national anthem by Anthony Warlow. The game was broadcast live on television throughout Australia by Channel Ten with match commentary by Graeme Hughes, Bill Anderson and Wayne Pearce. This would be Ten's final rugby league broadcast, as the Nine Network took over the rights the following season.

1st half

Referee Bill Harrigan blew time on and the Penrith side kicked off. Around seven minutes later when Penrith had made their way into good field position, their hooker Royce Simmons received the ball about ten metres from the try-line and ran it, stepping and spinning his way past several defenders to score a great individual try,^[8] his first of the season.^[9] Penrith captain Greg Alexander kicked the conversion for his side to lead 6–0. Shortly after that Canberra's half-back Ricky Stuart got the ball a few metres into Penrith's half and kicked over to the open left corner of the field where his winger, Matthew Wood was racing through to grab the bouncing ball and dive over in the corner to score. Meninga's conversion attempt missed so the Penrith side held their lead at 6–4. The scores were levelled a few minutes later though when Alexander appeared to be trying to put his knees into Meninga as he tackled him, drawing a penalty, which Canberra captain successfully kicked to make it 6-6. Meninga later opted to take the kick when awarded another penalty inside Penrith's half, but missed. Soon after that Canberra had the ball on the right wing around half way and swung it through the hands out to the left where their lock forward Bradley Clyde made a break and passed it on to Wood to again cross in the corner for his second try.^[10] Meninga's kick was wide again so the Raiders were leading 6-10.

The contest continued to be played from end to end of the field. In the final minutes of the first half, during one of Canberra's attacking raids they got another penalty and Matthew Wood took the kick, getting another two points for his side to lead 6-12 going into the break. The Raiders lead could have easily been 18-6 had Penrith winger Graham Mackay not pulled off a great try-saving tackle only metres from the line on his opposite number Paul Martin close to half-time. The half-time score replicated the position of the two teams at the same point in the previous year's decider.^[11]

2nd half

Early in the second half Canberra were penalised for stripping in their own half of the field and Alexander took the kick at goal but missed. Then as the Canberra side were trying to work the ball away from their goal-line, they knocked on, with Penrith winger Paul Smith getting the ball and diving over in the corner. However referee Bill Harrigan called the play back after touch judge Martin Weekes reported that Canberra's Mark Bell had been taken out with a swinging arm. Penrith forward Mark Geyer's reaction to the ruling prompted Harrigan to send him to the sin bin for ten minutes.^[12] Later the Penrith club appeared certain to score from close range through Brad Izzard but Canberra's lone defender Laurie Daley stripped the ball in a one-on-one tackle.^[13]

Penrith's unsuccessful scoring opportunities continued until finally, after working the ball up to the opposition's half, they kept it alive on the third tackle till Brad Izzard broke free from over twenty metres out and ran to the try-line to touch down behind the uprights. The scores were brought level at 12 all when Alexander kicked the extra two points. With just under seven minutes of the match remaining, and again having worked the ball into Canberra's half of the field, Penrith on the fifth tackle passed it to Greg Alexander just past the forty-metre line to kick a field goal, getting his side a one-point lead at 13–12.^[14] Penrith continued to enjoy the majority of possession and field position,^[15] and when the Raiders attempted a short line drop-out Geyer got the bouncing ball in open space, passing it to 33-year-old Royce Simmons who scored in the corner, getting Penrith their first premiership in the last match of his career.^[16] Alexander kicked the conversion from the sideline so the final score was 19–12.^[17]

Penrith Panthers 19
Tries: Simmons 2, Izzard
Goals: Alexander 3/3
Field Goal: Alexander

Canberra Raiders 12
Tries: Wood 2
Goals: Meninga 1/2, Wood 1/1

Clive Churchill Medal winner: Bradley Clyde (Canberra)^[18]

Post match

Although MMI's unofficial man-of-the-match award went to Royce Simmons, the Governor of New South Wales Peter Sinclair awarded the Clive Churchill Medal to the losing side's Bradley Clyde,^[19] the second time that he won the prestigious award, having previously won the Clive Churchill medal in 1989.^[20] The Australian Prime Minister Bob Hawke then presented Penrith captain Greg Alexander with the Winfield Cup trophy as well as the J. J. Giltinan Shield. It was the Penrith Panthers' first premiership^[21] and their young coach, Phil Gould has rated his team's second half in this game as an example of a perfect half of football.^[22] After failing to follow their first half game plan and squandering an early lead, in the second half the Panthers played to a formula of taking the ball up for full sets of six tackles, with Alexander then expertly kicking for the corners and the whole side pinning Canberra down at their own end with committed defence.

World Club Challenge

Having won the premiership, the Panthers travelled to England to face the British Champions, Wigan in the 1991 World Club Challenge on 9 October at Anfield, Liverpool. Penrith were defeated 4 to 21 in front of 20,152 spectators.