This Sunday, they will defend the title against Cronulla. The Sharks get their right to challenge through winning the 2016 Grand Final. Can they simultaneously hold the premiership trophy and the championship belt?
Here is a look at some of the most notable champions through the 108 year history of the belt.
Easts 1908-1909
The first champions were Easts, now known as the Sydney Roosters.
On Saturday afternoon, 20th April 1908, Easts defeated Newtown at Wentworth Park at the exact same time Souths defeated Norths at Birchgrove Oval. These were the first two rugby league matches in Australia.
Easts and Souths would then meet on 16th May to determine the first rugby league championship belt holder. Reflecting the chaotic nature of the fledging sport, this match was officially a R3 clash, yet was Souths 4th game and Easts 2nd.
Easts won 13-12 at the Royal Agricultural Society Showground (now the Entertainment Quarter at Moore Park) to become champions. They would hold the title for one year and six days, successfully defending the title once against Glebe, before losing the title to 1908 premiers Souths in a rematch.
Souths 1909-1911
After defeating Easts, Souths next title challenger was Newcastle in the 1909 semi-finals. Souths won, and Newcastle left the NSWRL competition to form their own district league. The next challenge from a Newcastle team was the Knights in 2001. They won the premiership that season, but not the championship. They still haven't captured the belt.
This Souths team is infamous for winning the 1909 Final against Balmain by forfeit. The Tigers thought the teams had agreed to postpone due to a scheduling clash with an exhibition match between Australian Rugby League and Rugby Union teams and didn't bother showing up. Souths did.
Easts 1911-1914
Souths eventually lost the title at their 5th defence, back to Easts, in the 1911 playoffs.
Easts were probably the first great rugby league club side in Australia. Led by 'Dally' Messenger - they named an award for best player each season after him, so he was pretty good - Easts lost just once in 1912, and twice in 1913, making it really difficult to lose the championship.
Eventually after 28 wins and just three losses (28-3-0), they lost the title in 1914 to Glebe.
Balmain 1916-1918
Balmain won the championship belt for the first time in the opening round of the 1916 season. Their second title defence would be the Final against Souths - the first time the premiership decider was also a championship decider. Balmain won 5-3 at the SCG. Souths would have to wait almost two more years to regain the title.
Easts 1920-1923
Easts third title reign commenced in R5 1920. They lost five games in the second half of the 14 rund season, and missed the finals.
Then in a shortened 1921 season (only eight rounds), Easts managed to win the title defenses against four of those opponents from 1920, and draw with Norths. That was the only game Norths didn't win that year in an undefeated season.
Norths didn't capture the championship until 1930, eight years after their last premiership in 1922. Meanwhile Easts held the belt for nearly three years, until R3 1923. They had a 22-11-3 record, perhaps the luckiest team to date.
Easts 1935-1939
Arguably the second best team to hold the title was this Easts side.
They defeated Wests 27-12 to win the title. That was their 4th win in a row. They would stretch their record to 31 wins and 4 draws before finally losing in R2 1938. That finally set up a challenge, for later in the season, by which time Easts had been champions three years without a title defence. It wasn't until R6 1939 that Easts would be defeated in a title match, by St. George. They finished with a 37-7-8 record.
Souths 1950-1953
Easts win count as champions from the 1930s would not be broken until the Souths team of the early 1950s.
This was the team with Clive Churchill at fullback. They named a medal for best player in the Grand Final after him, so he was pretty good.
Souths won the championship belt in R9 of the 1950 season. They won the premiership that year, and the next, but lost the 1952 Final to Wests 22-12. Wests then won the Final rematch/Championship match R1, 1953, by the unusually high score (for the time) of 44-28. This ended Souths title reign with a 44-11-1 record.
Wests would last just three months as belt holders, and 'win' the wooden spoon in 1953. Meanwhile Souths would win the next three premierships, and become the first 10-time winner of the championship belt in the middle of this hat-trick.
St. George 1957-1963
The best team to hold the championship belt is the St. George team of the 1950s and 1960s. They won 11 premierships in a row (1956-66). The first Grand Final win, against Balmain in 1956, earned them a championship title shot for R1 in 1957 at the SCG, which they won 19-13.
The Saints would keep the championship until June 1963, when Wests followed up their victory in R4 to earn a title match with a successful challenge in R13.
Between winning and losing the title, six-and-a-half seasons were played where St. George did not lose to anyone twice in a row. All up they went 113-18-3, with 17 successful title defences.
Wests also beat St. George in the major semi-final, but lost the 1963 Grand Final 8-3. This match is famous for two things. Firstly, it provided the image that is now immortalised as the NRL premiership trophy. Secondly, it is widely believed that the referee fixed the game after betting on St. George. Perhaps it is justice that rather than a Grand Final rematch in R1 the following season, as was customary at the time, Wests played and lost the championship belt to Balmain instead.
Manly 1971-1972; 1973-1974; 1979-1980
Easts 1972-1973; 1974-1976
The rugby league championship was dominated by two teams in the 1970s: Manly and Easts.
Manly won the championship for the first time ever in 1971, coinciding with their run to a first minor premiership. They bombed out in the finals, losing to Souths in the semis then St. George in the Preliminary Final.
The latter took the championship off them in their next meeting, R2 1972, then lost it to Easts later in the season.
Manly would win their first premiership by defeating Easts in the Grand Final, then win the championship match in R5, 1973.
They lost it back to Easts in 1974, in R6 at the SCG with 50,000 fans in attendance, to the legendary Jack Gibson coached side that would go 49-11-1 before losing the title in R17, 1976.
Manly would have a third championship reign in the 1970s. After defeating Cronulla in the Grand Final Replay of 1978 to earn a title match, they won the title match 19-14 at Brookvale in R10, 1979.
Canterbury 1980-1981; 1984-1985; 1986; 1988-1989; 1990-1991
In 1980, Canterbury defeated Easts in the major semi-final, and again in the Grand Final, to win the championship for the first time since 1947. They also established themselves as the dominant team of the next decade, where the belt frequently bounced around the top sides but inevitably came back to the Bulldogs.
By the early 90s, the Bulldogs were no longer a great side but they did touch greatness when on 27th July 1991 they defeated the mighty Illawarra Steelers 19-12 at Belmore Sports Ground.
This is the only title match for the Steelers. It was also the first successful title defence in five seasons. This streak is mostly a statistical anomaly, but it also reflects a reduced number of title matches following expansion to 16 teams in 1988. 16 clubs meant teams no longer played all other teams twice each season. Earning a title match and playing the title match could be over a year apart.
Manly 1996-1998
After significant title reigns by Brisbane and Canberra in the early 1990s, Manly were the dominant side of the late 1990s.
A critical point in the championship belt lineage came in the 1996 Preliminary Final against Cronulla. Manly won 24-0 and assured the championship belt would stay in the ARL rather than defect to Super League.
Surprisingly, this is Manly's most recent championship reign. Just as Melbourne's salary cap era was completed passed by the championship belt, so to was Manly's period as their main rival.
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