Use of a play-off system to decide the Championship brought back a rugby league tradition that had fallen out of use in the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s. The Premiership replaced the Championship final but it was to decide the Premiership winners, not the Championship winners. The Premiership was discontinued after the introduction of the Super League play-off series in 1998, ending with the Super League Grand Final. The inaugural Grand Final match was played that year on Saturday 24 October, between Wigan and Leeds.
Venue
Leeds celebrating their 2008 Grand Final victory at Old Trafford
The winners of the Super League collect the Grand Final rings and the team's name, captain and year are engraved into the trophy. The winners also collect £100,000 with the runner up collecting £50,000.
Leeds captain Kevin Sinfield currently holds the record for captaining the most Super League title winning sides after leading Leeds to seven of their Grand Final successes. St Helens contested the final six years in a row (from 2006 until 2011) during which time they succeeded only once in lifting the trophy, against Hull F.C. in 2006, after which they suffered consecutive defeats against Leeds in 2007, 2008, 2009, Wigan in 2010 and Leeds once again in 2011.
In rugby league, the term 'the Double' is referring to the achievement of a club that wins the top division and Challenge Cup in the same season. To date, this has been achieved by ten clubs, four of them during the Super League era.
The Treble refers to the team who wins all three domestic honours on offer during the season; Grand Final, League Leaders' Shield and Challenge Cup. To date seven teams have won the treble, only Bradford Bulls, St Helens and Leeds Rhinos have won the treble in the Super League era.