Canterbury Bankstown Bulldogs

Australia

Founded

1934

Arena

Accor Stadium · 30,000 cap

The Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs are an Australian professional rugby league football club based in Belmore, a suburb in the Canterbury-Bankstown region of Sydney. They compete in the National Rugby League (NRL) premiership, as well as New South Wales Rugby League junior competitions. The club was admitted to the New South Wales Rugby Football League premiership, predecessor of the current NRL competition, in 1935. They won their first premiership in their fourthth year of competition with another soon after, and after spending the 1950s and most of the 1960s on the lower rungs went through a very strong period in the 1980s, winning four premierships in that decade. Known briefly in the 1990s as the Sydney Bulldogs, as a result of the Super League war the club competed in that competition in 1997 before changing their name to the geographically indistinct Bulldogs and continuing to play every season of the re-unified NRL, winning their most recent premiership in 2004. In 2012 the Bulldogs won the minor premiership, being the best club in the competition in the regular season, but lost to the Melbourne Storm 14–4 in the Grand Final.

Penrith Panthers

Australia

Founded

1966

Arena

CommBank Stadium · 22,500 cap

The Penrith Panthers are an Australian professional rugby league football team based in the western Sydney suburb of Penrith. The team is based 55 km west of the centre of Sydney and at the foot of the Blue Mountains. The Panthers were admitted to the New South Wales Rugby League (NSWRL) competition in 1967. Penrith struggled for almost twenty years before finally reaching their first finals series. The club achieved its first Grand Final appearance in 1990 but were beaten by the Canberra Raiders 18–14. The following year the Panthers met the Raiders again in the 1991 Grand Final, this time winning the game 19–12. Penrith's most recent premiership achievement was over the Sydney Roosters in the 2003 Grand Final where Penrith were considered underdogs but came out on top with an 18–6 victory. Ivan Cleary has been the head coach of the team since 2012. For the 2014 NRL season, Peter Wallace and Kevin Kingston are co-captains. Sports media personality Phil Gould is the club's manager of football operations. OAK Milk has been their major sponsor since 2012.