Melbourne Cricket Ground - Rugby League

Rugby League

Rugby league was first played at the ground on 15 August 1914, with a New South Wales team losing to England 15–21. The first ever State of Origin series match at the MCG (and second in Melbourne) was played on 8 June 1994, attracting a then record rugby league crowd in Australia of 87,161. State of Origin games were also played there in 1995 and 1997.

The Melbourne Storm played two marquee games at the MCG in 2000. This was the first time that they had played outside of their normal home ground of Olympic Park Stadium which holds 18,500 people. Their first game was held on 3 March 2000 against the St. George Illawarra Dragons in a rematch of the infamous 1999 Grand Final. Anthony Mundine said they were 'not worthy premiers' and the Storm responded by running in 12 tries to two and winning 70–10 in front of 23,239 fans. This was their biggest crowd they had played against until 33,427 turned up to the 2007 Preliminary Final at Docklands Stadium. The record home and away crowd record has also been overhauled, when a match at Docklands in 2010 against St George attracted 25,480 spectators. Their second game attracted only 15,535 spectators and was up against the Cronulla Sharks on 24 June 2000. Once again, the Storm won 22–16.

Since then, there has been recent talk of Rugby League's State of Origin series returning to the venue after the stadium put in a bid to host games in 2008.