The Olympic Games have arrived. Delayed by a year they might be, but the biggest sporting show on Earth has arrived in Tokyo.
The sport of rugby league might not be part of the Olympics, and with the exception of a 2000 season which was over in August, it may never have had an impact on the sport.
But that doesn't mean we can't work out what the Games mean for our favourite domestic sport.
We here at Zero Tackle decided to go back through the history books and work out who the most successful clubs are in Olympic years.
Keep in mind the Olympics weren't held in 1940 or 1944 due to the outbreak of war, and that we are going to count 2020, an originally scheduled Olympic year.
There have been 27 Olympic games held since the NRL was born as the NSWRL in 1908, with ten different premiers.
We can all remember the Storm's win in the pandemic season of 2020, and the Sharks monkey off the back drought-breaking victory in 2016, but we are going to run over the whole list.
List of NSWRL/ARL/NRL premiers in Olympic years
1908 - South Sydney Rabbitohs
1912 - Sydney Roosters
1916 - Balmain Tigers
1920 - Balmain Tigers
1924 - Balmain Tigers
1928 - South Sydney Rabbitohs
1932 - South Sydney Rabbitohs
1936 - Sydney Roosters
1940 - Sydney Roosters
1944 - Balmain Tigers
1948 - Western Suburbs Magpies
1952 - Western Suburbs Magpies
1956 - St George Dragons
1960 - St George Dragons
1964 - St George Dragons
1968 - South Sydney Rabbitohs
1972 - Manly Sea Eagles
1976 - Manly Sea Eagles
1980 - Canterbury Bulldogs
1984 - Canterbury Bulldogs
1988 - Canterbury Bulldogs
1992 - Brisbane Broncos
1996 - Manly Sea Eagles
2000 - Brisbane Broncos
2004 - Canterbury Bulldogs
2008 - Manly Sea Eagles
2012 - Melbourne Storm
2016 - Cronulla Sharks
2020 - Melbourne Storm
The club-by-club list of NRL premierships in Olympic years
4 - Canterbury Bulldogs, Manly Sea Eagles, South Sydney Rabbitohs
3 - St George Dragons, Balmain Tigers
2 - Brisbane Broncos, Melbourne Storm, Sydney Roosters, Western Suburbs
1 - Cronulla Sharks
0 - Canberra Raiders, Gold Coast Titans, Newcastle Knights, North Queensland Cowboys, Parramatta Eels, Penrith Panthers, New Zealand Warriors, Wests Tigers, St George Illawarra Dragons
It's fairly clear to see teams have tended to go in runs through Olympic years, although that trend has broken since the Bulldogs in the 1980s.
Only four clubs have won in the last eight Olympic years, being the Broncos, Storm, Bulldogs and Manly. With two of those clubs out of the running for the 2021 premiership, just maybe, the odds favour the Storm and Sea Eagles to take out the 2021 premiership.
All up, the Bulldogs, Rabbitohs and Sea Eagles lead the list with four a piece, while the Dragons and Tigers both had a hat-trick of premierships as their former clubs pre mergers.
The St George Dragons won all of theirs through the 1950s and 60s as part of an incredible run of 11 straight premierships, while the Tigers also won three in a row through the early 1900s.
The Sea Eagles or Rabbitohs, should they claim this year's premiership, would move to the outright lead of premierships in Olympic years, while a Melbourne victory would tie them with the Dragons and Tigers.
Interestingly, clubs in the top six on the current NRL ladder and widely thought of as in the running for this year's title, being the Parramatta Eels and Penrith Panthers, are yet to win a premiership in an Olympic year.
Brown of the Eels (center) celebrates a try with team mate Blake
Ferguson during the NRL Qualifying Final match between the Melbourne Storm and the Parramatta Eels at Suncorp Stadium on October 03, 2020 in Brisbane, Australia. (Photo by Jono Searle/Getty Images)
The 2021 Tokyo Olympics were of course moved from 2020, owing to the global pandemic which brought global sport, including the NRL at one point, to its knees for much of last year.
The pandemic is one again taking hold of the 2021 NRL season, with the competition being moved into a Queensland bubble to help the back half of the season proceed.
