competition nationwide. Although the BRL was also a first-class competition, similar to Australian Rules Football, where the Australian Football League which evolved from the Victorian Football League keeps VFL statistics back to 1897 as its own history but considers South Australia's SANFL and Western Australia's WAFL as separate competitions, the National Rugby League counts the history of the NSWRL Premiership as its own but considers the Brisbane Rugby League separate. Therefore BRL champions are considered Australian Rugby League premiers but are not NRL premiers. Starting from 1995, the New South Wales competition began to call itself the Australian Rugby League. In 1997, an actual national competition was created by News Limited known as Super League, this was formed and run alongside the New South Wales and Queensland state premierships, a number of New South Wales competition teams being promoted to it. Later that year, an agreement was made between Super League and the New South Wales competition, following massive financial loss to both parties, to merge into a new National competition, known as the National Rugby League. South Sydney, with 20 New South Wales State titles, have been crowned New South Wales premiers more times than any other team. Fortitude Valley Diehards won the Queensland competition 23 times during its period as a first class competition, giving them the most first-class titles in Australian rugby league. They are followed by St. George with 15 premierships, including a record 11 New South Wales premierships in a row between 1956 and 1966. At the opposite end of the spectrum, the Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks took nearly 50 years to win their maiden premiership in 2016 - longer than any other club in the history of the game (Parramatta's maiden premiership came in its 35th season in 1981). There are 2 clubs currently playing in the National Rugby League that are yet to win a premiership; New Zealand Warriors and Gold Coast Titans. Since 1908, counting the NRL and some of its predecessors (including the 1997 Super League Season), the following sides are a few who have never won a premiership: Newcastle Rebels Cumberland RLFC Glebe Dirty Reds Annandale Dales University Students Illawarra Steelers Gold Coast Giants / Seagulls / Chargers New Zealand Warriors Western Reds South Queensland Crushers Adelaide Rams Hunter Mariners Northern Eagles Gold Coast Titans All BRL teams except the Ipswich Jets won a premiership during its time as a top level