The 2006 NRL Premiership season culminated in the Grand Final on 1 October, 2006, to be played by the 1st-placed Melbourne Storm and the 3rd-placed Brisbane Broncos clubs. Melbourne went into the game as favourites, with both teams looking to keep their perfect grand final records intact: the Broncos with 5/5 and the Storm with 1/1 heading into the game. It was the first grand final ever to feature teams which were both from outside the borders of New South Wales, in this case the capitals of Queensland and Victoria, yet was played at Sydney's Telstra Stadium. A crowd of 79,609 people turned out, with Hoodoo Gurus and INXS performing before the match which was to be refereed by Paul Simpkins, overseeing his first grand final.