LEAGUE's centenary might have been a year to forget for the foundation clubs - only the Roosters made the play-offs - but the NRL is claiming record playing numbers, record television figures and growing membership, with crowds just off last year's.

The average attendance of 15,595 was down one per cent on 2007, with three Sydney clubs in positive territory. Success sits well with Sydney fans; the Sharks (third this year, 11th in 2008) increased home crowds 21 per cent, the best gain in the NRL. The Roosters' return to finals football also worked, with the club claiming crowds are up 17 per cent.

The Dragons were the only other Sydney club to move into positive territory. The Panthers and, surprisingly, the front-running Sea Eagles were well down on last year's crowds.

Two days of pouring rain in Sydney last weekend - which also slashed the AFL crowd at Homebush Bay for the Swans' first finals match against North Melbourne on Saturday - pulled the overall Sydney crowds back from a 1.5 per cent increase to a drop of 0.5 per cent. The Parramatta-Warriors game, also on Saturday night, drew a crowd of only 5102. The Broncos, boosted by a record attendance of 50,612 at their round-three match with the Cowboys, also enjoyed slightly higher crowds, as did the Titans in their second season, with a high of 27,176, when they played the Broncos in round six.

Another pointer to the strength of the code in Queensland is that the Broncos, Titans and Cowboys top the NRL figures for merchandise sales, while free-to-air television figures were up in Brisbane.

Television was a highlight for the NRL this season.

Ten pay-TV games drew more than 300,000 viewers, with a record of 338,000 for the Cowboys-Panthers match in May. Monday night games averaged 260,000 viewers. Despite a dip in Sydney audiences for the benchmark Friday night and Sunday afternoon games, free-to-air results were also strong.

In fact, the NRL is claiming a victory of Olympian proportions - that its State of Origin series out-rated all Olympic events in Sydney and Brisbane and also claimed the top-three position in the capital cities for non-Olympic broadcasts.

The average audience for the series decider in Sydney on July 2 was 2.14m across the five capital cities, a record for rugby league.