1988 NSWRL season teams also competed for the 1988 Panasonic Cup. 1988 was the year of the Australian Bicentenary celebrations, and on 4 March, the season opened with the first game of rugby league played at the newly built Sydney Football Stadium. The St. George Dragons defeated the Eastern Suburbs Roosters 24–14. Easts and South Sydney would use the SFS as their home venue from 1988. This saw the end of both the Sydney Sports Ground (which closed due to the building of the SFS) and Redfern Oval as regular venues. The brand new Brisbane Broncos club, featuring Australian Kangaroos captain Wally Lewis
Bicentenary Medal of the Royal Society of Arts Bicentenary Medal of the Royal Society of Arts The Bicentenary Medal of the Royal Society of Arts is awarded to "a person who, in a manner other than as an industrial designer, has applied art and design in great effect as instruments of civic innovation", as long as the winner is not already "bedecked with medals". It was first awarded in 1954, on the bicentenary of the Royal Society of Arts, and continues to be awarded annually with exceptions in 2003, 2006 and 2012. The Medal was instituted in 1954 to commemorate the founding of the RSA over two hundred