 It was the first time the number of Premiership teams had changed since 2002 when the re-inclusion of the South Sydney Rabbitohs saw the number of teams increase from 14 to 15.The Titans were the NRL's first expansion team since the Melbourne Storm, who entered the League in 1998.The sixteen teams participated in the competition over the regular season, making it the largest it had been since 1999 when there were seventeen.