See also
- Athletic nickname, in the United States
- Lists of nicknames – nickname list articles on Wikipedia
- Sport in New Zealand § National team names
In Australia, the national representative team of many sports has a nickname, used informally when referring to the team in the media or in conversation. These nicknames are typically derived from well-known symbols of Australia. Often the nickname is combined with that of a commercial sponsor, such as the "Qantas Wallabies" or the "Telstra Dolphins". Some names are a portmanteau word with second element -roo, from kangaroo; such as "Olyroos" for the Olympic association football team.
The oldest nicknames are Kangaroos and Wallabies for the rugby league football and rugby union teams. The other names are more recent, mostly invented to help publicise sports not traditionally popular in Australia. [1] Some journalists have criticised the practice as embarrassing, [2] gimmicky, or PR-driven. [3]
The name "Wallabies" was chosen by the 1908 rugby union side, making its first tour of the Northern Hemisphere. [4] British newspapers had already nicknamed the 1905 New Zealand touring team the "All Blacks" from their sporting uniform predominant colour; [5] the 1906 South African tourists had adopted "Springboks". [6] "Rabbits" was first suggested for Australia, but rejected since rabbits there are notorious as pests. [4] Until the 1980s, only touring sides were "Wallabies"; players on the eight tours up to 1984 were "the First Wallabies" up to "the Eighth Wallabies". [4]
The rugby league tour side arrived in Britain later in 1908 with a live kangaroo as mascot and were nicknamed "Kangaroos". [7] [8] "Kangaroos" originally referred only to teams on "Kangaroo Tours" to Britain and France. [8] [9] [10] In 1994 the Australian Rugby League extended the nickname to all internationals for sponsorship reasons, drawing criticism for the break with tradition. [8] [9] [10] The first such game was a 58–0 win over France at Parramatta Stadium on 6 July 1994. [10] [11]
Among the longer-established sports, the test cricket and Davis Cup tennis teams have no common nickname. Harry Beitzel's 1967 Australian Football World Tour team was unofficially nicknamed the Galahs from their flashy uniform. Though this side was a precursor of subsequent Australian international rules football teams, the nickname has not been retained.
Australian Tennis magazine invited readers to suggest a nickname for the Davis Cup team in 1996. [12] The Australia Fed Cup team has been called the Cockatoos, first suggested by player Casey Dellacqua in a press conference at the April 2012 match against Germany. The name has been embraced by teammates and used on the website of governing body Tennis Australia. [13] [14]
As part of a 1998 strategic business plan, Cricket Australia surveyed "stakeholders" in 1998 about a possible nickname, to enhance marketing opportunities. [15] State cricket teams in the Sheffield Shield had benefited from adopting nicknames in the 1990s. [15] 69% opposed a national nickname, partly from a sense of decorum [16] and partly because the best names were already taken by other teams. [16] [17]
Athletics Australia held a competition for a nickname for its squad for the 2001 World Athletics Championships. [18] The winning entry was "the Diggers", from the nickname for ANZAC soldiers. [18] This was quickly abandoned [19] after criticism from the Returned and Services League of Australia and others that this was an inappropriate use of the term. [18] The team previously had a little-used [18] nickname, "the Blazers". [20]
In December 2004, the Australian Soccer Association renamed itself Football Federation Australia (FFA) and announced an effort to rebrand association football as "football" rather than "soccer" in Australia. [21] The national team had been nicknamed "the Socceroos" by journalist Tony Horstead on a 1967 tour to South Vietnam. [22] FFA chairman Frank Lowy commented "It has been commonly used and is a much loved name but we may see it fade out as evolution takes place", and suggested few national football teams had nicknames. [21] By 2016, the FFA announcement of Caltex as sponsors was titled "Caltex Australia with the Socceroos all the way". [23]
The Australia men's national rugby union team, nicknamed the Wallabies, is the representative men's national team in the sport of rugby union for the nation of Australia. The team first played at Sydney in 1899, winning their first test match against the touring British Isles team.
The Great Britain national rugby league team represents Great Britain in rugby league. Administered by the Rugby Football League (RFL), the team is nicknamed The Lions.
Stirling Austin Mortlock is an Australian former professional rugby union player. He has scored more than 1,000 points in Super Rugby, and nearly 500 test points for the Wallabies. Mortlock is a former Wallaby, Melbourne Rebels and Brumbies captain.
Herbert Henry Messenger, nicknamed "Dally" and sometimes "The Master" was one of Australasia's first professional rugby footballers, recognised as one of the greatest-ever players in either code. He played for New South Wales in the first match run by the newly created New South Wales Rugby Football League, which had just split away from the established New South Wales Rugby Football Union.
Timothy Sheens is an Australian professional rugby league football coach and former player. Head Coach of the Australia national team between 2009 and 2015, he has also been the head coach of National Rugby League (NRL) clubs, the Penrith Panthers, the Canberra Raiders, the North Queensland Cowboys and the Wests Tigers. As a player, Sheens was a prop forward with Sydney's Penrith club in the 1970s and 1980s before he retired and became their coach.
Perth Rectangular Stadium is a sports stadium in Perth, the capital of the Australian state of Western Australia. Located close to Perth's central business district, the stadium currently has a maximum capacity of 20,500 people for sporting events and 25,000 people for concerts, with the ground's record attendance of 32,000 people set during an Ed Sheeran concert in 2015. The land on which the stadium was built, known as Loton Park, was made a public reserve in 1904, with the main ground developed several years later.
Sport is an important part of Australia that dates back to the early colonial period. Australian rules football, rugby league, rugby union, association football, cricket and tennis are among the earliest organised sports in Australia. Sport has shaped the Australian national identity through events such as the Melbourne Cup and the America's Cup. Australia also holds the record for the largest attendance at a rugby union match; almost 110,000 spectators watched the Wallabies play the All Blacks in 2000.
Berrick Steven Barnes is a former Australian professional rugby union footballer. His usual position is fly-half or inside centre. He is previously played with Japanese Top League clubs Panasonic Wild Knights and the Ricoh Black Rams, as well as in the Super Rugby competition with the NSW Waratahs and Queensland Reds. He also played for the Wallabies in international matches.
The national colours of Australia are green and gold. They were formally adopted by the governor-general of Australia, Sir Ninian Stephen, on 19 April 1984 in the Commonwealth of Australia Gazette; on the advice from Prime Minister Bob Hawke.
Fox Sports Australia Pty Limited is the division of Foxtel that owns and operates the Fox Sports television networks and digital properties in Australia. The group operates nine Fox Sports Channels as well as Fox Sports News, Fox Cricket, Fox League, Fox Footy, Watch AFL and Watch NRL. Fox Sports channels such as Fox Netball are available via Foxtel or Kayo. The group's main competitors are beIN Sports, ESPN, Optus Sport and Stan Sport. Unlike The American Fox Sports, the group is not owned directly by the Fox Corporation. However News Corp which holds a 65% stake in Foxtel is Fox Corporation's sister company.
The Australia men's national soccer team represents Australia in international men's soccer. Officially nicknamed the Socceroos, the team is controlled by the governing body for soccer in Australia, Football Australia, which is affiliated with the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) and the regional ASEAN Football Federation (AFF).
Arthur 'Pony' Halloway (1885–1961), was a pioneering Australian rugby league footballer and coach. Born in Sydney, New South Wales he played for the Glebe Dirty Reds (1908), Balmain Tigers and Eastern Suburbs (1912–1914), in the New South Wales Rugby Football League premiership. He played for New South Wales in the first rugby match run by the newly created 'New South Wales Rugby Football League' which had just split away from the established New South Wales Rugby Football Union.
Kenneth Howard "Killer" Kearney was an Australian rugby footballer – a dual-code international player – and a rugby league coach. He represented the Wallabies in seven Tests, and the Kangaroos in thirty-one Test matches and World Cup games. He captained Australia in nine rugby league Test matches in 1956 and 1957. He was a hooker and captain-coach with the St. George Dragons in the first half of their eleven-year consecutive premiership winning run from 1956 to 1966. He is considered one of Australia's finest footballers of the 20th century.
Christopher Hobart McKivat was an Australian rugby union and rugby league player – a dual-code rugby international. He represented the Wallabies in over 20 Tests and tour matches from 1907 to 1909 and the Kangaroos in 5 Tests from 1910 to 1912. He is unique in Australian rugby history as the only man to captain both the national rugby union and rugby league teams. Following his playing career he became the most successful coach of North Sydney in the club's history.
Kangaroos, Wallabies and other Macropodidae have become emblems and symbols of Australia, as well as appearing in popular culture both internationally and within Australia itself.
Charles "Boxer" Joseph Russell was a pioneer Australian rugby union and rugby league footballer and coach. He represented his country in both sports and was one Australia's early dual-code rugby internationals. He was a gold medallist at the 1908 Summer Olympics.
This is a comprehensive list of crowd figures for Australian football codes in 2007. It includes several different competitions and matches from the following football codes: Australian rules football, rugby league, football (soccer) and rugby union.
Duncan Hall was an Australian rugby league footballer who played in the 1940s and 1950s, singled out as having been amongst the greatest of the 20th century. He played in the Brisbane Rugby League premiership for Fortitude Valley Diehards and represented Queensland and Australia. He has been named amongst the nation's finest footballers of the 20th century. Away from football Hall worked as a hotelier and bookmaker, and in his later years worked at the Broncos Leagues Club. His son Duncan Hall, Jr. played 15 rugby union tests for the Wallabies
Sanchez William Genia is a professional rugby union player, currently playing scrum-half for the Kintetsu Liners in Japan. He had previously played Super Rugby for the Queensland Reds (2007–2015) and Melbourne Rebels (2018–2019). He also had previously played for Stade Français in France's Top 14 from 2015 to 2017.
The history of sport in Australia dates back to the pre-colonial period of the country.
The Aussie track team is the Blazers.
VB, a long-term supporter of the Blues and naming rights partner for the VB Kangaroos
The Steelers, Australia's National Wheelchair Rugby team, recently competed in the cross Tasman Chris Handy Cup challenge
The Australian wheelchair rugby team's bid for gold in Athens has suffered a major blow [...][ dead link ]
Australia (which calls itself the Steelers but for whom the popular name is the Wheelabies)
There are four national hockey teams in Australia, Kookaburras Australian Men's Hockey Team, Hockeyroos is the Australian Women's Hockey Team, Jillaroos is the Australian Under 21 Women's Team and Burras is the Australian Under 21 Men's Team.
Adoption of the "Mighty Roos" name, logo and jersey for the Australian Senior Men's National Team.
They produced some t-shirts with the team's nickname – Boxaroos – printed on them.
As a result, the Australian men's bowls team has a new nickname – the Jackaroos. [...] The jackaroo is symbolic of the Australian outback. And the first part of the word – jack – is the most common name for the small white ball that is the prime focus and target in a game of bowls.
After much deliberation the new nickname for the Australian women's bowls team is the Sapphires.