Super League was an Australian rugby league football administrative body that conducted professional competition in Australia and New Zealand for one season in 1997. Along with Super League of Europe, it was created by News Corporation during the Super League war which arose following an unsuccessful attempt to purchase the pay television rights to rugby league in Australia. After two years of legal battles the competition was played for a single season in 1997 alongside the rival Australian Rugby League (ARL) competition before the two merged in 1998 to form the National Rugby League (NRL).
The Newcastle Knights are an Australian professional rugby league team based in Newcastle, New South Wales that competes in the National Rugby League (NRL) premiership. Playing in red and blue, the Knights joined the top tier competition in 1988, 79 years after the previous Newcastle based team, the Newcastle Rebels had departed the Sydney competition with the formation of a separate league competition based in the Newcastle region.
The Adelaide Rams was an Australian professional rugby league football club based in Adelaide, South Australia. The team was formed in 1995 for the planned rebel Super League competition. The Rams lasted two seasons, the first in the Super League competition in 1997 and the second in the first season of the National Rugby League (NRL) in 1998. The Rams were not a successful club, winning only 13 out of 42 games. However crowd numbers in the first season were the fifth highest of any first-grade club that year, but dwindled to sixteenth in the second season. The Adelaide club was shut down at the end of the 1998 season as a result of poor on-field performances, dwindling crowd numbers, financial losses and a reduction in the number of teams in the NRL. They remain the only team from the state of South Australia to have participated in top-level rugby league in Australia.
Brett "Noddy" Kimmorley is an Australian rugby league coach and former professional rugby league footballer who played in the 1990s and 2000s. A New South Wales interstate and Australian international representative halfback, he last played for the Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs of the NRL. He previously played for five other clubs: Newcastle Knights, Hunter Mariners, Melbourne Storm, Northern Eagles and the Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks. Kimmorley also represented Country NSW four times and New South Wales ten times as well as playing 15 times for his country including the 2000 World Cup. He also played two Super League Tests. He retired at the end of the 2010 NRL season.
John Paul Hutchinson is a football manager and former player who is assistant manager of J1 League club Yokohama FC. He played as a central midfielder for Eastern Pride, Northern Spirit, Manly United, Chengdu Blades and Central Coast Mariners, for whom he served as captain. Born in Australia, he played for the Malta national team.
Leichhardt Oval is a rugby league and soccer stadium in Lilyfield, New South Wales, Australia. It is currently one of three home grounds for the Wests Tigers National Rugby League (NRL) team, along with Campbelltown Stadium and Western Sydney Stadium. Prior to its merger with the Western Suburbs Magpies, it was the longtime home of the Balmain Tigers, who used the ground from 1934–1994 and 1997–1999. It was named after Ludwig Leichhardt.
Nicolas Zisti is an Italian Australian former professional rugby league and rugby union footballer who played in the 1990s and 2000s. He played club level rugby league (RL) for the South Sydney Rabbitohs, the St. George Dragons, the Hunter Mariners, the Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks and the Bradford Bulls, usually as a wing, but also as a centre, and representative level rugby union (RU) for Italy, and at club level for Rugby Roma Olimpic, as a wing or centre.
The 1998 NRL season was the 91st season of professional rugby league football in Australia, and the inaugural season of the newly formed National Rugby League (NRL). After the 1997 season, in which the Australian Rugby League and Super League organisations ran separate competitions parallel to each other, they joined to create a reunited competition in the NRL. The first professional rugby league club to be based in Victoria, the Melbourne Storm was introduced into the League, and with the closure of the Hunter Mariners, Western Reds and South Queensland Crushers, twenty teams competed for the premiership, which culminated in the 1998 NRL grand final between the Brisbane Broncos and Canterbury-Bankstown. It was also the final season for the Illawarra Steelers and the St. George Dragons as their own clubs prior to their merger into the St. George-Illawarra Dragons for the 1999 NRL season
Scott Hill is an Australian former professional rugby league footballer who played in the 1990s and 2000s. He was previously with the Harlequins RL club in the Super League. His usual position is at five-eighth. Hill previously played in Australia for the Melbourne Storm, Hunter Mariners and the Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs. Hill is a former New South Wales and Australian representative player.
The 1997 Super League season was a breakaway professional rugby league football competition in Australia and the only one to be run by the News Limited-controlled Super League organisation. Eight teams which had broken away from the existing Australian Rugby League, in addition to the newly created Adelaide Rams and Hunter Mariners, competed over eighteen weekly rounds of the regular season. The top five teams then played a series of knock-out finals which culminated in a September grand final played in Brisbane between the Brisbane Broncos and Cronulla.
The 1978 FA Cup final was an association football match between Arsenal and Ipswich Town on 6 May 1978 at the old Wembley Stadium, London. It was the final match of the 1977–78 FA Cup, the 97th season of the world's oldest football knockout competition, the FA Cup. Four-time winners Arsenal were appearing in their ninth final, whereas Ipswich Town were making their debut at Wembley and in their first FA Cup final. Each team had progressed through five rounds to reach the final. Ipswich had needed a replay in the fifth round to proceed past Bristol Rovers while Arsenal won all of their ties at the first time of asking and went into the final as clear favourites.
Noel Goldthorpe is an Australian former professional rugby league footballer who played in the halves in the 1990s. He played most of his career for the St George Dragons. Goldthorpe also played for the Western Suburbs Magpies, Hunter Mariners, Adelaide Rams and the North Queensland Cowboys, whom he captained.
Bradley Godden is an Australian former professional rugby league footballer who played in the 1990s. He played for the Newcastle Knights, Hunter Mariners, and the Leeds Rhinos as a fullback, wing or centre.
Tyran Carl Smith is a New Zealand former rugby league footballer who played in the 1990s and 2000s.
The Central Coast Mariners FC, also known as the Central Coast Mariners Women, represents the Central Coast Mariners in Australia's premier women's soccer competition, A-League Women.
The A-League Pre-Season Challenge Cup competition was an annual soccer tournament held for all A-League clubs in July and August in the lead up to the start of the A-League season. The competition featured a group stage and a knockout stage. Commentators did not give much weight to the competition as a guide for performance during the season proper, as injuries or club strategic policy ruled that many teams did not use their best players and often used experimental tactics. The Pre-Season Cup was removed from the 2009–10 A-League schedule in order to give the clubs more control over their own pre-season training.
Tim Maddison is an Australian former professional rugby league footballer who played in the 1990s and 2000s. He played for the Newcastle Knights from 1993 to 1995 and 2003, then Eastern Suburbs in 1996, the Hunter Mariners in 1997, the Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks from 1998 to 2000 and finally the North Queensland Cowboys from 2001 to 2002, as a prop or second-row.
Hunter Mariners were an Australian professional rugby league club based in the Hunter Region's largest city, Newcastle. Hunter was formed in mid-1995 and was later disbanded at the end of 1997. The club was formed because of the Super League war, which was the rivalry between the traditional Australian Rugby League competition and the new media driven Super League competition. The team competed in the inaugural and only Super League season in 1997, as well as that year's World Club Challenge.
The 1997 Adelaide Rams season was the Adelaide Rams' debut season as a rugby league club. They competed in the Super League's Telstra Cup and World Club Championship.
The 2021 FFA Cup was the eighth season of the FFA Cup, the main national soccer knockout cup competition in Australia. Thirty-two teams contested the competition proper from the round of 32, including 10 of the 12 A-League teams, 21 Football Australia (FA) member federation teams determined through individual state qualifying rounds, as well as the 2019 National Premier Leagues champions.