Rugby league in the Northern Territory | |
---|---|
Governing body | Northern Territory Rugby League |
First played | June 1920, Darwin |
Registered players | 4,234 (2019) [1] 6,878+ (including variants) [2] |
Club competitions | |
Audience records | |
Single match | 13,473 (2017 Rugby League World Cup Australia vs Samoa) |
Rugby league in the Northern Territory is administered by the Northern Territory Rugby League and is played in Darwin at Warren Park and in Alice Springs at Anzac Oval.
Rugby League was the fourth football code introduced to the Territory after soccer (1911), rugby and Australian rules (1916). Rugby fell out of favour in Darwin with the popularity of the NT Football Association (Australian Rules) however Rugby League was organised by the Pine Creek Railway association workers as early as 1920. [3] During the 1920s, League's profile increased and by the 1925, matches were drawing large crowds. [4]
A competition was played in Tennant Creek in 1938. [5] [6]
The first organised competition was played in Darwin in 1941 when 9 teams, mostly made up of servicemen decided to make one unified competition and compete between and against each other. Some of the teams represented the Royal Australian Air Force, the Royal Australian Navy, and the Australian Army. There were also teams made up of citizens in Darwin, along with a team made up entirely of indigenous Australians living in Darwin. [7]
The Central Australian Rugby Football League was formed in 1942 by soldiers based in Alice Springs and competition began in 1943. [8] It was the first football league in Alice Springs, with the now popular Aussie Rules competition not formed for another 5 years.
The competition was cancelled due to the bombing of Darwin and the air raid attacks on the city. Since most of the competition was made from servicemen in Darwin, the competition was severely effected when many of these personal had to go to war and when they were no longer stationed in the Darwin area.
Another competition resumed in 1942 and continued onto 1943 (it was a season which lasted two years) but because of the evacuation of Darwin and then the subsequent shipping out of army and navy personnel from Darwin the competition was completely halted. The Darwin Rugby League Association was formed in 1945, however went into recess shortly thereafter. In 1949, it was revived along with a new competition at Tennant Creek, the Tennant Creek Rugby Football Association was begun. [9] However the competition was short lived and over subsequent decades, teams from Tennant Creek were instead entered into the other leagues.
In 1950, a small group of men, mainly ex-servicemen, joined together to form the Northern Territory Rugby League . The first official season of the reformed Darwin league was started in 1950 with a number of pre-season trial matches and tournaments. The first official match was played on 14 June 1951.
During the 1960s, the Katherine District Rugby League competition began in Katherine town which has been long divided between league and Aussie Rules. [10] However unlike other parts of the Northern Territory, there were no Australian rules football leagues there to compete with until the 1980s as a result the Katherine competition became quite well established and popular with locals. [11]
Cyclone Tracy hit Darwin on 24 December 1974 and completely devastated Darwin. Much damaged was done to its surroundings, but little damage occurred on Richardson Park, the home of rugby league in Darwin. The cyclone had an effect on the competition itself as players and administrators of the clubs and boards of the competition either left Darwin or were involved in the clean-up in Darwin after the cyclone had subsided.
Gove Rugby League began as a development association in 1999 with a single junior club on the Gove Peninsula that remains today.
The Northern Territory Rugby League is responsible for administering the game of rugby league in the Northern Territory of Australia. It controls the Darwin Rugby League, Darwin Junior Rugby League and the Centralia Australian Rugby Football League.
Northern Territory is an affiliated state of the overall Australian governing body the Australian Rugby League.
Club | Suburb | Ground |
---|---|---|
Darwin Brothers | Anula | Anula Oval |
Katherine Wests Tigers | Katherine | Sports & Recreation Club |
Litchfield Bears | Litchfield | Freds Pass Reserve |
Nightcliff Dragons | Nightcliff | Dripstone High School Oval |
Palmerston Raiders | Palmerston | Archer Oval |
South Darwin Rabbitohs | South Darwin | Mararra Sporting Complex |
Mackillop Sharks | Palmerston | MacKillop Catholic College |
Club | Suburb | Ground |
---|---|---|
Wests Dragons | Alice Springs | ANZAC Oval |
United Magpies | Alice Springs | ANZAC Oval |
Alice Springs Brothers | Alice Springs | ANZAC Oval |
Central Memo Bulls | Alice Springs | ANZAC Oval |
Foundation teams are Wests Dragons and United Magpies.
Club | Suburb | Ground |
---|---|---|
Katherine Bushrangers | Katherine | Sports & Recreation Club |
Katherine Raiders | Katherine | Sports & Recreation Club |
Katherine Wests Tigers | Katherine | Sports & Recreation Club |
Club | Suburb | Ground |
---|---|---|
Gove Rugby League | Gove / Nhulunbuy |
The Northern Territory team play in the Affiliated States Championship along with the other three affiliated states (South Australia, Victoria and Western Australia) plus the Australian Police and Australian Defence Force. They won the title in 2004.
The Northern Territory competed in the Amco Cup in 1977, 1978 and 1987.
The Northern Territory competed in the 1977 Pacific Cup. The team had little success, winning only one of their four games. The team finished at fourth out of fifth position on the ladder. 1977 was the only time the Northern Territory made an appearance in the Pacific Cup.
Darwin is the capital city of the Northern Territory, Australia. With a population of 139,902 at the 2021 census, the city contains most of the sparsely populated Northern Territory's residents. It is the smallest, wettest, and most northerly of the Australian capital cities and serves as the Top End's regional centre.
The Northern Territory is an Australian territory in the central and central northern regions of Australia. The Northern Territory shares its borders with Western Australia to the west, South Australia to the south, and Queensland to the east. To the north, the territory looks out to the Timor Sea, the Arafura Sea and the Gulf of Carpentaria, including Western New Guinea and other islands of the Indonesian archipelago.
Alice Springs, is the third-largest town in the Northern Territory, Australia. The name Alice Springs was given by surveyor William Whitfield Mills after Alice, Lady Todd, wife of the telegraph pioneer Sir Charles Todd. Known colloquially as 'The Alice' or simply 'Alice', the town is situated roughly in Australia's geographic centre. It is nearly equidistant from Adelaide and Darwin.
Katherine is a town in the Northern Territory of Australia. It is situated on the Katherine River, after which it is named, 320 kilometres (200 mi) southeast of Darwin. It is the fourth largest settlement in the Territory and is known as the place where "The outback meets the tropics". Katherine had an urban population of approximately 6,300 at the 2016 Census.
Tennant Creek is a town located in the Northern Territory of Australia. It is the seventh largest town in the Northern Territory, and is located on the Stuart Highway, just south of the intersection with the western terminus of the Barkly Highway. At the 2021 census, Tennant Creek had a population of 3,080 people, of which 55% (1,707) identified themselves as Indigenous.
Stuart Highway is a major Australian highway. It runs from Darwin, in the Northern Territory, via Tennant Creek and Alice Springs, to Port Augusta in South Australia; a distance of 2,720 km (1,690 mi). Its northern and southern extremities are segments of Australia's Highway 1. The principal north–south route through the central interior of mainland Australia, the highway is often referred to simply as "The Track".
NRL Northern Territory is the organisation responsible for administering the game of rugby league in the Northern Territory. It controls the Darwin Rugby League, Darwin Junior Rugby League and Central Australian Rugby Football League.
Australian rules football in Queensland was the first official football code played in 1866. The Colony of Queensland was the second after Victoria to adopt Australian rules football, just days after the rules were widely published. For two decades it was the most popular football code, however a strong desire for representative football success saw Queenslanders favour British football variants for more than a century. 120 years later in 1986 Queensland was the first state awarded a licence to have a club, the Brisbane Bears, in the national (AFL) competition, also its first privately owned club. However the Gold Coast based Bears had a detrimental effect until the 1993 redevelopment of the Brisbane Cricket Ground (Gabba). In contrast the Bears transformation into a Brisbane and traditional membership based club resulted in enormous growth, and a tripling of average AFL attendances by 1996.
The Indigenous All-Stars is an Australian rules football team composed of players that identify as Indigenous Australian or with an indigenous culture.
Scouting and Guiding in the Northern Territory is predominantly represented by the branches of Scouts Australia and Girl Guides Australia covering the Northern Territory.
The Tiwi Islands Football League is an Australian rules football competition in the Tiwi Islands, Northern Territory, Australia.
Football Northern Territory (FNT) is the state governing body for soccer in the Northern Territory, Australia. It is affiliated with Football Australia, the national governing body. The Territory is also separated into three zones – Northern, Central and FICA (Southern) – which have their own zone councils which administer leagues locally running their own league and cup competitions.
Australian rules football in England is a team sport and spectator sport with a long history. The annual match between Oxford and Cambridge Universities is the longest running Australian rules fixture outside Australia. The current competitions originated in 1989 and have grown to a number of local and regional leagues coordinated by AFL England. In 2018, these regional divisions were the AFL London, AFL Central & Northern England and Southern England AFL.
Australian Football in the Northern Territory is the most popular sport, particularly with indigenous Australian communities in Darwin, Alice Springs and the Tiwi Islands. It is governed by AFL Northern Territory.
Tennant Creek Airport is a small regional airport located near Tennant Creek, Northern Territory, Australia.
Baseball NT is the governing body of baseball within the Northern Territory, Australia. Baseball NT was formed in 1968 under its original name, the Northern Territory Baseball League. Baseball NT is governed nationally by the Australian Baseball Federation. Historically, baseball in Australia and the Northern Territory has been an amateur sport.
Many sports are played in the Northern Territory of Australia.
The Northern Territory Rugby Union, or NTRU, is the governing body for the sport of rugby union within the Northern Territory in Australia. It is a member of Rugby Australia.
Northern Territory Cricket, formally the Northern Territory Cricket Association, is the governing body for cricket in the Northern Territory of Australia. Cricket in the Northern Territory has produced state contracted players which include Kane Richardson and Tom Andrews who are both contracted to the South Australia Redbacks.
Rugby union is a mostly amateur sport within the Northern Territory in Australia. The game is run by the Northern Territory Rugby Union, composed of representatives from clubs, regional rugby unions, referees, and affiliated bodies for schools and junior rugby.