| Team information | |
|---|---|
| Nickname | Black Swans |
| Governing body | Western Australian Rugby League |
| Home stadium | NIB Stadium |
The Western Australia rugby league team has represented the Australian state of Western Australia in rugby league football. Also known as the Black Swans
Representative rugby league football in Western Australia has history going back to the early days of the WARL. The first interstate match played by Western Australians was against the Northern Territory in 1956, with WA winning the series 2–1.
In 1969 Darwin City invited the WARL to Darwin to play a match in celebration of Darwin's 100th founding anniversary in which WA won 23–19. In 1976 WA was invited to participate in the nationwide Amco Cup, where they defeated the Northern Territory 23–18. [1]
In 1975 Western Australia participate in the 1975 Pacific Cup and 1977 Pacific Cup.
NT toured again in 1983 & 1985 and since 1994 Western Australia has competed annually in the Affiliated States Championship, winning the most titles (16) of any state and 9 straight consecutive titles from 2010–2018. [2]
International football also has a history in WA, with Great Britain Lions touring Perth in 1950, 1343, 1957, 1962, 1975 and France touring in 1951, 1964. [3]
The National Rugby League is a professional rugby league competition in Australasia which contains clubs from New South Wales, Queensland, Victoria, the Australian Capital Territory and New Zealand.
The Western Reds were a rugby league football club based in Perth, Western Australia. Founded in 1992 as the Western Reds, they entered into the Australian Rugby League competition in 1995 before defecting to the rival Super League competition in 1997, where they rebranded themselves as the Perth Reds. However, by the end of the year the Reds had become a casualty of the Super League War peace deal and were shut down. The name Reds was named after the native Red Kangaroos. The Reds entered a state of limbo for the next decade but were revived as a lower-level club in 2006 by the WARL and ARL, under the name WA Reds.
The Cook Islands national rugby league team have represented the Cook Islands in international rugby league football since 1986. Administered by the Cook Islands Rugby League Association (CIRLA), the team has competed at three Rugby League World Cups, in 2000, 2013 and 2021, and are coached by Karmichael Hunt.
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.
NRL Western Australia is responsible for administering the game of rugby league football in the state of Western Australia.
In Australia, rugby league is a popular spectator and participation sport which has been played since 1908. It is the dominant winter football code in the states of New South Wales and Queensland. According to Ausplay in 2024, there were 174,343 adult and 93,287 children playing it across five states at a participation rate of 0.8% per capita. Just under half of adult players are female. It is governed by the Australian Rugby League Commission based in Sydney.
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.
Marrara Oval is a sports ground in Darwin, the capital of Australia's Northern Territory. The ground primarily hosts Australian rules football, cricket, and rugby league.
Rugby union in Australia has a history of organised competition dating back to the late 1860s. Although traditionally most popular in Australia's rugby football strongholds of New South Wales, Queensland and the ACT, it is played throughout the nation.
Sport is an important part of the culture of Western Australia.
The Barassi Line is an imaginary line in Australia which approximately divides areas where Australian rules football or rugby league is the most popular football code. The term was first used by historian Ian Turner in his 1978 Ron Barassi Memorial Lecture. Crowd figures, media coverage, and participation rates are heavily skewed in favour of the dominant code on either side. Most other sports are unaffected by the dichotomy; Australian cricket, for example, has maintained consistent national interest throughout its history, though soccer faces more competition for participation in areas where Australian rules is more popular.
Women's rugby league is the female-only version of rugby league.
Many sports are played in the Northern Territory of Australia.
Rugby league in New South Wales is the most popular spectator sport in the state, with the attendance and television audiences exceeding that of the various other codes of football. There are over 400,000 active rugby league participants, with a further 1 million playing the sport in schools, placing the sport second only to soccer for the most played sport in the state. There are more than 500 active clubs, ten of which are professional teams competing in the National Rugby League (NRL).
Francis Edwin Johnson OAM (1922–1993) was an Australian rugby league footballer, coach and administrator who devoted much of his life to the development of the game in Australia. He was a state and national representative player of the 1940s, and was heavily involved in coaching development in the 1960s and 1970s.
The Affiliated States Championship is an annual rugby league competition run by the Australian Rugby League involving the five affiliated states plus the Australian Federal Police and Australian Defence Force.
In Western Australia, rugby league is played at amateur level by 31 clubs across 5 regional leagues with a total of around 7,900 players. It attracts an audience mainly for the State of Origin series.
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.
The West Coast Pirates Rugby League Football Club, officially referred to as The Cash Converters West Coast Pirates for sponsorship reasons, are a rugby league football club based in Perth, Western Australia. The club was founded by the Western Australian Rugby League as a bid for Perth to rejoin an expanded National Rugby League in 2026. If successful, the Pirates would play out of HBF Park, with the support of the Western Australian Government through a $96 million upgrade to the venue.
Women's rugby league is a popular women's sport in Australia. The sport has a high level of participation in the country both recreational and professional. Australian Rugby League Commission (ARLC) is the national governing body of the sport in Australia, organising the Australian Women's Rugby League, the Australian women's national team, and the nine state governing bodies of the game, among other duties. Women's participation of modern rugby league has been recorded since the early 1920s. It has since become one of Australia's most popular women's team sports.
| Federations | |
|---|---|
| Representative Team | |
| SG Ball Cup | |
| Former ARL club | |
| Competitions | |
| WARL clubs | |
