List of teams in the NSWRL/ARL/SL/NRL

This is a complete list of clubs that have competed in the first-grade Rugby League football competition in Australia that began with the New South Wales Rugby Football League (NSWRFL) competition in 1908. The NSWRL (having dropped the word Football from their name in the 1980s) ran the competition until the end of the 1994 season, when the sport's national governing body, the Australian Rugby League (ARL), took over. However a rival competition was being planned and the only season of the News Limited-owned Super League competition (SL) was held in 1997. The two competitions were reunited as the National Rugby League (NRL) in time for the start of the 1998 season. The NRL was established as a company owned in partnership between the ARL and News Limited. In 2013 the ARL was reconstituted as the Australian Rugby League Commission (ARLC) and News Limited handed their 50% stake in the NRL back to the governing body.

There have been thirty-three teams which have competed in all of the first-grade competitions since 1908, of which seventeen remain in this competition. There were nine foundation clubs, which began in 1908, however over the next eighty years, the NSWRL only ever expanded into the Sydney region which included eight new teams while five clubs left the competition. This changed in 1982 when a Wollongong club and a Canberra based team joined. In 1988 teams from outside New South Wales began to enter the premiership. With the Super League war, the two rival competitions, the ARL and SL, had twenty-two teams competing in the 1997 season. As part of the agreement for the NRL, the competition would be forced to reduce to only fourteen teams in 2000.

Currently in 2023, there are seventeen teams. There are ten teams from the state of NSW, four from Queensland, one from the Australian Capital Territory, one from Victoria and one from the neighbouring country New Zealand.

Of the thirty-three clubs that have participated in the competition, the majority have called Sydney home: Seventeen clubs have been based exclusively in Sydney, while two have split their home games between Sydney and elsewhere as joint-ventures. A majority of clubs have also been from New South Wales, the state being home to twenty-three of the competition's thirty-three clubs. Of the remaining clubs, five have been from the state of Queensland, and there has been one each from the states of South Australia, Victoria, Western Australia, the Australian Capital Territory, and the nation of New Zealand.

Foundation clubs

Two current NRL clubs have existed since the 1908 foundation of the NSWRFL, the predecessor of the NRL. These clubs are the South Sydney Rabbitohs and the Sydney Roosters (founded as 'Eastern Suburbs'). South Sydney is the oldest current club in the League, having been established a week earlier than "Easts". The Roosters, however, are the oldest continuous club participating in the top tier Rugby League competition as Souths were excluded for a number of years in the early 2000s. A further two Foundation clubs, the Balmain Tigers and the Western Suburbs Magpies, formed a joint-venture club in the wake of the Super League war, and since the start of the 2000 season have competed in the NRL as Wests Tigers. However, Balmain and Western Suburbs still compete separately in lower-grade competitions and Junior representative football. Foundation clubs Newtown and North Sydney have been excluded from the competition due to their weak financial positions, however both clubs continue and are still (2015) competing in the second-tier NSW Cup and Juniors. Glebe are also currently competing in the Ron Massey Cup. Meanwhile, Cumberland are long-since defunct, while the Newcastle Rebels, after playing all the 1908 season "away" ( i.e. in Sydney ) and only getting three home games in 1909, withdrew from the NSWRFL competition to establish the Newcastle Rugby League. There is no direct connection between the Newcastle Rebels and today's Newcastle Knights, so the current Newcastle club is not considered to be a Foundation club.

Clubs
Team Based Admission date Seasons participated P
 R
 M
 W
 W% Wins Draws Losses
Glebe Dirty Reds Sydney 9 January 1908 1908–1929 (22 seasons) 0 4 1 0 56% 163 6 128
Newtown Bluebags / Jets Sydney 14 January 1908 1908–1983 (76 seasons) 3 7 6 8 47% 583 59 663
South Sydney Rabbitohs Sydney 17 January 1908 1908–1999, 2002–2023 (114 seasons) 21 13 17 8 53% 1013 46 917
Balmain Tigers^ Sydney 23 January 1908 1908–1999 (92 seasons) 11 9 7 4 53% 871 68 766
Eastern Suburbs / Sydney City / Sydney Roosters Sydney 24 January 1908 1908–2023 (116 seasons) 15 15 16 4 54% 1064 68 912
Western Suburbs Magpies^ Sydney 4 February 1908 1908–1999 (92 seasons) 4 8 5 17 45% 734 49 908
North Sydney Bears^^ Sydney 7 February 1908 1908–1999 (92 seasons) 2 1 2 9 43% 678 71 916
Newcastle Rebels Newcastle 10 April 1908 1908–1909 (2 seasons) 0 0 0 0 45% 9 0 11
Cumberland Sydney 21 April 1908 1908 (1 season) 0 0 0 1 13% 1 0 7
Annandale Dales Sydney 10 April 1910 1910–1920 (11 seasons) 0 0 0 3 18% 25 6 122
University Sydney February 1920 1920–1937 (18 seasons) 0 1 0 10 20% 47 5 190
St. George Dragons^ Sydney 13 October 1920 1921–1998 (78 seasons) 15 12 15 3 61% 910 56 579
Canterbury-Bankstown Berries / Bulldogs Sydney 25 September 1934 1935–2023 (89 seasons) 8 10 6 4 54% 866 53 751
Parramatta Eels Sydney 4 November 1946 1947–2023 (77 seasons) 4 5 5 11 48%
Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles^^ Sydney 4 November 1946 1947–1999, 2003–2023 (74 seasons) 8 10 9 0 59%
Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks Sydney 4 July 1966 1967–2023 (57 seasons) 1 3 1 2 50%
Penrith Panthers Sydney 4 July 1966 1967–2023 (57 seasons) 4 1 2 4 42%
Illawarra Steelers^ Wollongong 13 December 1980 1982–1998 (17 seasons) 0 0 0 3 40%
Canberra Raiders Canberra 30 March 1981 1982–2023 (42 seasons) 3 3 1 1 54%
Brisbane Broncos Brisbane 5 April 1987 1988–2023 (36 seasons) 6 1 4 1 65%
Newcastle Knights Newcastle 5 April 1987 1988–2023 (36 seasons) 2 0 0 3 53%
Gold Coast-Tweed Giants / Gold Coast Seagulls / Gold Coast Chargers Gold Coast / Tweed Heads April 1987 1988–1998 (11 seasons) 0 0 0 3 23%
Auckland Warriors / New Zealand Warriors Auckland 18 May 1992 1995–2023 (29 seasons) 0 2 1 0 47%
North Queensland Cowboys Townsville 30 November 1992 1995–2023 (29 seasons) 1 1 0 3 37%
Western Reds / Perth Reds Perth 30 November 1992 1995–1997 (3 seasons) 0 0 0 0 40%
South Queensland Crushers Brisbane 30 November 1992 1995–1997 (3 seasons) 0 0 0 2 21%
Hunter Mariners Newcastle 28 April 1995 1997 (1 season) 0 0 0 0 39%
Adelaide Rams Adelaide 13 December 1995 1997–1998 (2 seasons) 0 0 0 0 32%
Melbourne Storm Melbourne 23 June 1997 1998–2023 (26 seasons) 4 4 5 1 61%
St. George Illawarra Dragons^ Sydney, Wollongong 23 September 1998 1999–2023 (25 seasons) 1 1 2 0 52%
Wests Tigers^ Sydney 27 July 1999 2000–2023 (24 seasons) 1 0 0 0 43%
Northern Eagles^ Sydney, Gosford 6 February 2000 2000–2002 (3 seasons) 0 0 0 0 40%
Gold Coast Titans Gold Coast 27 May 2005 2007–2023 (17 seasons) 0 0 0 2 44%
Dolphins Brisbane 13 October 2021 2023– (1 season) 0 0 0 0 0%

Bold indicates the team is still competing as of the 2023 season

^Now compete as a joint venture

^^Have competed as a joint venture

**Dolphins colours will also include gold when they join the NRL in 2023

See also

References
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