Sport in New South Wales

RL Pioneers Dan Frawley(r), Dally Messenger(l) in action NSW v Qld 1912

Sydneysiders view rugby league football – usually called football, footy or simply league – as a sporting tradition within the city. This stems back from the earlier colonial days of the city when the city and its culture were largely dictated by wealthy Englishmen who traditionally played and were supporters of the Rugby code of football, which was largely advertised and passed on to the people of Sydney, including the working class who in back in England largely played soccer. In the early 1900s some Rugby footballers started to agitate to receive match payments. There was widespread disagreement as to whether or not this should happen. The working class strongly believed it was a good idea and that the players should at least share in some of the money which was filling the coffers of the governing body, whilst the middle class were more hesitant to do so. However, the Rugby Football Union would not countenance payments of any sort, even 'broken time' payments for a player whilst an injury made him unable to work was deemed the 'thin edge of the wedge' for professionalism. This resulted in a split similar to what had occurred in England, and the working class formed their own competition, the Rugby League, which followed the same rules as the equivalent breakaway competition in England. The game quickly grew a working-class following, and has been a Sydney tradition ever since. Rugby league is the most attended and viewed sport in the state by a wide margin.[1]

The headquarters of the Australian Rugby League and National Rugby League (NRL) are in Sydney, which is home to nine of the 17 National Rugby League (NRL) football clubs (Canberbury-Bankstown Bulldogs, Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks, Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles, Parramatta Eels, Penrith Panthers, South Sydney Rabbitohs, Sydney Roosters and Wests Tigers), as well as being the northern home of the St George Illawarra Dragons, which is half-based in Wollongong. A tenth team, the Newcastle Knights are located in Newcastle.

The premier state-level league is the New South Wales Cup, involving reserve teams from NSW and Canberra based NRL clubs as well as the first teams from other clubs. Country football is overseen by the New South Wales Country Rugby League. Annual matches between City vs Country Origin teams are held.

The annual State of Origin series between the New South Wales Blues and the Queensland Maroons is a popular sporting event in NSW. Sydney has hosted many State of Origin matches since the series began in 1980. The three-game series are held in Sydney and Brisbane with the first and third games in one city and the second in the other. These rotate every year, so if two games are played in Sydney one year, then those games are played in Brisbane the next.

NSW Waratahs team of 1906

Rugby union has a long history in New South Wales dating back to 1869. However, it lags in popularity behind rugby league. Rugby union is regarded as a middle-class game and is played in many of Sydney's top private schools.

Sydney has a local club rugby union competition (the Shute Shield), and a Super Rugby team the NSW Waratahs, who play their games in the city and represent the entire state of New South Wales. They were represented in the defunct Australian Rugby Championship by Sydney Fleet, Western Sydney Rams and Central Coast Rays. The National Rugby Championship has four NSW teams: Sydney Stars, Greater Sydney Rams, North Harbour Rays and NSW Country Eagles.

The Australian Rugby Union headquarters are located in Sydney. The Waratahs play out of the Sydney Football Stadium, and when in Sydney the Wallabies play out of Stadium Australia.

The New South Wales Waratahs won the Super Rugby title in 2014 in front of a record crowd at Stadium Australia.

The Sydney Cricket Ground at the 4th Australia vs India test, 2004

Cricket is one of the most popular sports in New South Wales. The NSW Blues are by far the most successful domestic cricket side in Australia having won the First-class competition 44 times and the One-Day Domestic cup nine times. They occasionally play first-class matches against touring International sides. New South Wales have played teams representing every Test-playing nation bar Bangladesh. They have provided the Australian Test and One Day International teams with some of the finest players ever to have graced the game of cricket, the most notable of them being Sir Don Bradman, Steve Waugh, Brett Lee, Glenn McGrath and many others. The current NSW Blues team's main home ground is the Sydney Cricket Ground. In the Twenty20 Big Bash League and Women's Big Bash League, the state is represented by the Sydney Sixers, playing at the Sydney Cricket Ground and the Sydney Thunder, playing at the Sydney Showground.

Newcastle Jets and Sydney FC at Newcastle International Sports Centre

Whilst having a strong sporting tradition in the field of Rugby League, Sydney also has a long and strong tradition in soccer. Early soccer clubs in Sydney were relatively small, and did not have very large followings, and like the general population of Sydney in the late 1800s the clubs were largely English in nature, but when the Australian government began its immigration policy in years closely following World War II, many immigrants left Europe in search of new homes in Sydney, and Australia in general. These migrant groups who were subject to racism from the existing population took it upon themselves to found their own soccer clubs, celebrating their particular ethnic communities. The three largest such clubs were founded by the three largest post war immigration groups respectively, they are: Marconi Stallions Football Club (Italian), Sydney Olympic Football Club (Greek), and Sydney United Football Club (Croatian). Along with these larger clubs, there are also many smaller clubs formed by ethnic groups, who also bare suburban names, such as Bankstown City Lions Football Club (Macedonian), Bonnyrigg White Eagles (Serbian), Parramatta Eagles (Maltese), and St. George Saints Football Club (Hungarian). These "ethnic" clubs soon began to dominate soccer in Sydney, drawing large crowd support from their given ethnic groups, and having their fair share of on field success too.

In the late 1980s there was a substantial rise in soccer hooliganism in Sydney as was the case all around the world, but in Sydney, however, it was tainted further by racism which was caused by ethnic affiliations which the majority of the larger Sydney clubs had. This was also coupled with a steady decline in crowd numbers over the years, partly due to violence, partly due to the falling standard of play, but also largely because the clubs were not broadening their supporter bases. For example, Sydney United's support had not grown beyond Sydney's Croatian community, therefore the sport was not capitalising on the growing multiculturalism of the city, now becoming home to many new migrant communities from Arabic and Asian cultures, which to some may be seen as ironic because multiculturalism as well as the fact that the code played all over the world is often seen to be soccer's strongest asset. In an effort to fix these issues facing the game, Football Australia embarked upon "de-ethnicising" soccer, clubs with very strong links to ethnic groups were made to sever links with their traditional supporter bases and broaden their horizons, new clubs were founded and brought into the league such as Parramatta Power and Northern Spirit who did not have ethnic associations in a bid to attract a multicultural fan base. This attempt failed miserably, new clubs failed to attract a following and old clubs were not at all "de-ethnicised".

In 2005 a review of the game was carried out and it was decided that for the game to move forward in Sydney, and around Australia, some drastic changes would have to be made. A new club was founded in Sydney called Sydney FC, and they were to be based in central Sydney as opposed to being based at a small suburban stadium, and were founded specifically to attract a multicultural following. They were entered in a new league to be known as the A-League, this would act as the show piece national competition, contested by similarly formed clubs from other large cities around Australia. There would be no form of relegation or promotion between the a-league and the rest of the counties competitions, and the previous national league would revert to its original form in state-based competitions, which is where clubs such as the for mentioned ethnic clubs continue to play. In the first 6 years of their existence, Sydney FC have been relatively successful building up a solid support base of around 10,000 members, and sometimes attracting crowds of up to 40,000, which is admirable considering the youth of the club. The new system has not been without its flaws for Sydney soccer, however – many of the great clubs, and the largest in the city, are unable to win a national championship, nor are they able to qualify for the Asian Champions League, and a large section of the Greater Sydney Area is simply unable to access this new club due to the geographic size of the city. Change is, however, afoot, as a national cup competition is to be reintroduced in 2012 with the winner qualifying for the champions league, and the imminent foundation of a second new multicultural club in Sydney's sprawling western suburbs due to begin playing matches within two years.

Outside Sydney, soccer has a similar history in the states larger regional cities (albeit on a smaller scale), and similar multicultural clubs have been formed such as: Newcastle Jets and Central Coast Mariners who both play in the A-league, and South Coast Wolves Football Club who play in the New South Wales premier league alongside many of Sydney's ethnic clubs; however, there have been calls for them to be elevated into the A-league, and it is expected that they eventually will be.

Lamelo Ball was a notable signing by the Illawarra Hawks

The Sydney Kings and Illawarra Hawks are the state's representatives in the National Basketball League (NBL),[3] Australia's premier Men's basketball competition. The Kings won three consecutive premierships in 2002–03, 2003–04 and 2004–05, while the Hawks won in 2001. The Sydney Kings play their home games at the Sydney SuperDome in Sydney while the Illawarra Hawks play home games at Wollongong Entertainment Centre in Wollongong, the Illawarra's commercial centre.

The next level below the NBL Championship is NBL1, New South Wales will be represented as the East conference from 2022 onward.[4] This conference will be made of select teams from the Waratah League, the current premier league for clubs in New South Wales. NBL1 and Waratah League have Men's and Women's competitions.

The Sydney Uni Flames are a professional women's side who play in the Women's National Basketball League.

The Sydney Swans 2006 AFL Grand Final team

Australian rules football, commonly known in NSW as "AFL" (after the national professional Australian Football League competition),[5] is a developing game in most of NSW with increasing popularity. Ausplay reported that there were 69,168 regular participants in New South Wales in 2019 a figure that exceeds participation in rugby union making it the 3rd most participated football code in the state.[6] The sport is governed by AFL NSW/ACT.

Two fully professional teams are based in New South Wales, both from Sydney: the Sydney Swans and the Greater Western Sydney Giants. Formerly the South Melbourne Swans, the financially struggling club was relocated in 1982 and was renamed Sydney to capture a wider audience. After a long period with little success Sydney made the first of its six Grand Final appearances in 1996 and the first of two premierships in 2005. Since its first Grand Final appearance, Sydney has consistently averaged over 24,000 spectators to each home match, reaching a peak average home attendance of 36,612 in 1997. In 2003, Sydney drew a New South Wales record crowd of 72,393 which remains the record attendance in the history of the game for a match played outside of Victoria. The Giants, based in Western Sydney, were introduced in 2012. The two teams compete against each other in the Sydney Derby which drew a record crowd of 60,222 in 2016. The Giants have competed in the AFL Women's competition since its commencement in 2017 and the Swans have been granted a license to join in 2023.

Historically the game dates back to the 1880s in Sydney with the establishment of local competitions established in 1880; however, it has struggled for marketshare against other football codes. Its popularity is highest in the Southern Riverina region closer to the Victorian border.[7]

Kiandra, NSW, where skiing began in Australia in 1861

Charlotte Pass, a pioneer of the Australian ski industry. Village Elevation at 1760m.

New South Wales is home to Australia's highest snow country, oldest skifields and largest resorts. Recreational skiing in Australia began around 1861 at Kiandra, New South Wales, when Norwegian gold miners introduced the idea to the frozen hills around the town.[8] The first and longest surviving ski club in the world, the Kiandra Snow Shoe Club is believed to have been formed at Kiandra in that year.[9][10]

The Kiandra snow shoe club (now called the Kiandra Pioneer Ski Club (1861)) remains the world's first identifiable and ceaseless Ski Club. This Australian club has been continuously operating since 1861. Its origins have been recognised internationally and substantiated by the Holmenkollen Ski Museum, Norway in 2006.[11] The discovery of gold in the mountains of America and Australia was the catalyst for the development of recreational alpine skiing.[11] The Kiandra Goldrush was short-lived, but the township remained a service centre for recreational and survival skiing for over a century. Australia's first T-bar lift was installed at Kiandra in 1957, but the ski facilities were finally shifted up the hill to Selwyn Snowfields in 1978.[12] Steeper slopes and more reliable snows lie further to the south and in the 20th century, the focus of recreational skiing in New South Wales shifted southward, to the Mount Kosciuszko region.

Thredbo, has the largest vertical drop of any Australian ski resort at 672m

The first Kosciuszko Chalet was built at Charlotte Pass in 1930, giving relatively comfortable access to Australia's highest terrain.[13] At 1760m, Charlotte Pass has the highest village base elevation of any Australian ski resort and can only be accessed via over-snow transport in winter.[14] The growing number of ski enthusiasts heading to Charlotte Pass led to the establishment of a cafe at Smiggin Holes around 1939, where horse-drawn sleighs would deliver skiers to begin the arduous ski to the Kosciusko Chalet.[15] It was the construction of the vast Snowy Mountains Hydro-Electric Scheme from 1949 that really opened up the Snowy Mountains for large-scale development of a ski industry and led to the establishment of Thredbo and Perisher as leading Australian resorts.[16][17] The Construction of Guthega Dam brought skiers to the isolated Guthega district and a rope tow was installed there in 1957.[18]

Skifields up by Kosciusko's side were also established during this period, though their existence is now little realised. A rope tow was installed on Mount Northcote at the site and opened in 1954. The site proved excellent for speed skiing, but the hut was destroyed in an avalanche, which also killed one person, in 1956.[19] Construction began at Thredbo in 1957.[16] Today, Thredbo has 14 ski-lifts and possesses Australia's longest ski resort run, the 5.9 km from Karel's T-Bar to Friday Flat; Australia's greatest vertical drop of 672m; and the highest lifted point in Australia at 2037m[20][21]

The last establishment of a major skifield in NSW came with the development of Mount Blue Cow in the 1980s. In 1987 the Swiss designed Skitube Alpine Railway opened to deliver skiers from Bullocks Flat, on the Alpine Way, to Perisher Valley and to Blue Cow, which also opened in 1987.[17] The operators of Blue Cow purchased Guthega in 1991, and the new combined resort later merged with Perisher-Smiggins to become the largest ski resort in the Southern Hemisphere.[22] In 2009 Perisher had 48 lifts covering 1,245 hectares and four village base areas: Perisher Valley, Blue Cow, Smiggin Holes and Guthega.[23]

The Kosciuszko Main Range in the Snowy Mountains of New South Wales offer some of the most challenging cross-country and back-country skiing in Australia, notably Watsons Crags and Mount Twynam on the steep Western Face of the Range.[24][25] The Mount Jagungal wilderness area provides some of the most isolated back-country ski terrain. High country huts, often a legacy of the era of cattle grazing in the mountains, provide emergency shelter in these regions.[26]

Suncorp Super Netball features two New South Wales based teams. The New South Wales Swifts are an established club, having previously played in the ANZ Championship and the Commonwealth Bank Trophy. Giants Netball were formed when the Greater Western Sydney Giants football club were given one of the three licenses for new teams for the first season of the Super Netball league in 2017.

There are also many teams participating in other national sporting competitions based in New South Wales, mainly in Sydney and the surrounding areas. These include the Sydney Blue Sox in Australian Baseball League. The state's only major motorsport team is Albury based Brad Jones Racing.

The popular equine sports of campdrafting and polocrosse were developed in New South Wales and competitions are now held across Australia. Polocrosse is now played in many overseas countries. Rodeos are popular events for competitors and spectators alike. The most important equine events in the state and the country are held at the Australian Equine and Livestock Events Centre in Tamworth in the states New England region.

Sydney was the host of the 2000 Summer Olympics and the 1938 British Empire Games. The Olympic Stadium, now known as Stadium Australia, is the scene of the annual NRL Grand Final. It also regularly hosts rugby league State of Origin as well as rugby union and soccer internationals. It hosted the final of the 2003 Rugby World Cup and the memorable soccer World Cup qualifier between Australia and Uruguay.

The Sydney Cricket Ground traditionally hosts the 'New Year' cricket test match from 2 to 6 January each year. The Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race begins in Sydney Harbour on Boxing Day, while the Bathurst 12 Hour and Bathurst 1000 are held at Mount Panorama.

The Sydney Autumn Racing Carnival features the richest two-year-old horse race in the world, the Golden Slipper Stakes, which is run in April every year. The City to Surf foot race is held every August and is one of the largest timed foot races in the world.

Each year the New South Wales Sport Awards are held. The major award is the Sport Star of the Year:[27]

• 1994 Michelle Martin – Squash
• 1995 Michelle Martin – Squash
• 1996 Alyson Annan – Hockey
• 1997 Chris McCormack – Triathlon
• 1998 Ian Thorpe – Swimming
• 1999 Ian Thorpe – Swimming
• 2000 Layne Beachley – Surfing
• 2001 Ian Thorpe – Swimming
• 2002 Layne Beachley – Surfing
• 2003 Layne Beachley – Surfing
• 2004 Petria Thomas – Swimming
• 2005 Kate Bates – Cycling
• 2006 Brad Kahlefeldt – Triathlon
• 2007 Casey Stoner – Motorcycling
• 2008 Matthew Mitcham – Diving
• 2009 Dani Samuels – Track & Field
• 2010 Stephanie Gilmore – Surfing & Tom Slingsby – Sailing
• 2011 Tom Slingsby – Sailing
• 2012 Michael Clarke – Cricket
• 2013 Jessica Fox – Canoe Slalom