page_title: Australian rules football in New South Wales
section_title: Notable players from New South Wales
hierarchical_section_title: Australian rules football in New South Wales / Notable players from New South Wales
caption_attribution_description: English: Coloured photographic portrait of 19th-century Australian sportsman Tom Wills.
context_page_description: Australian rules football has been played in New South Wales since the 1870s; however it has a chequered history in the state and has generally been overshadowed in popularity as a winter sport by the rugby football codes. Compared to rugby league, Australian football had a small presence in Sydney until the 1980s. The sport is popular elsewhere in the state, and has been the dominant code in the Riverina and Broken Hill. Its popularity is constantly increasing northward, across what is known as the Barassi Line.
  The code's recent growth in popularity in Sydney has been partly tied to the success of the Sydney Swans which relocated from Melbourne in 1982. Since 1996, when it first made the Grand Final, the club has generated media hype and public interest as well as greater participation for the sport. Due to successive finals appearances the interest has been sustained over many seasons, most notably in 2005 and 2006 with two successive Grand Final appearances and the club's first premiership since its relocation.
context_section_description: A number of notable players have been born in New South Wales or played the majority of their junior careers in New South Wales; many of these players have been from the traditional Australian rules football areas of Broken Hill or the Riverina. Australian football pioneers Tom Wills and H. C. A. Harrison were born in New South Wales in the 1830s.
  Notable players from the Riverina include: Australian Football Hall of Fame Legend Haydn Bunton, Sr. (Albury), who was the first player born in New South Wales to win the Brownlow Medal and the Sandover Medal, in 1931 and 1938 respectively; Shane Crawford (Finley), became the second player from New South Wales to win the Brownlow in 1999; and Wayne Carey (Wagga Wagga), won the Leigh Matthews Trophy twice in the 1990s. Notable players from Broken Hill include Dave Low, Robert Barnes and Bruce McGregor, who all won Magarey Medals in the 1910s and 1920s, and Jack Owens, a three-time South Australian National Football League (SANFL) leading goalkicker.
  Many notable players have also been recruited from Sydney, as the game has had a long history, having been played in the city since 1880. This pre-dates many other major sports. Despite the lack of media attention the game has received, Sydney has still generated many players of high quality. Some of the best include Roger Duffy (1954 premiership player who was recruited from Newtown), Michael Byrne (1983 premiership player with Hawthorn who was recruited from the Sydney club of North Shore), Bob Merrick (a leading goal kicker in the 1920s recruited from East Sydney), Greg Stafford (a 200-game player recruited from Western Suburbs in Sydney), Jarrad McVeigh (2012 AFL premiership captain), Lewis Roberts-Thomson (2005 & 2012 premiership player for the Swans) and Lenny Hayes (2010 Norm Smith Medallist) amongst others.
caption: Australian football pioneer Tom Wills was born in New South Wales.
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