Footy in New South Wales

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New South Wales is better known as a state that prefers rugby league over footy. However it still has a rich history in footy, primarily in Sydney and in the Riverina region. The Australian Capital Territory also plays a role as does Broken Hill despite the city going by South Australian time.
The first match played in Sydney was in 1877 when Carlton paid a visit and took on Waratahs - a rugby club. The two teams played a game of rugby as well. Waratahs were impressed, but establishing the game in the face of determined rugby authorities was another issue. Repeated attempts collapsed due to the lack of access to the appropriate venues.
There were no such issues in the Riverina as the region was closer to Melbourne than Sydney. The game debuted in 1881 in Wagga Wagga with a game against Albury, and this led to the formation of the first competition based in New South Wales in 1884. It went through several name changes but finally folded in 1956. But in the meantime other competitions had formed starting with the South Western District Football League in 1894 - a precursor to the Riverina Football League of today.
In Broken Hill the game was first played in 1885, and a formal competition commenced 1888. In 1890 the Barrier Ranges Football Association was formed, the league that became the Broken Hill Football League - the oldest competition in New South Wales still operating today.
The game was also played in Newcastle when miners from Ballarat introduced the game in 1883. The Black Diamond Cup was established in 1888 but only lasted until 1894 before rugby league took over.
Sydney fought back in 1903 forming the New South Wales Football League. The league struggled along, especially when rugby league was started as the preferred alternative to rugby union.
From this point in time until just after World War 2 the game was concentrated in Sydney, the Riverina and Broken Hill - along with Canberra when it was created in 1926. Canberra has a history of a strong Melbourne presence due to public servants coming from the south to the new capital.
In 1948 Newcastle tried again, forming the Newcastle Australian Football League. This time it managed to stick, establishing the game in the region. Nothing else happened until the game started to seep south of Sydney to Wollongong. This began in 1965 with the formation of the St George competition and clubs were coming from the Illawarra area. In 1969 the league became the South Coast competition with the game going further south to Nowra. The game was also expanding from Canberra with the establishment of the Monaro competition bringing in clubs from Cooma and Goulburn. The expansion in Wollongong led to the formation of the Illawarra competition separate to the South Coast league in 1975.
A competition was also established based at the University of New England in Armidale in 1962. This formed the basis of a wider competition called the New England Australian Football League in 1976. It struggled though with only clubs in Armidale and Tamworth, while the nearby North West Australian Rules competition formed in 1978 did a bit better with clubs in Moree, Gunnedah, Inverell and Coonabarabran. It also included clubs from Coffs Harbour before they broke away to form the North Coast competition in 1982.
This was around the time Sydney were first established in the move from South Melbourne. Interest in the game increased further across the state and while leagues were contracted in the Riverina, in 1984 the Summerland competition was formed in Lismore, while down south the Sapphire Coast competition was also established. The following year the Mid North Coast competition was formed. The game was going well.
However the middle area started to struggle as New England folded and the North West competition followed in the early 90's. Mid North Coast also disappeared and South Coast and Illawarra merged to form the Leisure Coast competition. In 1995 the Monaro competition folded with clubs absorbed by an expanded Canberra based structure.
More recently though there has been something of a fightback. The Tamworth competition was formed, and brought back clubs from both the New England competition and the North West ARFL. The Summerland competition clubs opted to affiliate with the Queensland structure as they were much closer to Brisbane than Sydney. Coffs Harbour remains a strong footy town however and the surrounding areas are recovering as footy is being played again in Woolgoolga.
The game is trying to grow with the second AFL team the Giants and the establishment of the North East Australian Football League with the New South Wales presence.
Category:Footy History