Sport in New South Wales

Sport is an important part of the culture of the Australian state of New South Wales. Popular sports include rugby league, which has its Australian origins in Sydney, the capital of New South Wales, cricket, in which New South Wales has been the dominant state for much of its Australian history and association football (soccer).

Rugby league football

Rugby league has the highest spectator numbers of the various codes of football in New South Wales. It began in Australia in 1907, when the New South Wales Rugby League was formed as a professional competition, following the rules of the Northern Rugby Football Union in England. Since then the state has been one of the major centres of the code.

The headquarters of the Australian Rugby League and National Rugby League (NRL) are in Sydney, which is home to 8 of the 16 National Rugby League (NRL) clubs (Sydney Roosters, South Sydney Rabbitohs, Parramatta Eels, Cronulla Sharks, Wests Tigers, Penrith Panthers, Bulldogs and Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles), 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 Country Origin and City Origin teams are held.

The annual State of Origin series between the New South Wales Blues and the Queensland Maroons is the most popular sporting event in NSW. Sydney has hosted many State of Origin matches since the series began in 1980. The 3 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.

Rugby union football

Sydney has a local club rugby union competition (the Shute Shield), and the Super 14 international team the NSW Waratahs play their games in the city, though they represent most of the state. They were represented in the defunct Australian Rugby Championship by Sydney Fleet, Western Sydney Rams and Central Coast Rays. The southern part of the state is represented by the ACT-based Brumbies in Super 14; the Canberra Vikings were the region's Australian Rugby Championship representative. Rugby Union is regarded as an upper class game and is played in many of Sydney's top private schools. 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 ANZ Stadium.

Cricket

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. In addition, they've also won the One-Day Domestic cup 9 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 Captain is Simon Katich. The team's home grounds are the Sydney Cricket Ground and the ANZ Stadium.

Association football (soccer)

New South Wales is home to three of the eight clubs in the national A-League. Sydney FC were the inaugural A-League Champions in 2005–06. The two other teams are the Central Coast Mariners and the Newcastle United Jets. The governing bodies for the sport are Football New South Wales and Northern New South Wales Football. Football NSW conducts the New South Wales Premier League, which in 2006 involved nine teams from Sydney and one from Wollongong. The New South Wales Sapphires and Northern New South Wales Pride compete in the Women's National Soccer League.

Basketball

The Sydney Spirit and Wollongong Hawks are the state's representatives in the National Basketball League (NBL). These teams have all featured in the finals series since 2002–03, the Kings winning 3 consecutive premierships in 2002–03, 2003–04 & 2004–05. There are 12 teams in the New South Wales conference of the Australian Basketball Association, the Waratah League. The next level is the New South Wales State Basketball League. The Sydney Uni Flames play in the Women's National Basketball League.

Australian rules football

Australian rules football is a developing game in most of NSW. In 2007 it was forecast that there were 95,100 people participated in playing Australian Football. [ [http://realfooty.com.au/news/news/we-love-aussie-rules/2007/06/19/1182019117471.html We love Aussie Rules] from realfooty.com.au] In Sydney, local competitions established in 1880 and again in 1903 struggled to compete with rugby union and then the new professional rugby league. The code fared much better in the Riverina region, closer to the game's place of origin, Melbourne. [cite book | author= Ken Piesse| title=The Complete Guide to Australian Football | publisher =Pan Macmillan Australia | year=1995 | id=ISBN 0-330-35712-3 | pages=200–201]

The Australian Football League (AFL) has one team from Sydney, the Sydney Swans. Formerly South Melbourne, the club moved up to Sydney in 1982, after hitting financial trouble. The Swans have won one premiership since moving to Sydney (in 2005). Attendance for Swans matches has slowly risen since their relocation, and AFL telecasts in Sydney have risen 37 per cent in since the Swans premiership in 2005. According to foxsports "Although the Swans' TV audience is increasing they still have a long way to go after last Saturday night's Telstra Stadium blockbuster in front of a crowd of 60,307 managed to average just 123,000 viewers for the game."

The sport is governed in the state and the enclosed Australian Capital Territory (ACT) by AFL NSW/ACT. In 2004, there were 7,229 senior players out of a total 25 834 club participants registered in New South Wales. [ [http://afl.com.au/cp2/c2/webi/article/205058bu.pdf AFL website] ]

Other teams

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 Blues - Australian Major League Baseball and the Sydney Swifts in Australian Netball's Commonwealth Bank Trophy and cricket team the New South Wales Blues. The statesmajor motorsport teams are Walden Motorsport in Western Sydney and based at the border town of Albury, Brad Jones Racing.

Other events

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

The Sydney Cricket Ground traditionally hosts the 'New Year' cricket test match from 2–6 January each year. The annual Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race begins in Sydney Harbour on Boxing Day, whilst the climax of Australia's touring car racing series is the Bathurst 1000, held at the Mount Panorama Circuit near the city of Bathurst in the Western Plains.The Sydney Autumn Racing Carnival featuring the richest 2 year old horse race in the world the Golden Slipper, is run in April every year, and the Medibank International tennis tournament is held in January prior to the Australian Open. The City to Surf held every August is one of the largest timed foot races in the world.

Venues

ydney Olympic Park

Sydney Olympic Park is roughly in the geographical centre of Sydney. Created for the 2000 Olympics, it is now a major sporting centre in the city.

Acer Arena

Acer Arena (formerly the Sydney Superdome) hosts miscellaneous events.

tadium Australia

Stadium Australia, sponsored as ANZ Stadium, is Sydney's largest stadium. Built for the 2000 Olympics, it now hosts big events such as the NRL Grand Final, the rugby league State of Origin and rugby union and Association football internationals. The venue is the home ground of NRL teams, the Canterbury Bulldogs and the South Sydney Rabbitohs and serves as one of the home grounds for the Wests Tigers and the St George Illawarra Dragons. ANZ Stadium also hosts a number of Swans home games and the occasional domestic cricket one-day match. -

There are various other sporting and recreational facilities in the centre including another indoor arena, tennis centre, aquatic centre, athletics centre, hockey centre, archery centre, as well as the Sydney Showground (Homebush).

ydney Football Stadium

Sydney Football Stadium was designed for the use of rugby league, rugby union and Association football. The Sydney Roosters, the NSW Waratahs and Sydney FC use it as their home ground. The ground hosted the 2005–06 A-League grand final won by Sydney FC. The ground also hosted rugby league grand finals from its construction until ANZ Stadium was opened.

ydney Cricket Ground

The Sydney Cricket Ground is mainly used for cricket games and Aussie rules matches. It is home to the Sydney Swans and NSW Blues. The ground held over 1000 rugby league first-grade matches in its history but is rarely used anymore.

Other prominent venues in Sydney and New South Wales include:

Randwick Racecourse,
Rosehill Racecourse,
Eastern Creek Raceway,
Mount Panorama,
Oran Park Raceway,
Wakefield Park,
Parramatta Stadium,
Energy Australia Stadium,
Bluetongue Central Coast Stadium,
CUA Stadium,
WIN Stadium,
Kogarah Oval,
Campbelltown Stadium,
Toyota Park (Cronulla),
North Sydney Oval,
Leichhardt Oval,
Brookvale Oval,
Concord Oval,
Sydney Entertainment Centre,
Blacktown Olympic Park,and Dunc Gray Velodrome.

References