10.8 Sport
Description
This article is from the soc.culture.australian FAQ, by Stephen Wales with numerous contributions by others.
10.8 Sport
* Australian Rules Football
This is the main football code played in Vic, SA, WA and Tasmania.
The Australian Football League consists of 10 teams based in
Melbourne, plus Geelong, Sydney, Brisbane, Perth and Adelaide. (It was
established a few years ago from an expanded VFL.) Fixtures, results,
statistics and match reports are available from
rec.sport.football.australian. Pre-season night competition begins the
end of February. Main season is end of March to August, with finals
series in September. West Coast won in 1992, Essendon won the flag in
1993. The latest winner (1995) was Carlton, defeating ?????? by 59 points.
There is a competition of about 8 women's teams in Melbourne, but the
sport does not seem to be growing.
(If it isn't obvious, Melbourne is the home of this "sport".
Melbourne's winter football mania is one great reason NOT to be there
in winter! [CP, who probably still has cleat marks on his back from
his school days] :-P.)
* Rugby League/Rugby Union
The main football codes in NSW and Qld are RL/RU. Rugby League is the
professional sport (reigning premiers are the Cantebury Bulldogs, who
beat Manly 24-4 this year), rugby union is still "amateur".
Australia won the Rugby League World Cup in October 1995 for the 5th time
running, beating England ??-??
Rec.sport.rugby.union contains some postings about rugby union in
Australia (though is dominated by discussion of the rugby union 5 nations
competition and the World Cup).
Rec.sport.rugby.league contains some information about rugby league
in Australia (much in the same vein....).
[MJ] Australian scores are generally posted weekly to r.s.r.l.
There is also a WWW site (British, but it has Australian information)
at http://www.brad.ac.uk/~cgrussel/
For the 1995 season, the current 16 team format is expanding to 20
teams. The 4 expansions teams are the Auckland (NZ) Warriors,
Queensland Crushers (could be South Queensland, not sure), the North
Queensland Cowboys (based in Townsville and the Western Reds from Perth.
The draw is becoming a Conference style draw like the NFL in the US.
The 1996 season has been torn asunder by the rival Super League.
As far as I know, it's a 10 team competition that has split from the
ARL and is sponsored by Rupert Murdock's News limited.
[If you have information on ARL v SL, send it on in.]
Women's rugby in Australia is still in it's infancy (we did not send a
team to either the 1991 or 1994 World Cups), but in 1994 the rugby
union championship was held for the 3rd year, and the number of
Australian teams competing increased from 4 to 14, plus one from NZ.
Christchurch beat the ACT in the final 13-5. The first test between NZ
and Australia will take place in September 1994.
[SW] Rugby League is played by girls up to age 12 or 13 in both
schools and weekend competition in mixed teams with boys. I believe
that after that age they are no longer allowed to play mixed.
However, I did see an article on Wide World of Sports on Channel 9 in
August 1993 depicting a Rugby League for Women Grand Final out of
Sydney.
* Cricket
The most widespread summer sport is cricket. Australia plays regulars
Tests against England (for the Ashes), NZ, India, the West Indies,
Pakistan, Sri Lanka, and now that they have been re-admitted to the
fold, South Africa. Each summer there are two touring teams which
play in a 3-way One-Day series. The state competition is for the
Sheffield Shield (4-day matches), which is only semi-professional.
(Qld has never won this :-). Many men and boys play club cricket on
the weekends (usually Saturday).
Women's cricket has been established quite a long time (first Test
versus England in 1934) but continues to be a minority sport for
women. There are about 100 club sides in Melbourne. The Australian
women's team is the best in the world; I believe there has even been
some TV coverage of Test and/or One-day cricket recently.
Note: live commentary of cricket matches is available via IRC
(Internet relay chat). It is available on the channel #cricket and
people discuss the match on #crickettalk. Information on this is
posted regularly to rec.sport.cricket. There is a cricket information
service, called CricInfo, available on gopher - access it by :
gopher://cricinfo.cse.ogi.edu:7070/
* Baseball
There is the ABL (Australian Baseball League). It is only 3-5 years
old. There are 8 teams - Brisbane, Gold Coast, Sydney, 2 from
Melbourne, Adelaide, Waverley and Perth. The season consists of 14
games of regular season played in January and February of each year.
The Brisbane Bandits won the competition in 1994. [SW]
* Basketball
NBL consists of 14 teams (although Hobart Tassie Devils might not
play in 1994 because of financial problems). Season is usually
from March/April until September. Each team is only allowed 2
imports (i.e. non Australian citizens). NBL was created in the
late 70's and has expanded since then, with several of the
original teams either leaving or being renamed/relocated. [SW]
* Athletics
* Horse Racing
Is everywhere. Traditionally Australians love to gamble. The Melbourne
Cup is the biggest race of the year. There is a holiday for it in
Melbourne. For a few minutes on the Tuesday after the first Monday in
November the whole country stops to listen (supposedly). Work place
sweeps proliferate. Phar Lap, which won the Melbourne Cup in 1930, is
a national hero, and his stuffed body may be seen in the Melbourne
museum.
* Netball
There are over 1/2 million registered netball players in Australia, so
it is by far the most popular women's sport.
* Softball
Is the most popular women's summer sport.
* Soccer
[contributions? AN]
* Other Sports.
Field hockey is very popular for both men and women, and we do well in
International competition. Many people play squash. Other sports
played include badminton, volleyball, table tennis, yachting, rowing,
swimming, cycling... [any more? AN]
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