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Rugby league in Australia has been one of Australia's most popular sports since it started being played there in 1908.[3][4][5] It is the dominant winter football code in the states of New South Wales and Queensland.[6] In 2022, it was the most watched sport on Australian television with an aggregate audience of 137.3 million viewers.[7] The premier club competition is the National Rugby League (NRL), which features ten teams from New South Wales, four teams from Queensland, and one team each from Victoria, the Australian Capital Territory and New Zealand. The premier representative competition is the annual Rugby league State of Origin featuring two sides, the New South Wales Blues and the Queensland Maroons is often referred to as "Australian sport's greatest rivalry",[8][9][10][11] it is one of Australia's premier sporting events, attracting huge interest and television audiences.
Australia has a rich history of rugby league, first taking up the sport in 1908 alongside people in Britain and New Zealand. The country has been dominant over the other rugby league-playing nations for many years, but enjoys a strong rivalry with New Zealand.
Commonly known as "league" or "football", and sometimes referred to as "the greatest game of all",[12][13] it is traditionally seen as a "working man's sport" with its roots in the working class communities of Northern England, compared to rugby union which has its roots in prestigious English public schools. The governing body in Australia is the Australian Rugby League Commission.
- ^ "Is rugby league dying? The never-before-released numbers that have NRL powerbrokers concerned". 21 May 2021.
- ^ a b c "National Rugby League Annual Report 2021" (PDF). Retrieved 29 July 2023.
- ^ Ian, Thomsen (30 October 1995). "Australians Retain Rugby League Title". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 18 January 2014. Retrieved 5 October 2009.
- ^ Dale, David (4 October 2005). "Footy beats sex, not tennis". The Sydney Morning Herald. Australia: Fairfax Digital. Retrieved 1 January 2010.
- ^ Mercer, Phil (25 April 2001). "Australia's game of shame". BBC News. UK: BBC. Retrieved 1 January 2010.
- ^ http://jss.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/21/2/221 David Rowe, Rugby League in Australia: the Super League Saga, Journal of Sport & Social Issues, Vol. 21, No. 2, pp. 221–226 (1997)
- ^ "2022 NRL/NRLW Season TV Ratings". Sports Industry AU. 12 September 2022.
- ^ "The countdown is on to sport's greatest rivalry!". melbournestorm.com. 9 May 2012. Archived from the original on 13 May 2012. Retrieved 17 October 2012.
- ^ Tasker, Norman (2005). State of Origin: twenty-five years of sport's greatest rivalry. Caringbah, New South Wales: Playright Publishing. ISBN 0949853933.
- ^ "Rep season officially launched". sportsaustralia.com. 5 April 2006. Archived from the original on 1 May 2013. Retrieved 17 October 2012.
- ^ "Eye of the storm". The Sydney Morning Herald. 23 June 2006. Retrieved 17 October 2012.
- ^ Andrews, Malcolm (1980). Rugby league, the greatest game of all. Horwitz. ISBN 9780725508319.
- ^ Chesterton, Ray (2007). 100 Years of Rugby League: A Celebration of the Greatest Game of All. Australia: Hachette. ISBN 9780733621321.