Margie McDonald – published at NSWRL
Rugby League’s reach and influence in the NSW sporting environment can be underlined by one simple fact – the 106,000 players registered with NSWRL have heritage representing 183 different countries.
As the NSWRL celebrates Harmony Week as part of the organisation’s Inclusion Month awareness campaign this weekend (25-26 March) the game’s popularity among a wide variety of ethnic groups is real and active.
Rugby League is the game for all.
Community Database information across all grades and competitions run by NSWRL show five per cent of players were born overseas, while 19 per cent have a mother or father born outside of Australia.
Another 19 per cent identify as Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander, and the top-10 countries (after Australia) with the most players is largely of Pacific-origin: New Zealand (1), Samoa (2), Fiji (3), Tonga (5), Papua New Guinea (9), and Cook Islands (10).
The top 25 countries represented has player heritages from across the globe, but with a healthy Asian influence: Thailand (13), Hong Kong (17), Korea (21), Singapore (22), and Indonesia (23).
As well as participating in all the pathways leading to the NSWRL’s two elite competitions – The Knock-On Effect NSW Cup and the Harvey Norman NSW Women’s Premiership – there are 30 clubs playing in the NSWRL’s Heritage Rugby League.
“The number has been increasingly marginally in recent years but compared with 20 to 30 years ago it’s jumped enormously,” said HRL president Javed Hamidi.
“They’ve come from countries which have little interest in Rugby League.
“But in the late 1990s, early 2000s people from countries like Italy, Lebanon and Greece took up the game having one or two generations born in Australia.
“They had friends or communities who saw Rugby League as part of the local culture and wanted to be a part of it.
“With new waves of migration, particularly Asian and South American, they are now starting to take up the game as there’s been kids born here and grown up here.
“They see the game on TV, they see their friends playing it and telling them how much they love it, so they want to be a part of it too.”
There are many ways multi-cultural communities can assimilate into Australian way of life, but Hamidi says once they start playing Rugby League “they’re hooked”.
“Absolutely – and for the same reason many other communities here love it because it’s enjoyable, fun, skilful and fast. You can run and pass, score tries, there’s just a lot of action,” he said.
Last year 59 games of Heritage Rugby League were played, but there were over 70 in 2019 or pre-COVID days.
“I think we’ll be playing over 60 this year,” he said.
Upcoming Heritage Rugby League tournaments like Harmony Nines will feature teams representing South Africa, Africa, Philippines, India, Japan, Thailand, Malta, Macedonia, Lebanon, Cambodia, Vietnam and more.
Go to heritagerugbyleague.com/participate, check out the teams you could join, and a link to register.
