Country Rugby League
| Country Rugby League | |
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| Founded | 1934 |
| Responsibility | Non-metropolitan New South Wales |
| Key people |
Jock Colley(Chair) Terry Quinn(Chief Executive) |
| Website | crlnsw.com.au |
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As of 1 December 2009
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The Country Rugby League of New South Wales (CRL), formed in 1934, is the governing body for the sport of rugby league football in areas of New South Wales outside the Sydney metropolitan area. Despite its name, CRL also governs rugby league in the Australian Capital Territory. Apart from selecting a Country Origin side to play in the annual City vs Country Origin game, the CRL administers a large number of senior and junior competitions across the state.
Newcastle was the first city outside Sydney to start a league competition, being involved in the Sydney Premiership in 1908-09 and then starting their own competition in 1910.
On 11 February 1911, the Hunter District Rugby Football League (HDRFL) was established at a large meeting in Maitland, thus becoming the first branch of the NSW Rugby League in "the bush" (i.e. outside the urban centres of Sydney and Newcastle). The HDRFL territory encompassed a lower part of the Hunter Valley from Singleton down to the Maitland district and towns on the nearby coalfields (the major ones being Cessnock, Kurri Kurri and Weston). Competition games were scheduled to kick off on 13 May but were pushed back to 20 May when clubs complained they had not had enough time to practice the new code. In the first senior-grade games played, West Maitland def. Kurri Kurri (12-0) and Cessnock def. Morpeth (23-0) in a double-header on the enclosed Albion Ground at Maitland. The first City v. Country match (advertised as such by the NSWRL in the Sydney Morning Herald of 10/6/1911) was played at the Sydney Agricultural Ground on that same Saturday, with City winning 29-8. The Country team was composed exclusively of players from the Newcastle ("Northern") and the Hunter competitions. The first ever country divisional match (described as such in the Maitland Daily Mercury of 31/7/1911) was played at Newcastle on 29/7/1911 between Newcastle and Hunter. Newcastle won 29-14. The first NSW Country team to tour was a squad of 17 players (12 from Newcastle and 5 from Hunter) that played three matches in Queensland between 5/8/1911 and 12/8/1911, defeating the Queensland State side twice and a Queensland Country representative side once. They then travelled to Sydney to play the Sydney Metropolitan team, again winning 31-24.
On 13 May 1911, another branch of the NSWRL was established in the Wollongong area.
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