NSW Koori Knockout
| NSW Koori Knockout | |
|---|---|
| Sport | Rugby league |
| Inaugural season | 1971 |
| Winners & Host | Redfern All-Blacks (2015) |
| Most titles |
|
| Broadcast partner | |
| Related competition | |
NSW Koori Rugby League Knockout Carnival is one of the biggest Indigenous gatherings in Australia. The very first knockout was held at Camdenville Oval, St Peters, on the October long weekend of 1971 with 8 participating teams. The winning teams gains the right to hold the next knockout. Organisers created the knockout as an alternative more accessible to Indigenous players than the state rugby league. The Nsw outblacks are in with a good chance in 2017 with the solid half combination and strong running forwards.
The Knockout emerged from the new and growing mostly inner-city Sydney Aboriginal community in the late 1960s and early 1970s. The emerging political movement in Redfern for self-determination and justice, increased opportunities arising from post-referendum federal government initiatives and greater employment prospects in the industrial areas of Sydney influenced Aboriginal families' migration to the inner-city, particularly South Sydney. The Knockout emerged within this complex economic and social context. It was initiated by six men affiliated with Koorie United: Bob Smith, Bob Morgan, Bill Kennedy, Danny Rose, Victor Wright and the late George Jackson. They formed Koorie United in response to the rapidly expanding Sydney Aboriginal community. The established Sydney-based Aboriginal sides, the Redfern All Blacks and La Perouse Panthers (or Blacks as they were sometimes called), were aligned with the South Sydney football district. There were many Aboriginal men looking for a game of football and so Koorie United formed joining the ‘rival’ Newtown Jets district, with sponsorship from Marrickville Council, where some of the committee members worked.
The Koorie United committee were connected through kinship and the shared experience of relocating to the city. Bob Morgan, Danny Rose and Bill Kennedy hail from the New South Wales north-western town of Walgett in Gamilaroi country. Bob Smith and Victor Wright had relocated from Kemspey on the New South Wales north coast, and while the late George Jackson was based in Sydney, he also had connections with Gamilaroi as his wife was from Coonabarabran.
Following a 'meeting' at the Clifton Hotel, a well-known gathering place for Kooris in Redfern in the 1960s & 70s, the Koorie United committee proposed holding a statewide Knockout competition. Prior to this there had been many town-based knockout football and basketball competitions. However, the establishment of the Knockout set out with some different objectives. Bob Morgan says: Our concept at the time was to also have a game where people who had difficulty breaking into the big time would be on show. They could put their skills on show and the talent scouts would come and check them out.
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