Rugby league in the Northern Territory

Rugby league is administered by the Northern Territory Rugby League. Rugby league in the Darwin is played at Richardson Park, whilst rugby league in Alice Springs is played at Anzac Oval.

The first organised competition was played in Darwin in 1941 when 9 teams, mostly made up of servicemen decided to make one unified competition and compete between and against each other. Some of the teams represented the Royal Australian Air Force, the Royal Australian Navy, and the Australian Army. There were also teams made up of citizens in Darwin, along with a team made up entirely of indigenous Australians living in Darwin.

The competition was cancelled due to the bombing of Darwin and the air raid attacks on the city. Since most of the competition was made from servicemen in Darwin, the competition was severely effected when many of these personal had to go to war and when they were no longer stationed in the Darwin area.

Another competition resumed in 1942 and continued onto 1943 (it was a season which lasted two years) but because of the evacuation of Darwin and then the subsequent shipping out of army and navy personnel from Darwin the competition was completely halted. There appears to be no other competition formed between 1943 and 1949. After 1949, the competition was finally revived.

In 1950, a small group of men, mainly ex-servicemen, joined together to form the Northern Territory Rugby League. The first official season was started in 1950 in Darwin with a number of pre-season trial matches and tournaments. The first official match was played on 14 June 1951.

Cyclone Tracy hit Darwin on 24 December 1974 and completely devastated Darwin. Much damaged was done to its surroundings, fortunately however, little damage occurred on Richardson Park, the home of rugby league in Darwin. The cyclone had an effect on the competition itself as players and administrators of the clubs and boards of the competition either left Darwin or were involved in the clean-up in Darwin after the cyclone had subsided.

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