Sport in New South Wales

Sport in New South Wales describes participation in and attendance at organised sports events in the state of New South Wales in Australia. It is an important part of the culture of the state. In terms of participation, the most popular sports in the state are netball, tennis and soccer.

New South Wales has attracted many international multi-sport events including the 2000 Summer Olympics, held in Sydney. There are many professional sporting teams in New South Wales. Popular spectator sports include rugby football, cricket, soccer and Australian Rules Football. The National Rugby League is notable as the largest rugby league competition in the world.

Rugby league football, usually called football, footy or just league has a place with some Sydneysiders, as a sporting and a tradition within the city. This stems back from the earlier colonial days of the city where the city and its cultural were largely dictated by wealthy Englishmen whom traditionally played and were supporters of the Rugby code of football, which was largely advertised and passed on to the people of Sydney, including the working class who in back in England largely played soccer. In the early 1900s some Rugby footballers started to agitate to receive match payments. There was widespread disagreement as to whether or not this should happen. The working class strongly believed it was a good idea and that the players should at least share in some of the money which was filling the coffers of the governing body, whilst the middle class were more hesitant to do so. However the Rugby Football Union would not countenance payments of any sort, even 'broken time' payments for a player whilst an injury made him unable to work was deemed the 'thin edge of the wedge' for professionalism. This resulted in a split similar to what had occurred in England, and the working class formed their own competition, the Rugby League, which followed the same rules as the equivalent breakaway competition in England. The game quickly grew a working-class following, and has been a Sydney tradition ever since.

...
Wikipedia