![Barassi Line](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f0/Barassi_Line.jpg)
The "Barassi Line" is an
imaginary line
In general, an imaginary line is usually any sort of geometric line that has only an abstract definition and does not physically exist. In fact, they are used to properly identify places on a map.
Some outside geography do exist, such as th ...
in
Australia
Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...
which approximately divides areas where
Australian rules football
Australian football, also called Australian rules football or Aussie rules, or more simply football or footy, is a contact sport played between two teams of 18 players on an oval field, often a modified cricket ground. Points are scored by k ...
and
rugby league
Rugby league football, commonly known as just rugby league and sometimes football, footy, rugby or league, is a full-contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular field measuring 68 metres (75 yards) wide and 112 ...
is the most popular
football code
Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, Kick (football), kicking a Football (ball), ball to score a Goal (sport), goal. Unqualified, Football (word), the word ''football'' normally means the form of football tha ...
. It was first used by historian
Ian Turner in his "1978
Ron Barassi
Ronald Dale Barassi Jr. (born 27 February 1936) is a former Australian rules footballer, coach and media personality. Regarded as one of the most important figures in the history of the game, Barassi was the first player to be inaugurated into ...
Memorial Lecture". Crowd figures, media coverage, and participation rates are heavily skewed in favour of the dominant code on both sides of the line.
Despite Australia's relatively homogeneous culture, a strong
dichotomy
A dichotomy is a partition of a whole (or a set) into two parts (subsets). In other words, this couple of parts must be
* jointly exhaustive: everything must belong to one part or the other, and
* mutually exclusive: nothing can belong simulta ...
exists in the country's
football
Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...
sporting culture. The divide has existed since Australian rules football and
rugby union
Rugby union, commonly known simply as rugby, is a close-contact team sport that originated at Rugby School in the first half of the 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand. In its m ...
developed their identities as distinct codes. Australian rules football is the most popular football code to the west and south of the line, with centres in
Melbourne
Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...
,
Perth
Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia. It is the fourth most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a population of 2.1 million (80% of the state) living in Greater Perth in 2020. Perth is ...
,
Adelaide
Adelaide ( ) is the capital city of South Australia, the state's largest city and the fifth-most populous city in Australia. "Adelaide" may refer to either Greater Adelaide (including the Adelaide Hills) or the Adelaide city centre. The dem ...
and
Hobart
Hobart ( ; Nuennonne/Palawa kani: ''nipaluna'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian island state of Tasmania. Home to almost half of all Tasmanians, it is the least-populated Australian state capital city, and second-small ...
, while rugby league and rugby union are more popular on the eastern side, with centres in
Sydney
Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mountain ...
and
Brisbane
Brisbane ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the states and territories of Australia, Australian state of Queensland, and the list of cities in Australia by population, third-most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a populati ...
. Each side represents roughly half of the Australian population due to the concentration of the population on the
east coast
East Coast may refer to:
Entertainment
* East Coast hip hop, a subgenre of hip hop
* East Coast (ASAP Ferg song), "East Coast" (ASAP Ferg song), 2017
* East Coast (Saves the Day song), "East Coast" (Saves the Day song), 2004
* East Coast FM, a ra ...
.
Roughly speaking, the line follows
Queensland
)
, nickname = Sunshine State
, image_map = Queensland in Australia.svg
, map_caption = Location of Queensland in Australia
, subdivision_type = Country
, subdivision_name = Australia
, established_title = Before federation
, established_ ...
's western border, drops southeast through western
New South Wales
)
, nickname =
, image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg
, map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates:
, subdivision_type = Country
, subdivision_name = Australia
, established_title = Before federation
, es ...
, and ends at the
Pacific Ocean
The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the continen ...
at
Cape Howe
Cape Howe is a coastal headland in eastern Australia, forming the south-eastern end of the Black-Allan Line, a portion of the border between New South Wales and Victoria.
History
Cape Howe was named by Captain Cook when he passed it on 20 A ...
on the border of New South Wales and
Victoria
Victoria most commonly refers to:
* Victoria (Australia), a state of the Commonwealth of Australia
* Victoria, British Columbia, provincial capital of British Columbia, Canada
* Victoria (mythology), Roman goddess of Victory
* Victoria, Seychelle ...
.
It divides New South Wales, placing the
Riverina
The Riverina
is an agricultural region of south-western New South Wales, Australia. The Riverina is distinguished from other Australian regions by the combination of flat plains, warm to hot climate and an ample supply of water for irrigation ...
area of southern New South Wales and the western mining city of
Broken Hill
Broken Hill is an inland mining city in the far west of outback New South Wales, Australia. It is near the border with South Australia on the crossing of the Barrier Highway (A32) and the Silver City Highway (B79), in the Barrier Range. It is ...
on the Australian rules football side, and the rest on the rugby side. The line runs through the national capital of
Canberra
Canberra ( )
is the capital city of Australia. Founded following the federation of the colonies of Australia as the seat of government for the new nation, it is Australia's largest inland city and the eighth-largest city overall. The ci ...
, where each sport has had similar prominence at different times throughout history – although the rugby codes have established greater prominence there in the decades since the line was first proposed.
At the time the term was first used, neither code had professional teams or leagues operating on the opposing side. In the years since,
Australian Football League
The Australian Football League (AFL) is the only fully professional competition of Australian rules football. Through the AFL Commission, the AFL also serves as the sport's governing body and is responsible for controlling the laws of the gam ...
(AFL) in Australian rules football, the
National Rugby League
The National Rugby League (NRL) is an Australasian rugby league club competition which contains clubs from New South Wales, Queensland, Victoria, the Australian Capital Territory and New Zealand. The NRL formed in 1998 as a joint partnership ...
(NRL), and the multinational body
SANZAAR which organises the
Super Rugby
Super Rugby is a men's professional rugby union club competition involving teams from Australia, Fiji, New Zealand, and the Pacific Islands. It previously included teams from Argentina, Japan, and South Africa. Building on various Southern Hem ...
competition in rugby union, expanded their domestic competitions to include teams from both sides of the line.
Other sports have no such separation in Australia. Cricket has been played on a national scale by state representative teams for over 100 years and, in 1977, soccer became the first sport in Australia to start a club-based
national league
The National League of Professional Baseball Clubs, known simply as the National League (NL), is the older of two leagues constituting Major League Baseball (MLB) in the United States and Canada, and the world's oldest extant professional team s ...
.
Origin
The Ron Barassi Memorial Lecture was a series of lectures given between 1966 and 1978 by
Ian Turner, a professor of history at
Monash University
Monash University () is a public research university based in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Named for prominent World War I general Sir John Monash, it was founded in 1958 and is the second oldest university in the state. The university has a ...
, that were named after
Ron Barassi, Sr. Barassi played a number of Australian rules football games for
Melbourne
Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...
in the
Victorian Football League
The Victorian Football League (VFL) is an Australian rules football league in Australia serving as one of the second-tier regional semi-professional competitions which sit underneath the fully professional Australian Football League (AFL). It ...
(VFL) before enlisting to fight in
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
and subsequently dying in action at
Tobruk
Tobruk or Tobruck (; grc, Ἀντίπυργος, ''Antipyrgos''; la, Antipyrgus; it, Tobruch; ar, طبرق, Tubruq ''Ṭubruq''; also transliterated as ''Tobruch'' and ''Tubruk'') is a port city on Libya's eastern Mediterranean coast, near th ...
.
The Barassi Line itself was named after
Ron Barassi
Ronald Dale Barassi Jr. (born 27 February 1936) is a former Australian rules footballer, coach and media personality. Regarded as one of the most important figures in the history of the game, Barassi was the first player to be inaugurated into ...
, the former Barassi's son, who was a star player for Melbourne and
Carlton
Carlton may refer to:
People
* Carlton (name), a list of those with the given name or surname
* Carlton (singer), English soul singer Carlton McCarthy
* Carlton, a pen name used by Joseph Caldwell (1773–1835), American educator, Presbyterian ...
and a premiership-winning coach with Carlton and
North Melbourne
North Melbourne is an inner-city suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, north-west of Melbourne's Central Business District, located within the City of Melbourne local government area. North Melbourne recorded a population of 14,953 at the ...
. He believed in spreading the code of Australian rules football around the nation with an evangelical zeal, and became coach and major supporter of the relocated
Sydney Swans
The Sydney Swans are a professional Australian rules football club based in Sydney, New South Wales. The men's team competes in the Australian Football League (AFL), and the women's team in the AFL Women's (AFLW). The Swans also field a reser ...
. He foresaw a time when Australian rules football clubs from around Australia, including up to four from
New South Wales
)
, nickname =
, image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg
, map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates:
, subdivision_type = Country
, subdivision_name = Australia
, established_title = Before federation
, es ...
and
Queensland
)
, nickname = Sunshine State
, image_map = Queensland in Australia.svg
, map_caption = Location of Queensland in Australia
, subdivision_type = Country
, subdivision_name = Australia
, established_title = Before federation
, established_ ...
, would play in a national football league with only a handful of them based in Melbourne, but his ideas were largely ridiculed at the time.
League structures and expansions
The pursuit of national exposure for sports is influenced by the ratings systems used by Australian television. By the late 1980s, the main football codes in Australia realised that in order to garner the desired high national ratings, and increase the value of their product for television broadcast deals and corporate sponsors, they needed to maximise their national exposure.
This meant heavy investment in grassroots development and in the support of clubs on the "other" side of the Barassi Line.
Australian rules football
In 1990, the Victorian Football League changed its name to the
Australian Football League
The Australian Football League (AFL) is the only fully professional competition of Australian rules football. Through the AFL Commission, the AFL also serves as the sport's governing body and is responsible for controlling the laws of the gam ...
(AFL) to pursue a more national focus. A major reason for the expansion into these non-traditional areas has been to increase both the number of games played each week, and the potential television audience. This resulted in income from
television rights
Broadcasting is the distribution of audio or video content to a dispersed audience via any electronic mass communications medium, but typically one using the electromagnetic spectrum ( radio waves), in a one-to-many model. Broadcasting began ...
rising dramatically.
By 1997, six of sixteen AFL clubs were based outside Victoria, with two on the Rugby League side of the Barassi Line. With the establishment of the Sydney Swans, Western Sydney Giants, Brisbane Lions and Gold Coast Suns, Ron Barassi Jr's prophecy of a national Australian rules football league with four teams in New South Wales and Queensland has been fulfilled.
Australian Capital Territory
![Manuka_Oval](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/32/Manuka_Oval.JPG)
The ACT was once seen as one of the dividing points of the line. In 1981, the
ACTAFL
AFL Canberra is the name of the local governing body for and premier competition of Australian rules football in the Australian Capital Territory (and the Southern Tablelands of New South Wales).
It acts as an umbrella to several competitions be ...
, had just begun to edge out rugby league in popularity with an increase in participation and the first calls were made for the VFL to become a national competition. Under significant pressure from rugby league junior development in the territory and fearing the impact on its strong local competition of entry of a Sydney team, a formal bid for license to enter a
Canberra
Canberra ( )
is the capital city of Australia. Founded following the federation of the colonies of Australia as the seat of government for the new nation, it is Australia's largest inland city and the eighth-largest city overall. The ci ...
team into the VFL was made. The VFL dismissed it, stating it would consider Canberra for a license "within the next 10 years" The league was insistent that the license should go to Sydney which it believed had a much larger potential broadcast audience. The following year, the NSW Rugby League entered the Canberra market with a new
Canberra Raiders
The Canberra Raiders are an Australian professional rugby league football club based in the national capital city of Canberra, Australian Capital Territory. They have competed in Australasia's elite rugby league competition, the National Rugby ...
club. The long term impact of the lack of an AFL club and the introduction of the Canberra Raiders saw Australian rules fall from most popular to least popular of the football codes. Subsequent bids for a Canberra team were rejected by the AFL in 1981, 1986, 1988, 1990 and 1993 with the AFL preferring its existing clubs, most notably
North Melbourne
North Melbourne is an inner-city suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, north-west of Melbourne's Central Business District, located within the City of Melbourne local government area. North Melbourne recorded a population of 14,953 at the ...
to sell their home games. AFL clubs have done so since 2002, however have refrained from committing to the market long term. The ACT is now behind the Barassi line, and the code continues to decline and slip further behind other codes. The popularity of rugby football and soccer, combined with the Australian rules football's ageing infrastructure act as significant deterrents to any future AFL expansion there.
The
Greater Western Sydney Giants
The Greater Western Sydney Giants (officially the Greater Western Sydney Football Club and colloquially known as the GWS Giants or simply GWS) are a professional Australian rules football team based in Sydney Olympic Park, which represents the ...
in 2012 signed a 10-year deal with the ACT government worth $23 million which results in the club playing four home games in Canberra during each season. The Giants draw higher average attendances at Manuka Oval in Canberra than their home ground in Sydney. In response to questions relating to a proposed Canberra team, AFL CEO Gillon McLachlan stated in 2015 that "Canberra have their own team, the Giants". The AFL also claims that the stadium needs to be upgraded in order for the league to commit further to the market. After a failed $800 million stadium upgrade proposal the AFL stated that the Giants-Canberra deal would continue whether or not the redevelopment occurs. A significant share of Giants members are from the ACT, the figure was 5,800 in 2022. The club in 2015 set a target to overtake the Raiders membership and have 10,000+ members by 2018, however it failed and the Raiders membership has rapidly outpaced it.
New South Wales
![GWS Giants Inaugural Banner, March 24, 2012](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/ef/GWS_Giants_Inaugural_Banner%2C_March_24%2C_2012.jpg)
Encouraged by the VFL, the South Melbourne Football Club relocated to Sydney and became the
Sydney Swans
The Sydney Swans are a professional Australian rules football club based in Sydney, New South Wales. The men's team competes in the Australian Football League (AFL), and the women's team in the AFL Women's (AFLW). The Swans also field a reser ...
in 1982. The club endured limited success and a series of
wooden spoons in their first decade in Sydney before rallying for a series of good years in the mid-1990s onward, culminating in premierships in 2005 and 2012.
The lack of public support in Sydney caused significant financial losses to the club and league during the late 1980s and 1990s. Excluding a period of privatisation despite significant loans and writedowns to the club the league declared it insolvent in 1984, and in 1988. In 1992 the 15 other AFL clubs were asked to vote on expelling it due to its inability to survive in Sydney.
AFL clubs were left with little other option but to commit to subsidising it to maintain an audience in Sydney.
These subsidies were increased until the Swans became viable in the long term. This long term sustainability was initially aided by a
1996 AFL Grand Final
The 1996 AFL Grand Final was an Australian rules football game contested between the North Melbourne Football Club and the Sydney Swans, held at the Melbourne Cricket Ground in Melbourne on 28 September 1996. It was the 100th annual Grand Fina ...
appearance and the impact of the
Super League war
The Super League war was a commercial competition between the Australian Rugby League (ARL) and the Australian Super League to establish pre-eminence in professional rugby league competition in Australia and New Zealand in the mid-1990s.
Super ...
on rugby league.
In addition to promoting the Swans, the AFL attempted to use
Auskick
Auskick is a program designed to teach the basic skills of Australian rules football (AFL) to boys and girls aged between 5 and 12. Auskick is a non-contact variant of the sport. It began in Australia and is now a nationwide non-selective pro ...
participation as a tool to increase awareness in the Sydney market by introducing a generation of children to the sport, however the success of this strategy has been criticised. A 2012 study by David Lawson, a Melbourne University academic, commission by the AFL found that contrary to reports by the league, club participation rates in Sydney had actually stalled, and that the AFL was masking low figures by using short term, non-club affiliated Auskick participants and comparing them to competitive junior club participation numbers in other sports.
The league was also accused of faking registration figures in an attempt to gain access to Sydney playing fields.
The AFL introduced a
second New South Wales team, based in Western Sydney in 2012 subsidised with millions of investment with a generational vision to grow into the
Greater Western Sydney
Greater Western Sydney (GWS) is a large region of the metropolitan area of Greater Sydney, New South Wales (NSW), Australia that generally embraces the north-west, south-west, central-west, and far western sub-regions within Sydney's metropoli ...
region. As part of its effort to win over rugby league followers in Sydney, the AFL recruited rugby league star
Israel Folau
Israel Folau ( to, ‘Isileli Folau; born 3 April 1989) is an Australian professional rugby union footballer who plays for the Shining Arcs in the Japan Rugby League One and the Tonga national rugby union team.
He has previously played Aust ...
, who had not even heard of the sport, using a promotional salary of more than $6 million over four years. Folau broke his AFL contract after just one AFL season and his conversion was criticised by the media as a failed promotional exercise. The strategic success of the Giants franchise has been widely questioned.
[A tale of two Sydneys: Swans soar, Giants a sore point](_blank)
By Caroline Wilson for The Age. 17 September 2022 Despite a
2019 AFL Grand Final, the club's Sydney audience since then has failed to grow.
The AFL began zone and academy recruitment programs fostering talented young players from clubs in the Riverina (where the code retains a strong following) to Sydney and helping the code to recruit talented athletes from metropolitan areas. In addition to the growth of the game in Sydney, this grassroots expansion has contributed to the Barassi Line moving slightly further north of the border.
[How AFL is poking its tongue out at rugby league heartland](_blank)
by Roy Masters 16 September 2022 However the long campaign to lift the sports's popularity in Sydney and New South Wales has been hindered by deep rooted cultural barriers which even an Australian senate inquiry has described as insurmountable.
[AFL tells Senate to mind their own business](_blank)
/ref> The AFL continues to ignore this in its pursuit of maximum marketshare in Australia's most populous state.
Queensland
The Brisbane Bears
The Brisbane Football Club, nicknamed the Bears, was a professional Australian rules football club based in Queensland on the Gold Coast (relocated to Brisbane in 1993). The club participated in the Victorian/Australian Football League (VFL/ ...
were founded as an privately owned expansion team to the VFL in 1986, initially based on the Gold Coast. It suffered enormously with the introduction of the rugby league expansion club, the Broncos
A bucking horse is any breed or either gender of horse with a propensity to buck. They have been, and still are, referred to by various names, including bronco, broncho, and roughstock.
The harder they buck, the more desirable they are for rod ...
based in Brisbane, which was specifically created to deny the Bears and the VFL a market. The Bears performed poorly on field, including back-to-back wooden spoons between 1990 and 1991. Poor support for the club in both the Gold Coast and Brisbane saw it run into financial difficulties despite significant AFL subsidies and concessions. With their imminent demise the AFL intervened and forced a merger with the Melbourne-based Fitzroy Lions
The Fitzroy Football Club is an Australian rules football club currently competing in the Victorian Amateur Football Association (VAFA). Formed in 1883 to represent the inner-Melbourne municipality of Fitzroy, the club was a member of the V ...
in 1996.
The newly formed Brisbane Lions
The Brisbane Lions is a professional Australian rules football club based in Brisbane, Queensland, that plays in the Australian Football League (AFL).
The club was formed in late 1996 via a merger of the Melbourne-based 1883 foundation VFL c ...
were vastly more successful, becoming the first triple-premiership winner in 46 years, winning back-to-back in 2001, 2002 and 2003. The success of the Lions contributed to a boom in the sport across the major Queensland cities.
As a result of the Lions success, the AFL pushed heavily for a permanent presence on the Gold Coast
Gold Coast may refer to:
Places Africa
* Gold Coast (region), in West Africa, which was made up of the following colonies, before being established as the independent nation of Ghana:
** Portuguese Gold Coast (Portuguese, 1482–1642)
** Dutch G ...
, and despite failed attempts to relocate an existing club, granted a new license to the Gold Coast Football Club
The Gold Coast Suns is a professional Australian rules football club that competes in the Australian Football League (AFL). The club is based on Queensland's Gold Coast in the suburb of Carrara.
The club has been playing in the AFL since th ...
(later branded as the Suns) in 2009. As part of its effort to win over rugby league followers in Queensland, the AFL recruited rugby league star Karmichael Hunt
Karmichael Neil Matthew Hunt (born 17 November 1986) is a former multi-code international rugby league footballer who last played for the Brisbane Broncos in the NRL.
Having played professional rugby league, rugby union and Australian rules ...
using a promotional salary of more than $3.2 million. The AFL considered Hunt's promotional recruitment "a good investment" despite his return to rugby league.
While the AFL has gained marketshare in the major cities, the Barassi line has barely moved in Queensland. A notable exception is the expansion of AFL Mount Isa in the state's west to include the outback Dajarra Rhinos team in 2018, the only senior club of any code within hundreds of kilometres of the state border. Rugby league remains otherwise entrenched at the grassroots across the state. The Lions and Suns generally only receive support from the Queensland public when they are performing well and as such require significant concessions from the AFL to remain viable.
Rugby league
In 1995 the Australian Rugby League
The Australian Rugby League Commission (ARL), formerly the Australian Rugby Football League known as the Australian Rugby League is an Australian rugby league football competition operator. It was founded in 1986 as the Australian Rugby Footbal ...
(ARL) created four new expansion teams including one in Perth, resulting in the first major rugby league club based on the Australian rules football side of the Barassi Line, the Western Reds
The Western Reds were a rugby league football club based in Perth, Western Australia. Founded in 1992 as the Western Reds, they entered into the Australian Rugby League competition in 1995 before defecting to the rival Super League competition ...
. By the time the breakaway Super League
The Super League (officially known as the Betfred Super League due to sponsorship from Betfred and legally known as Super League Europe), is the top-level of the British rugby league system. At present the league consists of twelve teams, of wh ...
started in 1997 a second club on the opposite side of the line was created, the Adelaide Rams
The Adelaide Rams were an Australian professional rugby league football club based in Adelaide, South Australia. The team was formed in 1995 for the planned rebel Super League competition. The Rams lasted two seasons, the first in the Super Le ...
. A third club on the opposite side of the line, the Melbourne Storm
The Melbourne Storm are a rugby league club based in Melbourne, Victoria in Australia that participates in the National Rugby League. The first fully professional rugby league team based in the state, the Storm entered the competition in 1998. ...
, was due to start in the 1998 season of Super League but, in the meantime, the opposing leagues made restitution and established the National Rugby League
The National Rugby League (NRL) is an Australasian rugby league club competition which contains clubs from New South Wales, Queensland, Victoria, the Australian Capital Territory and New Zealand. The NRL formed in 1998 as a joint partnership ...
(NRL). Part of the agreement to form a new league included a reduction of clubs in the league, especially those recently established in difficult markets, resulting in the disbanding of the clubs in Perth and Adelaide. The Melbourne Storm continued with success in the new competition, achieving their first premiership win in 1999
File:1999 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The funeral procession of King Hussein of Jordan in Amman; the 1999 İzmit earthquake kills over 17,000 people in Turkey; the Columbine High School massacre, one of the first major school shootin ...
.
When a Melbourne NRL side was proposed in 1997, Barassi stated to the media, "I've always thought rugby league would be a success in Melbourne. They've got to start down here sometime and the earlier the better. Melburnians love their sport and I'm sure they'd get behind rugby league. But they won't accept rubbish and that's the key to it."
In the aftermath of the Super League war
The Super League war was a commercial competition between the Australian Rugby League (ARL) and the Australian Super League to establish pre-eminence in professional rugby league competition in Australia and New Zealand in the mid-1990s.
Super ...
, the NRL became very reluctant to expand. Current commissioner chairman Peter V'landys has signaled that the competition is focused on creating a second team in Brisbane, instead of investing money into AFL states such as Western Australia
Western Australia (commonly abbreviated as WA) is a state of Australia occupying the western percent of the land area of Australia excluding external territories. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to th ...
, which "don't have a huge audience" for rugby league.
There are official bids for expansion teams on both sides of the line; in Queensland, from Brisbane and Rockhampton, from the NSW Central Coast as well as from Perth
Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia. It is the fourth most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a population of 2.1 million (80% of the state) living in Greater Perth in 2020. Perth is ...
on the other side. The only NRL club on the non-traditional side of the Barassi Line remains the Melbourne Storm.
Rugby union
Rugby union has also attempted to expand on the Australian football side of the Barassi Line, with mixed results. Shortly after the sport went professional in August 1995, the Australian Rugby Union (ARU) joined forces with the New Zealand Rugby Football Union
New Zealand Rugby (NZR) is the governing body of rugby union in New Zealand. It was founded in 1892 as the New Zealand Rugby Football Union (NZRFU), 12 years after the first provincial unions in New Zealand. In 1949 it became an affiliate to t ...
and South African Rugby Union
The South African Rugby Union (SARU) is the governing body for rugby union in South Africa and is affiliated to World Rugby. It was established in 1992 as the South African Rugby Football Union, from the merger of the South African Rugby Board a ...
to create the Super 12 competition. It began in 1996
File:1996 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: A Centennial Olympic Park bombing, bomb explodes at Centennial Olympic Park in Atlanta, set off by a radical Anti-abortion violence, anti-abortionist; The center fuel tank explodes on TWA Flight 8 ...
with five regional franchises from New Zealand, four provincial teams from South Africa, and three state/territory teams from Australia. The three Australian teams were all on the traditional side of the Barassi Line; the Brisbane-based Reds
Reds may refer to:
General
* Red (political adjective), supporters of Communism or socialism
* Reds (January Uprising), a faction of the Polish insurrectionists during the January Uprising in 1863
* USSR (or, to a lesser extent, China) during th ...
, the Canberra-based Brumbies and the Sydney-based Waratahs. The league expanded by two teams, one each in Australia and South Africa, for 2006
File:2006 Events Collage V1.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2006 Winter Olympics open in Turin; Twitter is founded and launched by Jack Dorsey; The Nintendo Wii is released; Montenegro 2006 Montenegrin independence referendum, votes to declare ...
, with the competition then becoming the Super 14. Significantly, the new Australian team, the Western Force
The Western Force is an Australian professional rugby union team based in Perth, Western Australia, currently competing in Super Rugby Pacific. They previously played in Super Rugby from 2006 until they were axed from the competition in 2017. ...
, was based in Perth on the opposite side of the line.
The following year, the ARU sought to create a national domestic competition, launching the Australian Rugby Championship
The Australian Rugby Championship, often abbreviated to the ARC and also known as the Mazda Australian Rugby Championship for sponsorship purposes, is a now-defunct domestic professional men's rugby union football competition in Australia, which ...
(ARC). It launched with eight teams, with the Melbourne Rebels
The Melbourne Rebels is an Australian professional rugby union team based in Melbourne. They made their debut in SANZAR's Super Rugby tournament in 2011. They were the first privately owned professional rugby union team in Australia, until 2017 ...
and Perth Spirit
Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia. It is the fourth most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a population of 2.1 million (80% of the state) living in Greater Perth in 2020. Perth is p ...
based on the opposite side of the line. However, the ARC lasted only one season.
The next expansion of rugby union on the opposite side of the line came in 2011
File:2011 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: a protester partaking in Occupy Wall Street heralds the beginning of the Occupy movement; protests against Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi, who was killed that October; a young man celebrate ...
, when the current Melbourne Rebels
The Melbourne Rebels is an Australian professional rugby union team based in Melbourne. They made their debut in SANZAR's Super Rugby tournament in 2011. They were the first privately owned professional rugby union team in Australia, until 2017 ...
were added as Australia's fifth team in the newly renamed Super Rugby.
In 2013, the ARU announced that a new domestic competition, the National Rugby Championship
The National Rugby Championship, known as NRC, was an Australian rugby union competition. It was contested by eight teams, seven from Australia and one from Fiji. The tournament ran from 2014 until 2019 before being disbanded in 2020 following t ...
(NRC), would start play in 2014. Of its nine inaugural teams, two were on the Australian rules side of the Barassi Line—Melbourne Rising
The Melbourne Rising is an Australian rugby union team based in Melbourne that competes in the National Rugby Championship (NRC). The team represents the rugby community in Victoria and is organised and managed by Rugby Victoria with the coach ...
and a revived Perth Spirit. Both teams remain in the league to this day.
Neither the Western Force nor the Melbourne Rebels have qualified for the finals series in either the Super 14 or Super Rugby, while the Brumbies, Waratahs and Reds, from the traditional areas have all won championships. In 2017, the Western Force was cut from the Super Rugby competition for the 2018 season. Teams from the Australian rules side of the line have enjoyed more success in the NRC. Both Melbourne Rising and Perth Spirit have made the finals series three times, and Perth won the NRC title in 2016.
Current situation
Four professional Australian football clubs, two rugby union Super Rugby clubs and one rugby league club, exist on the non-traditional side of the Barassi Line.
An academic study conducted from 2007 to 2011 shows that the traditional divide remains evident between the two sections of the Barassi Line. The study found:
Australian rules football east of the line
Australian Capital Territory
''Governing body:'' AFL NSW/ACT
AFL NSW/ACT is the trading name of the AFL (NSW/ACT) Commission Limited, a wholly owned and controlled subsidiary of the Australian Football League Limited (AFL), established in 1999.Australian Securities & Investments Commission registers www.a ...
* '' Australian Football League (AFL):''
** ''No clubs'' ''(AFL Giants play four home games per season at Manuka Oval as an unofficial second home)''
*** AFL Expansion Bid (1990): "Australian Capital Territory"
*** Proposed Relocation of North Melbourne (2002): "Canberra Kangaroos"
* '' AFL Women's (AFLW):''
** ''No clubs'' ''(AFLW Giants since 2019 play some home games at Manuka Oval as an unofficial second home)''
New South Wales
''Governing body:'' AFL NSW/ACT
AFL NSW/ACT is the trading name of the AFL (NSW/ACT) Commission Limited, a wholly owned and controlled subsidiary of the Australian Football League Limited (AFL), established in 1999.Australian Securities & Investments Commission registers www.a ...
* '' Australian Football League (AFL):''
** 1982–present: Sydney Swans
The Sydney Swans are a professional Australian rules football club based in Sydney, New South Wales. The men's team competes in the Australian Football League (AFL), and the women's team in the AFL Women's (AFLW). The Swans also field a reser ...
** 2012–present: Greater Western Sydney Giants
The Greater Western Sydney Giants (officially the Greater Western Sydney Football Club and colloquially known as the GWS Giants or simply GWS) are a professional Australian rules football team based in Sydney Olympic Park, which represents the ...
''(Since 2012 play four home games per season in Canberra, ACT)''
*** Proposed Relocation of Fitzroy (1980): "Sydney Lions"
*** Proposed Relocation of North Melbourne (1999): "Sydney Kangaroos"
* '' AFL Women's (AFLW):''
** 2017–present: Greater Western Sydney Giants (Women's)
** 2023: Sydney Swans (Women's) (expansion team)
Queensland
''Governing body:'' AFL Queensland
AFL Queensland (AFLQ) is the governing body of Australian rules football in Queensland. AFL Queensland has over 216,000 participants (including Northern Rivers which is governed by AFLQ) playing at all levels of football from the introductory N ...
* '' Australian Football League (AFL):''
** 1987–1996: Brisbane Bears
The Brisbane Football Club, nicknamed the Bears, was a professional Australian rules football club based in Queensland on the Gold Coast (relocated to Brisbane in 1993). The club participated in the Victorian/Australian Football League (VFL/ ...
** 1997–present: Brisbane Lions
The Brisbane Lions is a professional Australian rules football club based in Brisbane, Queensland, that plays in the Australian Football League (AFL).
The club was formed in late 1996 via a merger of the Melbourne-based 1883 foundation VFL c ...
** 2011–present: Gold Coast Suns
The Gold Coast Suns is a professional Australian rules football club that competes in the Australian Football League (AFL). The club is based on Queensland's Gold Coast in the suburb of Carrara.
The club has been playing in the AFL since th ...
*** Proposed Relocation of Fitzroy (1986): "Brisbane Lions"
*** AFL Expansion Bid (1996): Southport Sharks
Southport Australian Football Club, nicknamed the Sharks, is an Australian rules football club based on the Gold Coast, Queensland, that competes in the Victorian Football League (VFL).
Southport is one of the most successful football clubs i ...
*** Proposed Relocation of North Melbourne (2007): "Gold Coast Kangaroos"
* '' AFL Women's (AFLW):''
** 2017–present: Brisbane Lions (Women's)
** 2020–present: Gold Coast Suns (Women's)
Rugby league west of the line
Northern Territory
''Governing body:'' Northern Territory Rugby League
NRL Northern Territory (abbreviated as NRLNT, formerly the Northern Territory Rugby League) is the organisation responsible for administering the game of rugby league in the Northern Territory. It controls the Darwin Rugby League, Darwin Junior Ru ...
* '' National Rugby League (NRL):''
** ''No clubs''
* '' NRL Women's Premiership (NRLW):''
** ''No clubs''
South Australia
''Governing body:'' South Australia Rugby League
NRL South Australia (abbreviated as NRLSA, formerly the South Australian Rugby League) is a not-for-profit organisation responsible for administering the game of rugby league in the state of South Australia. It was formed on 28 July 1976 and is ...
* '' National Rugby League (NRL):''
** 1997–1998: Adelaide Rams
The Adelaide Rams were an Australian professional rugby league football club based in Adelaide, South Australia. The team was formed in 1995 for the planned rebel Super League competition. The Rams lasted two seasons, the first in the Super Le ...
* '' NRL Women's Premiership (NRLW):''
** ''No clubs''
Tasmania
''Governing body:'' Tasmanian Rugby League
NRL Tasmania (abbreviated as NRLTas, and formerly the Tasmanian Rugby League) is the organisation responsible for administering the game of rugby league in the Australian state of Tasmania. Tasmania is an affiliated State of the overall Australi ...
* '' National Rugby League (NRL):''
** ''No clubs''
* '' NRL Women's Premiership (NRLW):''
** ''No clubs''
Victoria
''Governing body:'' Victorian Rugby League
NRL Victoria (abbreviated as NRLVic, and formerly the Victorian Rugby League) is responsible for administering the game of rugby league in the Australian state of Victoria. Victoria is an Affiliated State of the overall Australian governing body t ...
* '' National Rugby League (NRL):''
** 1998–present: Melbourne Storm
The Melbourne Storm are a rugby league club based in Melbourne, Victoria in Australia that participates in the National Rugby League. The first fully professional rugby league team based in the state, the Storm entered the competition in 1998. ...
* '' NRL Women's Premiership (NRLW):''
** ''No clubs''
Western Australia
''Governing body:'' Western Australia Rugby League
NRL Western Australia (abbreviated as NRLWA, and formerly the Western Australian Rugby League) is responsible for administering the game of rugby league football in the state of Western Australia.
The NRLWA administers all forms of the game in ...
* '' National Rugby League (NRL):''
** 1995–1997: Perth Reds
The Western Reds were a rugby league football club based in Perth, Western Australia. Founded in 1992 as the Western Reds, they entered into the Australian Rugby League competition in 1995 before defecting to the rival Super League competition i ...
*** NRL Expansion Bid (2022): West Coast Pirates
The West Coast Pirates Rugby League Football Club, officially referred to as The Cash Converters West Coast Pirates for sponsorship reasons, are a rugby league football club based in Perth, Western Australia. The club was founded by the Western ...
*** NRL Expansion Bid (2022): Western Bears
* '' NRL Women's Premiership (NRLW):''
** ''No clubs''
Rugby union west of the line
Northern Territory
''Governing body:'' Northern Territory Rugby Union
The Northern Territory Rugby Union, or NTRU, is the governing body for the sport of rugby union within the Northern Territory in Australia. It is a member of Rugby Australia.
The Northern Territory Rugby Union manages competitions in several age ...
* '' Australian Rugby Championship (ARC):''
** ''No clubs''
* '' Global Rapid Rugby (GRR):''
** ''No clubs''
* '' National Rugby Championship (NRC):''
** 2018–present: Northern Territory Mosquitoes ''(Since 2018 play in NRC Division 2)''
* ''Super Rugby
Super Rugby is a men's professional rugby union club competition involving teams from Australia, Fiji, New Zealand, and the Pacific Islands. It previously included teams from Argentina, Japan, and South Africa. Building on various Southern Hem ...
:''
** ''No clubs''
* ''Super W
The Super W is a women's rugby union competition held in Australia. The inaugural season was in 2018, when it replaced the former National Women's Rugby Championship. The are the most successful team so far, .
Teams
Six women's rugby teams c ...
:''
** ''No clubs''
South Australia
''Governing body:'' South Australia Rugby Union
Rugby Union South Australia (RUSA) is the governing body for the sport of rugby union in the state of South Australia. It is a member of Rugby Australia and runs an amateur club competition in Adelaide consisting of men's teams in Premier grade, ...
* ''Australian Rugby Championship
The Australian Rugby Championship, often abbreviated to the ARC and also known as the Mazda Australian Rugby Championship for sponsorship purposes, is a now-defunct domestic professional men's rugby union football competition in Australia, which ...
(ARC):''
** ''No clubs''
* ''Global Rapid Rugby
Global Rapid Rugby was an international rugby union competition that launched a showcase series for six professional teams in 2019, played in locations across the Asia-Pacific region. Rapid Rugby matches are slightly shorter than the tradition ...
(GRR):''
** ''No clubs''
* '' National Rugby Championship (NRC):''
** 2018–present: Adelaide Black Falcons
The Black Falcons is a representative rugby union team based in Adelaide, South Australia. The team is selected from the best senior club players in South Australia and represents the state in matches against other Australian representative team ...
''(Since 2018 play in NRC Division 2)''
** 2019–present: South Australian U23 (Since 2019 play in NRC Division 2)''
* ''Super Rugby
Super Rugby is a men's professional rugby union club competition involving teams from Australia, Fiji, New Zealand, and the Pacific Islands. It previously included teams from Argentina, Japan, and South Africa. Building on various Southern Hem ...
:''
** ''No clubs''
* ''Super W
The Super W is a women's rugby union competition held in Australia. The inaugural season was in 2018, when it replaced the former National Women's Rugby Championship. The are the most successful team so far, .
Teams
Six women's rugby teams c ...
:''
** ''No clubs''
Tasmania
''Governing body:'' Tasmanian Rugby Union
The Tasmanian Rugby Union, or TRU, is the governing body for the sport of rugby union within the state of Tasmania in Australia. The TRU was established in 1933. It is a member and founding union of Rugby Australia.
Currently, the Tasmanian Ru ...
* ''Australian Rugby Championship
The Australian Rugby Championship, often abbreviated to the ARC and also known as the Mazda Australian Rugby Championship for sponsorship purposes, is a now-defunct domestic professional men's rugby union football competition in Australia, which ...
(ARC):''
** ''No clubs''
* ''Global Rapid Rugby
Global Rapid Rugby was an international rugby union competition that launched a showcase series for six professional teams in 2019, played in locations across the Asia-Pacific region. Rapid Rugby matches are slightly shorter than the tradition ...
(GRR):''
** ''No clubs''
* ''National Rugby Championship
The National Rugby Championship, known as NRC, was an Australian rugby union competition. It was contested by eight teams, seven from Australia and one from Fiji. The tournament ran from 2014 until 2019 before being disbanded in 2020 following t ...
(NRC):''
** 2018–present: Tasmania Jack Jumpers
The Tasmania JackJumpers are an Australian professional basketball team based in Hobart, Tasmania, who entered the National Basketball League (NBL) in the 2021–22 season, and play their home games at MyState Bank Arena and the Silverdome. T ...
''(Since 2018 play in NRC Division 2)''
* ''Super Rugby
Super Rugby is a men's professional rugby union club competition involving teams from Australia, Fiji, New Zealand, and the Pacific Islands. It previously included teams from Argentina, Japan, and South Africa. Building on various Southern Hem ...
:''
** ''No clubs''
* ''Super W
The Super W is a women's rugby union competition held in Australia. The inaugural season was in 2018, when it replaced the former National Women's Rugby Championship. The are the most successful team so far, .
Teams
Six women's rugby teams c ...
:''
** ''No clubs''
Victoria
''Governing body:'' Victorian Rugby Union
Rugby Victoria, formerly the Victorian Rugby Union, is a member and founding union of Rugby Australia. Within the state of Victoria, it is the governing body for the sport of rugby union.
Rugby Victoria manages competitions for males and femal ...
* ''Australian Rugby Championship
The Australian Rugby Championship, often abbreviated to the ARC and also known as the Mazda Australian Rugby Championship for sponsorship purposes, is a now-defunct domestic professional men's rugby union football competition in Australia, which ...
(ARC):''
** 2007: Melbourne Rebels
The Melbourne Rebels is an Australian professional rugby union team based in Melbourne. They made their debut in SANZAR's Super Rugby tournament in 2011. They were the first privately owned professional rugby union team in Australia, until 2017 ...
* ''Global Rapid Rugby
Global Rapid Rugby was an international rugby union competition that launched a showcase series for six professional teams in 2019, played in locations across the Asia-Pacific region. Rapid Rugby matches are slightly shorter than the tradition ...
(GRR):''
** ''No clubs''
* ''National Rugby Championship
The National Rugby Championship, known as NRC, was an Australian rugby union competition. It was contested by eight teams, seven from Australia and one from Fiji. The tournament ran from 2014 until 2019 before being disbanded in 2020 following t ...
(NRC):''
** 2014–present: Melbourne Rising
The Melbourne Rising is an Australian rugby union team based in Melbourne that competes in the National Rugby Championship (NRC). The team represents the rugby community in Victoria and is organised and managed by Rugby Victoria with the coach ...
** 2018–present: Victoria Country Barbarians ''(Since 2018 play in NRC Division 2)''
* ''Super Rugby
Super Rugby is a men's professional rugby union club competition involving teams from Australia, Fiji, New Zealand, and the Pacific Islands. It previously included teams from Argentina, Japan, and South Africa. Building on various Southern Hem ...
:''
** 2011–present: Melbourne Rebels
The Melbourne Rebels is an Australian professional rugby union team based in Melbourne. They made their debut in SANZAR's Super Rugby tournament in 2011. They were the first privately owned professional rugby union team in Australia, until 2017 ...
* ''Super W
The Super W is a women's rugby union competition held in Australia. The inaugural season was in 2018, when it replaced the former National Women's Rugby Championship. The are the most successful team so far, .
Teams
Six women's rugby teams c ...
:''
** 2018–present: Melbourne Rebels (Women's)
Western Australia
''Governing Body:'' RugbyWA
The Western Australia Rugby Union (RugbyWA) is the governing body of rugby union in Western Australia. It was founded in 1893 and the inaugural 4 team competition commenced in 1895. The highest competition run by the union is the RugbyWA FMG Pr ...
b* ''Australian Rugby Championship
The Australian Rugby Championship, often abbreviated to the ARC and also known as the Mazda Australian Rugby Championship for sponsorship purposes, is a now-defunct domestic professional men's rugby union football competition in Australia, which ...
(ARC):''
** 2007: Perth Spirit
Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia. It is the fourth most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a population of 2.1 million (80% of the state) living in Greater Perth in 2020. Perth is p ...
* '' Global Rapid Rugby (GRR):''
** 2018–present: Western Force
The Western Force is an Australian professional rugby union team based in Perth, Western Australia, currently competing in Super Rugby Pacific. They previously played in Super Rugby from 2006 until they were axed from the competition in 2017. ...
* ''National Rugby Championship
The National Rugby Championship, known as NRC, was an Australian rugby union competition. It was contested by eight teams, seven from Australia and one from Fiji. The tournament ran from 2014 until 2019 before being disbanded in 2020 following t ...
(NRC):''
** 2014–2017: Perth Spirit
Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia. It is the fourth most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a population of 2.1 million (80% of the state) living in Greater Perth in 2020. Perth is p ...
** 2018–present: Western Force
The Western Force is an Australian professional rugby union team based in Perth, Western Australia, currently competing in Super Rugby Pacific. They previously played in Super Rugby from 2006 until they were axed from the competition in 2017. ...
** 2019–present: Perth Gold ''(Since 2019 play in NRC Division 2)''
* ''Super Rugby
Super Rugby is a men's professional rugby union club competition involving teams from Australia, Fiji, New Zealand, and the Pacific Islands. It previously included teams from Argentina, Japan, and South Africa. Building on various Southern Hem ...
:''
** 2006-2017: Western Force
The Western Force is an Australian professional rugby union team based in Perth, Western Australia, currently competing in Super Rugby Pacific. They previously played in Super Rugby from 2006 until they were axed from the competition in 2017. ...
* ''Super W
The Super W is a women's rugby union competition held in Australia. The inaugural season was in 2018, when it replaced the former National Women's Rugby Championship. The are the most successful team so far, .
Teams
Six women's rugby teams c ...
:''
** 2018–present: Western Force (Women's)
** 2019–present: RugbyWA (Women's)
References
{{Reflist
External links
The Barassi Line
Investigation by Colin Ross
Football in Australia
Sport in the Riverina
Rugby union in Australia
Rugby league in Australia
Australian rules football in Australia