Darwin Rovers FC were a

football (soccer) Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...

club based in

Darwin, Northern Territory Darwin ( ; Larrakia: ) is the capital city of the Northern Territory, Australia. With an estimated population of 147,255 as of 2019, the city contains the majority of the residents of the sparsely populated Northern Territory. It is the smalle ...

. They competed in the

NorZone Premier League The NorZone Premier League is a semi-professional soccer league in Darwin, Australia. The NorZone Premier League is one of three top tier state-level soccer competition in the Northern Territory of Australia. It comprises teams within the NorZ ...

. The Rovers played their games at

Darwin Football Stadium Darwin Football Stadium is a sports stadium in Darwin, Australia in the Marrara Sporting Complex, and is located adjacent to the TIO Stadium. Work began on the stadium in 2007 and was officially opened on 28 July 2007 when it played host to a ...

in the suburb of

Marrara Marrara is a northern suburb of the city of Darwin, Northern Territory, Australia. History Shown on Goyder's original surveys of Darwin in 1869 was the swamp between the suburb and the Darwin International Airport, but like Leanyer, the name ...

. In 2018 they merged with

Palmerston FC Palmerston Football Club was an Australian soccer club based in Palmerston, the Northern Territory. Palmerston competed in the NorZone Premier League. After the 2008 season the club was relegated, but was reinstated in the Territory's top league ...

to form Palmerston Rovers FC.

History

The club was established by James 'Jimmy' Culligan and Shane Kavanagh, in 2014 as Shamrock Rovers Darwin FC; their inaugural season was in 2015 in the Northern Territory's All Age competition. In 2016 they were accepted to compete in the

, the highest level of competition in the Territory. In 2016, Rovers won the Northern Territory Sports Minister's Cup, qualifying them for the national stages of the

2016 FFA Cup Sixteen or 16 may refer to: *16 (number), the natural number following 15 and preceding 17 *one of the years 16 BC, AD 16, 1916, 2016 Films * '' Pathinaaru'' or ''Sixteen'', a 2010 Tamil film * ''Sixteen'' (1943 film), a 1943 Argentine film d ...

. Rovers drew

National Premier Leagues Queensland The National Premier League Queensland, run by Football Queensland, is the top tier state-level football (soccer) competition in Queensland. The conference is a sub division of the National Premier Leagues. The inaugural season kicked off in Marc ...

side

Brisbane Strikers FC Brisbane Strikers Football Club is an Australian semi-professional football club based in Brisbane, Queensland. Founded in 1991 as Brisbane United, the club competed in the National Soccer League until the 2003–04 season and was one of two c ...

at home. Brisbane proved far too strong for Darwin, winning the clash 6–0 in front of over 1300 people at the

. The club was renamed Darwin Rovers FC in 2017. On the 2 August 2017, Darwin Rovers played against

Sydney FC Sydney Football Club is an Australian professional soccer club based in Sydney, New South Wales. It competes in the country's premier men's competition, A-League Men, under licence from Australian Professional Leagues (APL). The club was fo ...

in the

Round of 32 A single-elimination, knockout, or sudden death tournament is a type of elimination tournament where the loser of each match-up is immediately eliminated from the tournament. Each winner will play another in the next round, until the final matc ...

of the 2017

FFA Cup The Australia Cup, formerly known as the FFA Cup until the 2021 season, is the national football knockout cup competition in Australia. This annual competition is organised by Football Australia, formerly known as Football Federation Australia ...

and lost 8–0.

References

2014 establishments in Australia Association football clubs established in 2014 Soccer clubs in the Northern Territory Sport in Darwin, Northern Territory Irish-Australian culture Diaspora sports clubs in Australia Defunct soccer clubs in Australia {{NorthernTerritory-stub