The Northwestern Miners was an
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 ...
club based in
St Helens, Merseyside
St Helens () is a town in Merseyside, England, with a population of 102,629. It is the administrative centre of the Metropolitan Borough of St Helens, which had a population of 176,843 at the United Kingdom Census 2001, 2001 Census.
St Helens i ...
,
England.
History
The St Helens Miners formed for the 2002
British Australian Rules Football League
AFL Britain, also referred to as AFL Great Britain was established in 1989 as the governing body for Australian rules football in England, Wales and Scotland. It was formed in 2008, replacing the British Australian Rules Football League (BARFL) a ...
season. They were the first aussie rules club to be based in the north of England for some time, the
Liverpool Blues having been the most recent in the area around 10 years earlier. The Miners struggled onfield against the strong London-based clubs initially, but their situation improved after joining the new
BARFL Regional series in 2003. In 2004, the club renamed itself the Northwestern Miners to better attract players from across the region, avoiding old rivalries between St Helens and other towns such as
Wigan and
Warrington. They formed an alliance with the
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 in ...
, a powerful club playing in the
AFL Queensland and began wearing the Sharks' jumper rather than the
Footscray Bulldogs jumpers they had previously used.
The Miners folded mid-2004, although some ex-Miners went on the play for the Manchester Mosquitos when this club formed in 2006 and the Liverpool Eagles who formed in 2008.
See also
References
External links
{{Australian rules football in England
Australian rules football clubs in England
2002 establishments in England
Australian rules football clubs established in 2002
2004 disestablishments in England
Australian rules football clubs disestablished in 2004