The Australian Dodgeball League (ADL) is a professional

dodgeball Dodgeball is a team sport in which players on two teams try to throw balls and hit opponents, while avoiding being hit themselves. The objective of each team is to eliminate all members of the opposing team by hitting them with thrown balls, cat ...

league League or The League may refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''Leagues'' (band), an American rock band * ''The League'', an American sitcom broadcast on FX and FXX about fantasy football Sports * Sports league * Rugby league, full contact footba ...

in Australia, founded in 2015. The

is composed of 82 professional teams, which are divided between Australian states, the foremost of these being the Victoria League and the NSW League. These State Conferences come together at the end of each season, with the top two teams from the regions playing in the Australian Dodgeball Championships, the top level of Australian Dodgeball.

ADL Professional League

Formation

The Australian Dodgeball League was formed in 2015. The league is currently played across two states, Victoria (VDL) and New South Wales (NSWDL). The opening season of the Victorian League had 23 teams that played in the regular league, and the New South Wales league had 8 entrant teams.

Venues

Australian Dodgeball Leagues are held in central venues, where the game day matches are held, as opposed to the traditional home and away venues that other sports may operate with. The Victoria Dodgeball League holds game days at the Melbourne State Netball & Hockey Centre, and the New South Wales League holds game days at the Fairfield Youth & Community Centre.

Regular season

During the course of a season each club plays each other side once. Teams receive

two points for a win Three points for a win is a standard used in many sports leagues and group tournaments, especially in association football, in which three points are awarded to the team winning a match, with no points awarded to the losing team. If the game is ...

and one point for a draw. No points are awarded for a loss. Teams are

ranked A ranking is a relationship between a set of items such that, for any two items, the first is either "ranked higher than", "ranked lower than" or "ranked equal to" the second. In mathematics, this is known as a weak order or total preorder of o ...

by total points, then point difference. The top two teams from each state level competition then proceed to the Australian Dodgeball Championships, where the top teams from across Australia play-off in an elimination format for the title of Australian Dodgeball Champions.

Championship Rounds

Once the regular season has been played across the states, and the competitive tables have been finalised, the top two teams from each state league enter into the championship rounds. The top team from each league enters as the first seed for the competition and plays against the bracketed second seed. The Round of 16 is the opening round of the championship competition, with state seeding set between states with close proximity. Once the Round of 16 is over, states can play against teams from their own competition, depending on results.

Rules

The Australian Dodgeball League has created their own National Dodgeball League rules for professional

competition.

Victorian Dominance

Due to the size and scope of dodgeball in Australia, the early seasons of the Australian Dodgeball League was focused around Victoria, and to a lesser extent New South Wales. This dominance, and the ability to draw on talent for all the teams due to the interest and investment in the sport, meant that Victorian champions were often the favourites for the Championship titles, and those that followed the Victorian leagues developed a rivalry with the biggest challenger for their titles, the New South Wales clubs. This dominance is in the process of waning however, with Victorian teams still counted among the most in the country, but as more teams are founded and develop, the influence of Victorians on the sport may come to lessen in the coming years.

State Rivalries

Much like Australian state rivalries in

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 ...

and

cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by striki ...

, Victoria and New South Wales developed a grudge with each other, often focused around their meetings outside of the season, and in the Championship Rounds. Although movements between the leagues were common, games between Victorians and New South Welshmen developed a stigma as close, and tight-fought, matches. Between the organizers of the two state leagues, the VDL and the NSWDL, there are current talks to hold a competition similar to rugby league's

State of Origin series The State of Origin series is an annual best-of-three rugby league series between two Australian state representative sides, the New South Wales Blues and the Queensland Maroons. Referred to as “Australian sport's greatest rivalry”, the ...

, where Victoria and New South Wales will put forward their best ten players each to compete in a Best of 3 series to determine the more dominant state.

Teams

References

External links

* * {{Sports leagues of Australia Sports leagues in Australia 2015 establishments in Australia Sports leagues established in 2015 Dodgeball Professional sports leagues in Australia