By Tallon Smith

Down on the Murray in Albury, the sporting landscape is much different to the rest of the state. Despite being in New South Wales, the town is more culturally aligned with Victoria, and this shows in the football code which dominates the town.

However, despite the slight favouritism towards the Victorian game, and the domination of the Albury Thunder as the city’s number one rugby league club, a small, often forgotten club (at least by local media) thrives in the shadow their big brothers, forging a tight-knit and successful group who share the same love of the game.

The CSU Mud Dogs originally formed in 2014, based at Albury’s Charles Sturt University, and play in the Murray Cup (now rebranded to Storm Goulburn Murray Premiership). Although a much lower standard of football compared to the Group 9 competition to the north, the competition involves many teams from the Border Region of NSW and North East Victoria, including the Corowa Cougars, Tumbarumba Greens, Wodonga Wombats, Wangaratta Knights and the Benalla Wolfpack.

Mud Dogs President Georgia Seton said that the hosting of the matches “was a great success” for the club.

“It’s always a big effort to host a game, but it’s very exciting to be back at it,” she said.

“It’s our first time hosting in about three years, so we’re just learning as we go.

“But overall it was a great success, and it was a little bit freaky to come away with two ties.”

Seton also spoke of the League Tag side’s approach to their title defence in 2023, with her perspective somewhat refreshing in a sport where it too often becomes about ‘sheep stations’ and ‘winning at all costs’ on and off the field.

“It’s always kind of a clean slate each year,” she said.

“We’ve got a new team as well.

“We just take it as a new year, fresh start.

“Obviously, we work towards self-improvement and working together as a team, [that’s] kind of our main goal over winning.”

Seton also spoke of the influence of having the Men’s side back in 2023, after a few years where the club only fielded their aforementioned highly successful League Tag side.

“It’s a really different feel in all the best ways,” she said.

“[It’s] definitely a lot more work, a lot more energy, a lot more people to look after.”

“It makes a huge difference to club culture and [match] days, so we love to have them.”

Assistant Coach Dave Cunningham said “there’s a great vibe around the club” in 2023.

“I really gotta shout out the league tag girls, who played last year,” he said.

“The reason why this club is like that is because of the league tag girls, they had a really good vibe around their club last year, and they’ve maintained that this year.

“The expectation for these boys to maintain has been kept alive with them.

“We’re a club, we’re not a rugby league club with the league tag attached, we’re a club.”

Cunningham also spoke of the role the Men’s Tackle side is playing not only within the club but also the city of Albury itself.

“It’s good for these young fellas who maybe are not able to commit to a Group 9 effort,” he said.

“It’s good to have an outlet for these guys so they can have a bit of contact without the massive sort of commitment that is required in the Group 9 comp.”

Although poor weather somewhat put a dampener on what was a great day of rugby league, Cunningham, without a doubt one of the brightest characters within Albury’s rugby league community, was full of positives.

“It’s the first time it’s rained this season, and it happened to be today,” he said.

“It’s a bit of a bummer, but there was plenty of good footy played today.

“Both leaguetag and tackle had draws today so it was a pretty good day on the field really.

“It’s been great [to play here at] the home of junior rugby league in Albury at Sarvaas Park, so shout out to Albury Thunder Junior Rugby League.”

On the day, the Muddogs women fought hard in their league tag fixture but were only able to manage a 20-all draw with the Corowa Cougars. 

Then, in an amazing coincidence, the Men’s side also drew their match 16-all with the Cougars, with Captain-Coach Ty Tindalevale narrowly missing a penalty kick from 35 out on the touchline after the siren which would have handed the Mud Dogs victory.

Speaking of Tindalevale, the Mud Dogs skipper said that having the team back “is really good for the club” going forward.

“Having the tackle back is actually really good for the club and the boys themselves,” he said.

“The little group we’ve got at the moment, the bond hasn’t actually been created yet, but it’s getting there.”

“You can tell the boys are loving the environment, and myself, I’m loving the environment.”

In regards to the match on the day, Tindalevale, a former Group 9 star with the Albury Thunder, was full of praise for both the standard of the competition this season and the quality of the Corowa opposition.

“It was very tough, Corowa are always tough, and the wet weather probably didn’t help out,” he said.

“The Mud Dogs haven’t had a home game in about four years, so it was pretty good to come out and put it to them.”

As for the rest of the season, Tindalevale has full faith in his side’s ability to produce the goods when needed.

“[Regarding] future aspirations, I don’t know, just enjoy the footy and see what happens for the year,” he said.

“100 percent, we’re always gonna be up there.”

Since our visit on May 28, the Mud Dogs Men have gone on a run and have finished second on the competition ladder, 4 points behind first-placed Corowa, whilst the League Tag side also finshed second, a solitary point behind Tumbarumba.

All in all, these results so far are a fantastic effort for the club, and something they will no doubt build upon as they charge into the Qualifying Finals in Corowa this weekend, where their ladies’ side plays Tumbarumba at 2:00pm, followed by their men’s team facing Corowa at 3:30pm.