By Tallon Smith

In a major blow for rugby league in the region, the Limestone Coast Rugby League has entered recess for the 2023 season. 

A cross-border venture between NRL Victoria and NRL South Australia, the competition featured clubs on both sides of the border, until a failed 11th hour breakaway by the Victorian clubs left the once thriving spring league in tatters.

President of Mount Gambier based club the Blue Lake Knights, Ben Goodman, said that the fracturing of the competition to form the ‘Greater Western Premiership’ in Victoria was the primary reason for the dissolution of the competition.

“The Bulls [Gunditjmara] pulled out, and the Raiders [Warrnambool] pulled out,” he said.

“Horsham Panthers were going to re-enter so they could have a four team competition, but they have also withdrawn, so the only team left are the Stawell Mounties.

“Those four teams were the ones that were in the proposed competition.”

Goodman said that the two SA based clubs, Blue Lake and Naracoorte, were forced to scramble to form their own competition with nearby towns after they were left in the dark by NRL Victoria.

“We’d been waiting months, but when we found out via Facebook that [NRL Victoria] had launched their own comp, we started working with Bordertown, because there’s a lot of Fijians and PNG boys working up at the meatworks, to try and put a team together,” he said.

“We got probably 70% of the way through, and we were going to then try and work with Murray Bridge to see if they were interested in playing in a four team comp with us and Naracoorte.”

“But in the process of doing that, Stawell, and at that time the Bulls [Gunditjmara], who still wanted to play, said that we’d merge back to a dual-state competition but with no support from the NRL guys, [before] that just fell in a heap as well.

“So that put a hold on us trying to develop new clubs over here, and with that all falling in the development of new clubs freezing, Naracoorte also got held up in [that] 80% of their workforce got pulled into working Saturdays over summer, [which] left just us and Stawell wanting to play.”

As for what the future holds for the game in Eastern SA, Goodman said the two existing clubs are trying to get other towns involved to ensure they can stand on their own next year.

“We’ve already started working with NRL SA to put some plans together for 2024 and start targeting that area between Bordertown and Murray Bridge to see if we can develop a team, two would be better, but even one would be enough,” he said.

In regards to the state of the game in SA, which has only 9 rugby league clubs, behind Western Australia with 29, Victoria with 28 and the Northern Territory with 12, Goodman says there may need to be a shift in how the game is run in perhaps the most parochial Aussie Rules state.

“If we look at NRL SA is almost 50 years old now, I think we’re at 47 or 48 years that it’s been functioning, but it’s at the point now, in my opinion, that there needs to be a change in the perception of it,” he said.

“We play summer down here, because realistically, we can’t compete with Aussie Rules, there is no way, and you’re not just competing with Aussie Rules, you’re competing with soccer [as well].

“They put their Summer 9s on hold [in Adelaide] because they were getting more participation than their winter competition.

“It’s a bit of a shambles this year, [but] there would never have been a comp if we tried to play it in winter, it just would never have happened.

“I would say more than three quarters of our team are Aussie Rules players, probably every season, half of them have never played a game of league in their life.

“So [for] those people wanting to play field sports, in SA it really is a perfect opportunity to consider moving the competition to a summer competition, it opens it up to those Aussie Rules players, you get those Union players as well.”

Despite all the challenges and change however, there is still rugby league to be played in the area, with one game remaining in a State of Origin-like series between the Blue Lake Knights and the Victorian-based Stawell Mounties.

“So basically the Stawell Mounties and us agreed to a three game series […] playing fortnightly, we’ll be hosting games here in Mount Gambier for those three [Saturdays], the 11th, 25th [of November] and the 9th of December,” he said.

“Unfortunately that’s all we’ve been able to coordinate, but it’s three games, the two clubs are just keen to have some fun and get out and keep playing footy, it’s just about keeping it in the public eye as best we can.

“During the summer we’ve [also] opened up a mixed open tag comp, that we’ll be doing Friday Nights.”

Anyone wishing to get involved with the game in the area is urged to contact the club via their Facebook page (Blue Lake Knights).

The final game of the three game ‘Cross Border Series’ is on December 9 in Mount Gambier.

Cover Photo: Blue Lake Knights and Stawell Mounties players after a game earlier in their ‘Cross Border Series’.