Tallon Smith

The Albury Muddogs are hoping that a recent name change will help the club attract more players as it looks to establish itself as a consistent outfit in the Goulburn Murray Storm Premiership.

Known as the CSU Mud Dogs since its founding in 2017 as part of an association with the local campus of Charles Sturt University, the club has taken on the new city-based identity ahead of its return to the league’s men’s competition this year.

Muddogs men’s co-coach Izaea Christie said the name change was made to remove the confusion related to the university name which had acted as a barrier to recruiting players in recent seasons.

“I guess it’s opening up the door to basically just the passers by,” he said.

“I came here, not too sure if you could join, obviously when you come in there’s open arms and you’re welcome, but there was always that level of uncertainty I think as to [whether it was] a university team, a school team or whatever.

“I’m hoping it makes people feel the open arms that we provide when you show up.”

Fellow co-coach Beau Smith echoed Christie’s sentiment, describing the name change as exciting for the club after a difficult last few years that saw the men’s team withdraw from the competition in 2021 and 2025.

“It’s so exciting, I’ve been a part of the club since 2017, and we’ve folded twice, at least the men’s team,” he said.

“Obviously 2020 was COVID, 2021 was a struggle for us as well, that was the year we couldn’t quite get a team as well.

“We played [in] 2023 and 2024, and obviously last year again had a few things happen at the club and unfortunately didn’t play again for the men’s. 

“This year, it’s really exciting, we’ve got a few guys back, we’ve got quite a few new players who haven’t played here before, which is probably the most exciting thing with probably the Albury Mud Dogs rebrand, becoming more of a community-based club.

“So coming back in, under that concept I guess rather than just the CSU team is crazy exciting, [as is] getting back on the park.”

2026 looms as a pivotal season for the Muddogs, as they look to field a competitive men’s team in addition to its strong women’s league tag outfit after a year’s absence from the former competition.

In preparation for this, Smith said that the club has recruited a number of key players for the upcoming season, including a league best and fairest winner who will return to the side after a year elsewhere, as well as a former Jersey Flegg star.

“One of the bigger ones is Domenic Marzano, he’s played for Albury Thunder growing up, played for us a couple of years ago,” he said. 

“Last year when we couldn’t get a team up he went to Corowa and he performed so well for them, so for him to come back is probably one of our bigger ones for the year coming.

“Hayden Cook, he’s a bit older now, but he played Jersey Flegg when he was younger up in the Illawarra area, he’ll probably tell you he works too much to get too competitive now, but I think he’s a great leader.

“He’ll be our skipper this year so that’s a really big one to look forward to for us.”

With the club returning to fielding both teams under its new name, it seems that things are beginning to look up for the club.

However, Smith said that one ongoing challenge has been the lack of media coverage given to the competition in recent years, leading to a lack of public knowledge about the league compared to its overlapping stablemate Group 9.

“It’s a big struggle being the lesser known competition,” he said. 

“You speak about rugby league here in Albury-Wodonga, [even if] you go out to Corowa which is part of this comp as well, [and] you say rugby league, people think you play for Albury Thunder.

“There’s just not enough coverage, or just knowledge about the comp in general around here.”

Smith, who hails from Junee, said that although it is obviously a lower standard than Group 9 football, he believes the competition deserves more respect from the media and local sporting community than it receives.

“I think the competition deserves a lot more respect than what it gets given, we do have quality players,” he said.

“Some of the scores that even get posted might be a bit of a blowout, but no one knows the conditions that happened for those.

“We’ve got teams now travelling just as far as they do in Group 9, but without the same base. 

“In Group 9 the whole town is behind each team just about, Wagga’s a bit different, but the rest of them, Albury have a heap of players, in Junee the whole town idolises the team, the same would be for Temora and for Young.

“So there’s always that back-up of ‘these four guys can’t come’, and they might be [their] starters, but [they’ll] put faith in these other blokes, whereas in our league, unfortunately we don’t have the personnel.

“For us that means instead of taking 17 blokes up to play a game in say Tumbarumba, we then take 13, and then one injury and that’s where you see blowouts that have happened in our comp in the past.”

Despite all the challenges however, both coaches remain squarely focused on the return to the field this year.

In terms of the targets they are setting for 2026, Christie said fielding a competitive team would be a major step in the right direction, but he is aiming for more.

“I guess our goal is not just to be competitive, we want to have a proper crack,” he said. 

“We’ve been recruiting, bringing back some of the old boys, and we just want to do the best we can do and go all the way hopefully.”

The Goulburn Murray Storm Premiership draw is expected to be released in the coming weeks.