Tallon Smith

History will be made for rugby league in Central Victoria this weekend as the Bendigo Crushers take to the field for their first competition game against the Sunbury Tigers at Seabrook Reserve.

Founded in 2024, the Bendigo club has entered the NRL Victoria Metro Third Grade competition this season after playing a number of exhibition and trial matches over the previous 12 months.

After over a year of preparation, hard work and training, Crushers President Mikey Dynon said he is “excited” about Saturday night’s fixture, which marks a major milestone for both the club and the sport in regional Victoria.

“It’s the culmination of a lot of hard work,” he said. 

“Obviously we’ve played the exhibition game against Sunbury last year, Harmony Cup, and that three-way trial with Hume and Wolves a couple of weeks ago, but our first game for competition points, it’s great for the club and great for our city.”

In a city dominated by Australian rules football, with 10 clubs based in the city and more than a dozen others in the surrounding districts, the Crushers are operating in what is very much a non-traditional market for the thirteen man code.

Due to this, the club has had to cast its net far and wide to attract players, with a number from surrounding towns joining the inaugural side this year.

As a result, the Crushers have embraced this status as not just a team for Bendigo, but a side for all of Central Victoria, with Dynon telling Battlers the club has attracted strong numbers as a result of this strategy.

“Numbers are looking really good, and we’re actually getting more player enquiries all the time,” he said. 

“As much as we are a Bendigo team, we’ve got players from Seymour, we’ve got a player from Maryborough, we’ve got people involved with the club from Goornong, which is 20 minutes north of Bendigo, and we’ve even got enquiries now from Ballarat, so we’re really becoming a Central Victorian team that’s based in Bendigo.”

Support has also come from the Australian rules community in the city, with clubs getting behind their local rugby league outfit as it prepares to take on the might of the Melbourne competition.

“The support from around the city and the media interest has been really good,” Dynon said. 

“At the White Hills Aussie rules club where I chaplain and am involved there, they are always very encouraging towards us, they’re wanting us to get up and about and do well.

“The Bendigo Dragons, the gridiron club, have been really supportive of us as well.

“We’re getting to the point now that it’s not a choice of Aussie rules or rugby league down here, people are keen to follow both.

“I think we’ll be a little bit like the Melbourne Storm on a smaller scale where a lot of people, if their Aussie rules team has a bye or is playing an away game, they might come and watch us.”

In terms of on-field action this Saturday evening, many questions about the Crushers will be answered when they take the field in their first competitive hit out.

While Sunbury’s seventh-placed finish in a 10-team third grade competition last season offers some insight into their opponents’ strength, Dynon said he is simply thrilled to be facing the Tigers, who have been key supporters of the Bendigo club’s entry into the league.

“It’s really good to be playing against Sunbury because they’ve been the most supportive club of us, they hosted us for an exhibition game and made sure the boys were well looked after the game,” he said.

“Their supporters were very sporting and cheered both teams at that game last year.

“[It’s] hard to know how we’ll go on the field until we get on the field, we were well beaten in trial matches, but [we had] a few players who were unavailable for that game that will come back in.”

Kick off between Bendigo and Sunbury is at 5:50pm on Saturday at Seabrook Reserve in Broadmeadows.