The Chicago Stockyarders are a semi-professional rugby league football team based in Chicago, Illinois . The team was established in 2010, and played two exhibition rugby league sevens games while preparing for a fuller exhibition schedule for the 2011 AMNRL season . They originally planned to join the American National Rugby League (AMNRL), however the league has since folded and plans are currently being made to join the current first grade U.S. competition, the USA Rugby League .
11-534: In May 2006, a successful beach Rugby League 9's exhibition game was held at North Avenue Beach, Chicago between the Chicago Saints and the touring UK team Ormskirk Heelers . The Saints would be the front-runner to a planned Chicago based AMNRL team that would eventually be named the Chicago Stockyarders. In 2009 an organization named Midwest Rugby League was formed to promote rugby league in
22-864: A bigger catchment area. In the past few years the club has been in various divisions of the Rugby League Conference , including playing against teams from Cheshire , Merseyside and Lancashire [2] . They currently play in the RLC North West division, after the merging of the Cheshire and the North West divisions. In 2005 whilst playing in the RLC North West Division the Heelers finished 8th on 6 points, winning three of their nine matches. But in 2006 there
33-768: A debut try in a Man of the Match (MVP) performance. They played a second exhibition sevens game as a curtain raiser to the AMNRL Grand Final at A. A. Garthwaite Stadium in Conshohocken, Pennsylvania . Visiting Australian Kangaroo player Daniel Wagon guested for the Stockyarders in a game against the Philadelphia Fight . The Fight won the game 24–16. In October 2010 the Stockyarders signed their first sponsor, and announced their intention to play
44-520: A full exhibition schedule in the 2011 season. The Stockyarders had been at the forefront of developing a Midwest conference concept for the AMNRL before the league folded. In 2012, the Western Storm , Iowa City Crash and Lewis University all played games against the Stockyarders at Winnemac Park Chicago under this format resulting in a record of 1–2 for the Stockyarders. The same venue also hosted
55-508: Is substantially the same as full rugby league, with some differences in rules and shorter games. Nines is usually played in festivals, as its shorter game play allows for a tournament to be completed in a day or over a single weekend. In July 2021, International Rugby League (IRL) chair Troy Grant stated that the organization was considering a bid for rugby league nines to be played at the 2032 Summer Olympics in Brisbane. Rugby sevens ,
66-710: The Midwestern United States , and to operate the Stockyarders team from 2010 onwards. The Stockyarders made their first on-field appearance on July 31, 2010, at the American National Rugby League (AMNRL)'s annual War at the Shore tournament. They played an exhibition rugby league sevens game against the Northern Raiders , which ended with an 18-10 loss for the Stockyarders. Dan Hoskin scored their first ever points with
77-591: The USA Rugby League , the US's top level rugby league competition. Ormskirk Heelers Ormskirk Heelers are an amateur rugby league club from Ormskirk in Lancashire . They play at Green Road [1] , which is also the home of Ormskirk rugby union side. In 2006, Southport Storm merged with the Heelers, but there were no name changes on Ormskirks part. This allowed the club to pull in players from
88-596: The 2007 season [4] : In 2006 head coach Mike Featherstone got the team playing a 9 a side match on the North Avenue Beach at Chicago. They played newly formed team the Chicago Saints, who were hoping to get access into the AMNRL in 2007. The match finished a 20-20 draw, both sides scoring 5 tries each [5] . Rugby league nines Rugby league nines (or simply nines ) is a version of rugby league football played with nine players on each side. The game
99-621: The AMNRL Midwest sevens tournament in Chicago which was won by an Irish Exiles team. After a year in hiatus the Stockyarders and Midwest Rugby League revived this conference concept with the AMNRL Midwest Piranha Guard development series which will saw games played against Elmhurst college and Lewis University in spring 2014 and the Stockyarders finishing with a 2–0 record. The team are currently in talks to enter
110-404: The club were once again playing in the RLC North West division in 2007 . The season was a disaster with the Heelers unable to field a side for six of their games, thus finishing bottom place, 12th, losing all their 12 games. In the whole season they had scored just 72 points whilst conceding 354 points. It is still unsure whether Ormskirk Heelers will be playing in 2008. These are the results from
121-489: Was a change in head coach, Dave Archer coming in to try and steer the club to the top of a new challenge in the RLC Cheshire Division [3] . And he had seemed to have done the job with the team losing just two of their ten matches. Despite finishing 2nd though, in the playoffs they didn't do as well ending up 4th after losing both games. After the merging of the two divisions they had previous participated in,
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