110-738: South Queensland Crushers was an Australian rugby league football club based in Brisbane , Queensland. In 1992 it was decided that the team would be admitted into the New South Wales Rugby League competition , along with three other teams, as part of the League's expansion plans for professional rugby league in Australia. The competition was re-branded the Australian Rugby League competition in 1995, which
220-498: A 2020 report showed that only 25% of news consumed is obtained from print newspapers, with TV being the top source, online second, and social media third. By early 2021, News Corp had either dropped, or made online only, many of its local newspapers . At that time, it was publishing fewer than 20 print newspapers, and around 85 online titles. In 2016, News Corp commanded 65% of national and capital city daily (print) newspapers. However, its news website news.com.au ranks second after
330-560: A breakaway faction of England's Rugby Football Union (RFU). Both organisations played the game under the same rules at first, although the Northern Union began to modify rules almost immediately, thus creating a new simpler game that was intended to be a faster-paced form of rugby football. Similar breakaway factions split from RFU-affiliated unions in Australia and New Zealand in 1907 and 1908, renaming themselves "rugby football league s" and introducing Northern Union rules. In 1922,
440-448: A chairman and major shareholder for both companies. On 9 August 2013 it was announced that Julian Clarke would replace Kim Williams as the CEO of News Corp Australia. On 9 June 2015, it was announced that Peter Tonagh would replace Julian Clarke as the CEO, with Michael Miller to be appointed to the role of Executive Chairman. Peter Tonagh and Michael Miller's first day in their new roles
550-580: A decree by the RFU banning the playing of rugby at grounds where entrance fees were charged led to twenty-two clubs (including Stockport, who negotiated by telephone) meeting at the George Hotel, Huddersfield , on 29 August 1895 and forming the "Northern Rugby Football Union". Within fifteen years of that first meeting in Huddersfield, more than 200 RFU clubs had left to join the rugby league. In 1897,
660-623: A few years it had become the leading local recording company . He also bought a television station in Wollongong , New South Wales, hoping to use it to break into the Sydney television market, but found himself frustrated by Australia's cross-media ownership laws, which prevented him from owning both a major newspaper and television station in the same city. Since then he has consistently lobbied, both personally and through his papers, to have these laws changed in his favour. This occurred in 2006 when
770-405: A four-yearly cycle in the 2010s; as of 2023 , the holders are Australia . A short-sided version of the sport, rugby league nines , using modified rugby league rules also exists, and is comparable to rugby sevens . Wheelchair rugby league is a mixed-gender sport using heavily modified rugby league rules for disabled and able-bodied players. Unlike wheelchair rugby which adopted its name after
880-528: A marginal seats guide written by a senior business manager for internal use. It evidences a corporate strategy to target marginal seats at the 2004 election . Some of the documents appeared on Media Watch . Murdoch wanted a way to influence politics in his native land. He saw a way to do that through the News Corp publication The Australian . The national daily has been used to support Murdoch's political interests over time, such as John McEwen with
990-411: A minority interest in the company in 1949. Following his death in 1952, his son Rupert Murdoch inherited The News , which has been described by Murdoch biographer Bruce Page as the "foundation stone" of News Limited (and News Corporation). Over the next few years, Murdoch gradually established himself as one of the most dynamic media proprietors in Australia, quickly expanding his holdings by acquiring
1100-437: A mix of the two sports' rules. Much more so than rugby union, rugby league shares significant similarities with North American gridiron codes. Although described as evolving from both rugby and association football , the basic structures of American and Canadian football are remarkably similar to rugby league through a process of parallel evolution: a try-and-goal based scoring system, a set number of plays before handover of
1210-406: A new competition, sparking the mid-1990s Super League war . On 12 July 2006, News Limited announced the creation of a new division, News Digital Media, to manage the operations of the news site news.com.au; the online marketplace sites, carsguide.com.au , truelocal.com.au and careerone.com.au as well as the partly owned realestate.com.au, foxsports.com.au and related activities involving Foxtel and
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#17327766425351320-633: A professional level. 45 national teams are ranked by the RLIF and a further 32 are officially recognized and unranked. The strongest rugby league nations are Australia , England , New Zealand , Samoa and Tonga . The Rugby League World Cup is the highest form of representative rugby league. Countries that have contested are Australia , Cook Islands , England , Fiji , France , Ireland , Italy , Jamaica , Lebanon , New Zealand , Papua New Guinea , Russia , Samoa , Scotland , South Africa , Tonga , US and Wales . The 2021 Rugby League World Cup, which
1430-592: A quality newspaper publisher, and also greater political influence since The Australian has always had an elite readership, if not always a large circulation. Also in 1964, News Limited made Rupert Murdoch's first overseas newspaper investment – a 29.57 percent stake in the Wellington Publishing Company, subsequently part of Independent Newspapers Limited , INL, New Zealand's largest publishing group. The News Limited holding in INL fluctuated over
1540-453: A result play stops much less frequently in rugby league, with the ball typically in play for 50 out of the 80 minutes compared to around 35 minutes for professional rugby union. Other differences include that there are fewer players in rugby league (13 compared to 15) and different rules for tackling . Rugby union has more detailed rules than rugby league and has changed less since the 1895 schism. Since rugby union turned professional in
1650-569: A string of daily and suburban newspapers in most capital cities, including the Sydney afternoon paper, The Daily Mirror , as well as a small Sydney-based recording company, Festival Records . His acquisition of the Mirror proved crucial to his success, allowing him to challenge the dominance of his two main rivals in the Sydney market, the Fairfax Newspapers group, which published the hugely profitable The Sydney Morning Herald , and
1760-415: A team's creative unit or 'playmakers'. During the interactions between a team's 'key' players (five-eighth, half-back, fullback, lock forward, and hooker), the five-eighth and half-back will usually be involved in most passing moves. These two positions are commonly called the "halves". The forwards' two responsibilities can be broken into "normal play" and "scrum play". For information on a forward's role in
1870-401: A value of 2 points when kicked from beyond the 40 metre line. Field position is crucial in rugby league, achieved by running with or kicking the ball. Passing in rugby league may only be in a backward or sideways direction. Teammates, therefore, have to remain on-side by not moving ahead of the player with the ball. The ball may be kicked ahead, but if teammates are in front of the kicker when
1980-406: A wider agenda by distributing the keys to rival set top box operators and seeking to obtain phone records of suspected rivals. The emails were from the hard drive of NDS European chief, Ray Adams. It was also revealed that Australian Federal police were working with UK police to investigate hacking by News Corp. News Corp Australia operates 170 newspaper and magazine titles in Australia , including
2090-557: Is a full-contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular field measuring 68 m (74 yd) wide and 112–122 m (122–133 yd) long with H-shaped posts at both ends. It is one of the two major codes of rugby football , the other being rugby union . It originated in 1895 in Huddersfield , Yorkshire , England, as the result of a split from the Rugby Football Union (RFU) over
2200-884: Is a subsidiary of News Corp Australia. It was involved in Nationwide News Pty Ltd v Wills in the High Court of Australia in 1992. In 2018 it was ordered by the Federal Court to pay damages to actor Geoffrey Rush after The Daily Telegraph published a front-page article alleging that Rush engaged in "inappropriate behaviour" on stage with actress Eryn Jean Norvill during the Sydney Theatre Company 's 2015 production of King Lear . Murdoch's desire for dominant cross-media ownership manifested in early 1961 when he bought an ailing Australian record label, Festival Records , and within
2310-474: Is conducted under the direction of the Federation of International Touch (FIT). Though it shares similarities and history with rugby league , it is recognised as a sport in its own right due to its differences which have been developed over the sport's lifetime. Touch is a variation of rugby league with the tackling of opposing players replaced by a touch. As touches must be made with minimal force, touch
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#17327766425352420-432: Is the dominant winter sport in the eastern Australian states of New South Wales and Queensland . The game is also among the predominant sports of Tonga and is played in other Pacific nations such as Samoa and Fiji . Researchers have found that rugby league has been able to help with improving development in the islands. In Australia, and indeed the rest of the region, the annual State of Origin series ranks among
2530-555: Is therefore considered a limited-contact sport. The original basic rules of touch were established in the 1960s by members of the South Sydney Junior Rugby League Club in Sydney, Australia . OzTag is a non-contact form of rugby league, and can be seen as a variation of British tag rugby. Cronulla Sharks and St George Dragons halfback Perry Haddock introduced the sport in Australia while coaching
2640-413: Is worth. One of the main differences is the rules of possession. When the ball goes into touch , possession in rugby union is contested through a line-out , while in rugby league a scrum restarts play. The lesser focus on contesting possession means that play focuses more on powerful running, hard tackling, forward progression and the contest for field position (commonly compared to an "arm wrestle"); as
2750-514: The Herald Sun ) as well as large stakes in several other newspaper publishers. News Limited went on to acquire the remaining shares of Brisbane's Queensland Newspapers (owner of The Courier-Mail ), Adelaide's Advertiser Newspapers (owner of The Advertiser ) and Hobart's Davies Brothers (owner of The Mercury ). In 1991, News Limited spun off its longtime magazine house, Southdown Press , as Pacific Magazines and Printing , and sold
2860-602: The 1953–54 Challenge Cup Final replay at Odsal Stadium , Bradford , England, setting a new record for attendance at a rugby football match of either code. Also in 1954, the Rugby League World Cup, the first for either code of rugby, was formed at the instigation of the French. In 1966, the International Board introduced a rule that a team in possession was allowed three play-the-balls and on
2970-594: The 1999 NRL season . Figure shown is the total attendance which is officially counted for both games. ** The official attendance of the 1954 Challenge Cup Final replay was 102,569. Unofficial estimates put the attendance as high as 150,000, Bradford Police confirming 120,000. News Limited News Corp Australia is an Australian media conglomerate and wholly owned subsidiary of the American News Corp . The group's interests span newspaper and magazine publishing, Internet, subscription television in
3080-609: The ABC News website on visitor count, and its individual newspaper websites do not match several digital-only ones. In December 2020, all of News Corp's news websites reached 1.2 million fewer readers than those owned by Nine Entertainment . The company owns just one television news outlet, Sky News Australia , which does not have a large audience on TV; however, its Facebook posts are shared prolifically, and its subscribers on YouTube , by 2021, not only far outnumbered those of Channel 7 and Channel 9 but had surpassed ABC News. In 2018
3190-454: The ARL and NZRL . Since rugby league was introduced to Australia in 1908, it has become the largest television sport and 3rd most attended sport in Australia. Neighbouring Papua New Guinea is one of two countries to have rugby league as its national sport (with Cook Islands ). Australia's elite club competition also features a team from Auckland , New Zealand's biggest city. Rugby league
3300-1327: The Australian Rugby League premiership , the club managed to produce one Australian international player, Trevor Gillmeister . Other notable players include Dale Shearer , Mark Hohn , Craig Teevan , Mario Fenech , William David Gressly , Nigel Gaffey , John Jones , Tony Kemp , Phillip Lee , Danny Nutley , Mark Protheroe and Kurt Wrigley . Players who went on to be successful with other clubs include Clinton Schifcofske , Mark Tookey , Scott Sattler , Travis Norton , Chris McKenna , St John Ellis , Steele Retchless and Danny Nutley , Grant Young . Club records from 1995–1997. 2 matches, 30 June – 7 July 1996. 10 matches, 7 April – 22 June 1996. 34,263 vs Brisbane Broncos , Round 4, 1996 2,364 vs Illawarra Steelers , Round 16, 1997 49,607 vs Brisbane Broncos at ANZ Stadium , Round 4, 1995 3,107 vs South Sydney Rabbitohs at Redfern Oval , Round 15, 1996 Former Top-Flight Competition: Brisbane Rugby League premiership Rugby league Rugby league football , commonly known as rugby league in English-speaking countries and rugby XIII in non- Anglophone Europe and South America, and referred to colloquially as football , footy , rugby , or league in its heartlands,
3410-591: The Brisbane Broncos NRL team. A parliamentary petition initiated by former Prime Minister Kevin Rudd for a Royal Commission investigating the diversity and integrity of print media, focused primarily on News Corp, raised more than 500,000 signatures in November 2020. Before 2010 News Corp Australia media was more politically flexible, but have become much more rigid as Lachlan Murdoch’s influence at
South Queensland Crushers - Misplaced Pages Continue
3520-566: The Brisbane Broncos in round 4, the Crushers home ground support only averaged over 13,000 each game. The diminishing crowd numbers and player payments meant the club was on the brink of bankruptcy. The ARL and a mystery supporter bailed the club out with over half a million dollars in financial relief. With first-grade rugby league divided between two competitions, it would be hard for the Crushers to recoup lost money in establishing
3630-525: The Consolidated Press group, owned by Sir Frank Packer , which published the city's leading tabloid paper, The Daily Telegraph . In 1964, News Limited made its next important advance when it established The Australian , Australia's first national daily newspaper, based initially in Canberra and later in Sydney. The Australian , a broadsheet , gave News Limited a new respectability as
3740-634: The International Rugby League . Rugby league is the national sport of Papua New Guinea and the Cook Islands and is a popular sport in countries such as England , Australia , New Zealand , France , Tonga , Fiji , Samoa , Lebanon , Jamaica , and Malta . The first Rugby League World Cup was held in France in 1954, the first World Cup of either rugby code, and has been held sporadically ever since, settling into
3850-698: The National Party of Australia and Gough Whitlam with the Australian Labor Party . According to the Finkelstein Review of Media and Media Regulation, in 2011 the group accounted for 23% of the newspaper titles in Australia. As of 2021 , it owns seven of the country's 12 national or capital city daily (print) newspapers (that is, 58 per cent; excludes weekend papers). In the capital cities of Adelaide , Brisbane , Darwin , and Hobart , there are no other print dailies. However
3960-704: The New South Wales Rugby Football League was founded at Bateman's Hotel in George Street. Unlike in England, where both codes maintained their own geographic areas of dominance, in Australia rugby league went on to displace rugby union entirely as the primary football code in New South Wales and Queensland , while Australian rules football dominated the rest of Australia. On 5 May 1954, 102,569 spectators watched
4070-749: The Ottawa Aces were scheduled to join the English league pyramid, becoming the only Canadian team in the system after the Wolfpack were denied re-entry. The club subsequently relocated to Penryn, Cornwall , and are now known as Cornwall R.L.F.C. In 2021, the North American Rugby League announced an attempt to be North America's professional championship, with Canadian club Toronto Wolfpack joining several USA Rugby League clubs, New York Freedom and Cleveland Rugby League to form
4180-598: The Rugby League European Federation and Asia-Pacific Rugby League Confederation expanding the game to new areas such as Chile , Canada , Ghana , Philippines , Czech Republic , Germany , The Netherlands , Sweden , Norway , Spain , Sri Lanka , Hungary , Turkey , Thailand and Brazil to name a few. The two most prominent full-time professional leagues are the Australian National Rugby League and
4290-556: The line-out was abolished and in 1898 professionalism introduced. In 1906, the Northern Union changed its rules, reducing teams from 15 to 13 a side and replacing the ruck formed after tackles with the play-the-ball . By this point, rule changes meant the game organised by the RFL was distinct as a sport from its union cousin. A similar schism to that which occurred in England took place in Sydney , Australia. There, on 8 August 1907
4400-526: The 1990s, when News Corporation paid for worldwide broadcasting rights. The media giant's "Super League" movement created changes for the traditional administrators of the game. In Europe, it resulted in a move from Rugby League being a winter sport to a summer one, as the new Super League competition tried to expand its market. In Australasia, the Super League war resulted in long and costly legal battles and changing loyalties, causing significant damage to
4510-518: The 1992 St George Jersey Flegg side. Together with Chris Parkes, the two took the sport to fields across Australia. Today, it is played by over 200,000 players in organised leagues across the country. League Tag replaces tackling with the removal of one of two tags carried on an opponent's hips, attached directly to specific League Tag shorts with Velcro patches, but otherwise retains almost all other rules of traditional rugby league (such as kicking). A number of additional rules are also added relating to
South Queensland Crushers - Misplaced Pages Continue
4620-515: The 2017 Kingstone Press League 1 in their inaugural season and earned promotion to the 2018 Rugby League Championship. In 2019 The Wolfpack won promotion to the Super League, lasting only a few months before having to withdraw due to the ongoing worldwide COVID-19 pandemic . New ownership is currently trying to revive the club with matches against amateur clubs in the US and Canada. Beginning in 2022,
4730-589: The Australian division of News Corp has not entirely escaped scandal with allegations in 2012 that News Corp subsidiary, News Datacom Systems (NDS) had used hackers to undermine pay TV rivals around the world, including Australia. Some of the victims of the alleged hacking, such as Austar were later taken over by News Corp and others such as Ondigital later went bust. NDS had originally been set up to provide security to News Corp's pay TV interests but emails obtained by Fairfax Media revealed they had also pursued
4840-674: The British Super League (with teams from New Zealand and France respectively). Other professional and semi professional leagues include Australia's Queensland Cup (which includes a team from Papua New Guinea ) and NSW Cup , the British RFL Championship and RFL League 1 , the French Super XIII and Elite 2 . The Papua New Guinea National Rugby League operates as a semi-professional competition and enjoys nationwide media coverage, being
4950-561: The Liberal-National Coalition government, having gained control of both houses of the Australian Parliament, introduced reforms to cross-media ownership and foreign media ownership laws. The laws came into effect in early 2007, with further changes in 2017 abolishing 'two out of three' restrictions that had previously prevented news companies from owning newspaper, radio, and television services within
5060-534: The National Rugby League, this was reduced to ten prior to the 2008 season and further reduced to eight prior to the 2016 season. If a team has to interchange a player due to the blood bin rule or due to injury, and this was the result of misconduct from the opposing team, the compromised team does not have to use one of its allocated interchanges to take the player in question off the field. The backs are generally smaller, faster and more agile than
5170-681: The New South Wales region. In 1982, the Canberra Raiders from the Australian Capital Territory, and in 1988, the two Queensland based teams, one from Brisbane and the other from Gold Coast were admitted into the NSWRL. The Brisbane club was the first NSWRL club to be privately owned and in1992 won their first premiership. On 30 November 1992, the NSWRL formally admitted a second Brisbane-based team into
5280-697: The News Corp Australia digital network. In 2000 John Hartigan was appointed Chief Executive Officer, replacing Lachlan Murdoch . and added chairman to his role in 2005. During his time in the roles, he presided over a number of controversies, included Eatock v Bolt , the court case following News Ltd journalist Andrew Bolt breaching the Racial Discrimination Act , and an unfair dismissal case brought by former Herald Sun editor Bruce Guthrie . On 30 November 2011, Hartigan left News Ltd, and owner Rupert Murdoch took on
5390-630: The Northern Union also changed its name to the Rugby Football League and thus over time the sport itself became known as "rugby league" football. In 1895, a schism in Rugby football resulted in the formation of the Northern Rugby Football Union (NRFU). The success of working class northern teams led to some compensating players who otherwise would be on their job and earning income on Saturdays. This led to
5500-411: The RFU reacting to enforce the amateur principle of the sport, preventing "broken time payments" to players who had taken time off work to play rugby. Northern teams typically had more working class players (coal miners, mill workers etc.) who could not afford to play without this compensation, in contrast to affluent southern teams who had other sources of income to sustain the amateur principle. In 1895,
5610-642: The United States. On 3 November 2004 News Corp Limited ceased trading on the Australian Stock Exchange ; and on 8 November, News Corporation began trading on the New York Stock Exchange . On 28 June 2013, News Corporation was split into two separate companies. Murdoch's newspaper interests became News Corp , which was the new parent company of News Limited. The group adopted the new News Corp Australia name following
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#17327766425355720-447: The ball comes into contact with the ground. An attacking team gets a maximum of six tackles to progress up the field before possession is changed over. Once the tackle is completed, the ball-carrier must be allowed to get to his feet to ' play-the-ball '. Ball control is also important in rugby league, as a fumble of the ball on the ground forces a handover, unless the ball is fumbled backwards. The ball can also be turned over by going over
5830-421: The ball is kicked, they are deemed off-side. Tackling is a key component of rugby league play. Only the player holding the ball may be tackled. A tackle is complete, for example, when the player is held by one or more opposing players in such a manner that he can make no further progress and cannot part with the ball, or when the player is held by one or more opposing players and the ball or the hand or arm holding
5940-737: The beginning of the 1995 competition, the Crushers had also signed North Sydney forward Mario Fenech , who the club named as their captain. The club's major sponsor was XXXX with Qantas announced as the sleeve sponsor. The club competed in the Brisbane Rugby League premiership in 1994 and 1995 to prepare for entry into the ARL. The Crushers' first match was against the previous season's premiers, Canberra which they lost along with their next three before winning their first match 16–12 against North Sydney in Round five. Trevor Gillmeister had
6050-526: The club as it ploughed further into debt. A glimmer of hope for the club came when the Crushers won the Under 21's premiership, defeating the Parramatta Eels in the Under 21's Grand Final. This was to be the only premiership of any competition or grade for the Crushers. The 1997 season was not much better for the Crushers, again taking the wooden spoon for the second year running. Major sponsor XXXX
6160-405: The club only recorded three more wins in the entire season gathering six points on the competition ladder and took the wooden spoon for being last on the ladder. The Crushers won the second round clash against Parramatta before losing ten in a row. The Crushers then won two in a row before plummeting to lose their last eight matches. Despite a record crowd of 34,263 that watched the Crushers take on
6270-469: The code in an extremely competitive sporting market. In 1997 two competitions were run alongside each other in Australia, after which a peace deal in the form of the National Rugby League was formed. The NRL has since become recognised as the sport's flagship competition and since that time has set record TV ratings and crowd figures. The objective in rugby league is to score more points through tries , goals and field goals (also known as drop goals) than
6380-800: The company has grown - as of 2024, The Australian has endorsed the Liberal Party at each of the past five federal elections, while none of the four daily metros have endorsed Labor since at least 2010. In the wake of the News International phone hacking scandal in the United Kingdom, in July 2011 News Limited announced a review of all payments in the previous three years. On 22 July it was reported that two retired Victorian Supreme Court judges, Frank Vincent AO QC and Bernard Teague AO, were appointed to act as independent assessors of
6490-492: The company's newspapers and the Australian versions of Fox Interactive Media sites Myspace and IGN. Chairman and chief executive of News Limited, John Hartigan , announced the appointment of Richard Freudenstein as chief executive of the division. In February 2018, News Corp Australia announced a partnership with Taboola to launch an integrated native content creation, booking and distribution platform. The Taboola Feed will be implemented on desktop, mobile, web and in-app across
6600-570: The company's sites included news.com.au , Business Spectator and Eureka Report, Kidspot.com.au, taste.com.au, and homelife.com.au. It had a 55% stake in carsguide.com.au , which was sold in 2016, a share in REA Group that operates realestate.com.au , as well as websites for most newspaper and magazine titles. The company's other Australian assets include Australian News Channel , 65% ownership of subscription television provider Foxtel , (which in turn owns Fox Sports Australia ) and shares in
6710-483: The competition, along with three others, from Townsville , Perth and New Zealand. The newly established Brisbane team was to be known as the South Queensland Crushers , and would enter the 1995 NSWRL competition , which had been renamed the Australian Rugby League competition (ARL). In September 1993, the Crushers chose Bill Gardner as the coach for the team, but after a poor off-season, he
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#17327766425356820-402: The competition. Despite the wealth of star players the Crushers managed to attract, they were financially unsustainable and competitively unsuccessful, which ultimately led to their demise at the end of 1997. The New South Wales Rugby League competition (NSWRL) began in 1908 as a rugby league competition in the Sydney region of Australia. For the next 74 years, the league only included clubs in
6930-457: The conduct of the review and also assess the outcome. The editorial and financial review concluded in early November and found no evidence of phone hacking or payments to public officials, with Vincent and Teague declaring that the review process did not bring ".....to light any systemic issues with respect to the making of payments to third parties and any substantial amounts paid to individuals in respect of illegitimate activities." Despite this
7040-498: The disappointing results of their first season because of the high home ground crowds, with supporters averaging over 21,000 a season. The club had bought five players from the Sydney Roosters to help them improve from their inaugural season, and Queensland representative Tony Hearn also joined the club for the 1996 season. The opening round of the 1996 season the club gathered two points because of Canberra 's forfeit but
7150-481: The final year of his contract. In the 1995 season, the club had only won six and drew another in the twenty-two games played. In 1995, News Limited , a mass media company, began deliberating a rival rugby league competition, the Super League, and with the rival Broncos a key part of the plans for Super League, the Crushers remained loyal to the ARL competition. The Crushers believed that they would survive and be able to compete on their own. The ARL supported this despite
7260-681: The five years prior to the Second World War , the sport's popularity increased as Frenchmen became disenchanted with the state of French rugby union in the 1930s. However, after the Allied Forces were defeated by Germany in June 1940, the Vichy regime in the south seized assets belonging to rugby league authorities and clubs and banned the sport for its association with the left-wing Popular Front government that had governed France before
7370-547: The football, each play restarting from a set piece position and ended by a tackle. Although the Canadian Football League in particular maintained the word 'rugby' in its name for many years, alluding to that shared past, the introduction of the forward pass and unlimited substitution in North American games created a fundamentally different species of game from either original rugby code. Although
7480-502: The form of Foxtel , market research , DVD and film distribution, and film and television production trading assets. News Pty Limited (formerly News Limited ) is the holding company of the group. Until the formation of News Corporation in 1979, News Limited was the principal holding company for the business interests of Rupert Murdoch and his family. Since then, News Limited had been wholly owned by News Corporation. In 2004, News Corporation announced its intention to reincorporate to
7590-411: The former Advertiser magazines, renamed Murdoch Magazines , to Matt Handbury . News Limited re-entered the magazine market in 2000 with the start of News Magazines . In 2006, News Limited returned to being a major player in the Australian magazine business with the purchase of Independent Print Media Group 's FPC Magazines ( Delicious , Super Food Ideas , Vogue Australia ). Nationwide News
7700-407: The forwards. They are often the most creative and evasive players on the field, relying on running, kicking and handling skills, as well as tactics and set plays, to break the defensive line, instead of brute force. Generally forwards play a more collision oriented game, making ground by pure strength, and tackling near the play-the-ball. Usually, the stand-off/five-eighth and scrum-half/half-back are
7810-572: The founding of The Independent in 1986 as an alternative quality daily. Murdoch made his first acquisition in the United States in 1973, when he purchased the San Antonio News . Soon afterwards he founded the National Star , a supermarket tabloid , and in 1976 he purchased the New York Post . Subsequent acquisitions were undertaken through News Corporation. News Limited expanded its newspaper holdings in 1987 when it acquired The Herald and Weekly Times , which published two newspapers in Melbourne (in 1990 these papers would be combined to form
7920-406: The fourth tackle a scrum was to be formed. This was increased to six tackles in 1972 and in 1983 the scrum was replaced by a handover. 1967 saw the first professional Sunday matches of rugby league played. The first sponsors, Joshua Tetley and John Player , entered the game for the 1971–72 Northern Rugby Football League season . Television had an enormous impact on the sport of rugby league in
8030-585: The ground, with the ball usually set in a kicking tee , and the opposing team not allowed to directly challenge the kicker. The Super League in Europe and the National Rugby League (NRL) in Australasia are the world's premier club competitions. Globally, rugby league is played internationally , predominantly by European , Australasian , and Pacific Island countries, and is governed by
8140-411: The historic link between the codes continues to be acknowledged, neither Canadian or American football is commonly considered a rugby code today except in the broadest sense, and are more commonly referred to collectively as gridiron codes, or simply as 'football' within their respective countries. Players on the pitch are divided into forwards and backs , although the game's rules apply to all players
8250-536: The honour of scoring the Crusher's first ever try. An injury to Dale Shearer and the difficulties for Garrick Morgan to adapt to rugby league saw the Crushers fail to utilise much of its attacking potential. Captain Fenech was dropped to the interchange bench and lost the captaincy which was passed on to Gillmeister. The season's end was dampened after coach Lindner and Fenech feuded, resulting in Fenech being released from
8360-440: The invention of the sport previously called murderball and is not directly linked to rugby union, wheelchair rugby league has grown out of the parent sport, and retains key aspects of that sport such as an egg shaped ball, the forward-pass rule and conversions. While not a Paralympic sport, the sport has its own Wheelchair Rugby League World Cup . A further variation for ambulatory disabled players, physical disability rugby league ,
8470-412: The issue of payments to players. The rules of the game governed by the new Northern Rugby Football Union progressively changed from those of the RFU with the specific aim of producing a faster and more entertaining game to appeal to spectators, on whose income the new organisation and its members depended. In rugby league, points are scored by carrying an oval ball and touching it to the ground beyond
8580-448: The league's inaugural season. Several brand new clubs from Western USA were scheduled to join in 2022 but never played. The new competition is sanctioned by Canada Rugby League , but not yet by the United States governing body. Unfortunately, while some exhibition matches were played in 2021 and 2022, NARL was defunct by 2023 The early 21st century has seen other countries take up the game and compete in international rugby league with
8690-729: The listing of the new News Corp on 1 July 2013. News Limited was established in 1923 by James Edward Davidson and funded by the Collins Group mining empire for the purpose of publishing anti-union propaganda, when he purchased the Broken Hill Barrier Miner and the Port Pirie Recorder . He went on to purchase Adelaide's weekly Mail and to found The News , a daily newspaper in Adelaide , South Australia. Sir Keith Murdoch acquired
8800-453: The mid-1990s, it has increasingly borrowed techniques, tactics and even laws from rugby league, while high-profile players and coaches from the league game have increasingly gone on to success in the union code in those countries where both codes are popular (e.g. Andy Farrell , Jason Robinson and Henry Paul ). The inherent similarities between rugby league and rugby union have at times led to experimental hybrid games being played that use
8910-537: The most popular sporting events. The Rugby League European Federation are responsible for developing rugby league in Europe . In England, rugby league has traditionally been associated with the historic northern counties of Yorkshire , Lancashire , and Cumberland , where the game originated, especially in towns and cities along the M62 corridor . Its popularity has also increased elsewhere. As of 2024 , only two of
9020-413: The national sport of the country. Five main variant sports of rugby league exist worldwide; Touch , OzTag , League tag , Nines , and Sevens . Touch, OzTag, and League Tag are all non-contact versions of the sport, where as Nines and Sevens are both reduced form (shorter match times and smaller teams) of the sport. Touch (also known as touch football or touch rugby) is a variant of rugby league that
9130-561: The new Super League, although the club was dissolved in 1997. In 2006, the Super League admitted the Catalans Dragons, a team from Perpignan in the southern Languedoc-Roussillon region. They have subsequently reached the 2007 Challenge Cup Final and made the playoffs of the 2008 Super League XIII season. The success of the Dragons in Super League has initiated a renaissance in French rugby league, with new-found enthusiasm for
9240-460: The north of England there have been complaints about its lack of profile in the British media. On the eve of the 2017 Rugby League World Cup final where England would face Australia, English amateur rugby league coach Ben Dawson stated, "we're in the final of a World Cup. First time in more than 30 years and there's no coverage anywhere". France first played rugby league as late as 1934, where in
9350-404: The opposing team's goal line; this is called a try , and is the primary method of scoring, worth four points. The opposing team attempts to stop the attacking side scoring points by tackling the player carrying the ball and denying forward progress. On occasion, where a clear try scoring opportunity has been thwarted by foul play, a penalty try may be awarded without the ball being grounded over
9460-475: The opposition within the 80 minutes of play. If after two-halves of play, each consisting of forty minutes, the two teams are drawing , a draw may be declared, or the game may enter extra time under the golden point rule, depending on the relevant competition's format. The try is the most common form of scoring, and a team will usually attempt to score one by running and kicking the ball further upfield or passing from player-to-player in order to manoeuvre around
9570-400: The opposition's defence. A try involves touching the ball to the ground on or beyond the defending team's goal-line and is worth four points. A goal is worth two points and may be gained from a conversion or a penalty . A field goal, or drop goal, is only worth one point and is gained by dropping and then kicking the ball on the half volley between the uprights in open play. A field goal has
9680-542: The position they play, similarly to association football . Substitutes (generally referred to as "the bench") are allowed in the sport, and are typically used when a player gets tired or injured , although they can also be used tactically. Each team is currently allowed four substitutes, and in Australia and New Zealand, these players occupy shirt numbers 14 to 22. There are no limitations on which players must occupy these interchangeable slots. Generally, twelve interchanges are allowed in any game from each team, although in
9790-450: The role of chairman, while former Foxtel executive Kim Williams took on the role of CEO. On 28 June 2013, News Corporation split into two publicly traded companies focused on publishing, and broadcasting/media respectively. At this time News Limited was renamed News Corp Australia and became part of the publishing company, News Corp , with Wall Street Journal editor Robert Thomson replacing Rupert Murdoch as CEO. Murdoch remained
9900-494: The same city. In 2001 News Corp Australia had nearly three-quarters of daily metropolitan newspaper circulation and so maintained great influence in Australia. Internal News Corp Australia documents reveal a brazen offer during the 2001 federal election campaign to promote the policies of the Australian Labour Party (ALP) in its best-selling newspapers nationwide for almost A$ 500,000. Other documents include
10010-501: The same way. Each position has a designated number to identify himself from other players. These numbers help to identify which position a person is playing. The system of numbering players is different depending on which country the match is played in. In Australia and New Zealand, each player is usually given a number corresponding to their playing position on the field. However, since 1996 European teams have been able to grant players specific squad numbers, which they keep without regard to
10120-496: The scrum see rugby league scrummage . Forward positions are traditionally named after the player's position in the scrum yet are equal with respect to "normal play" with the exception of the hooker. Forward positions are traditionally assigned as follows: Rugby league is played in over 70 nations throughout the world. Papua New Guinea is the only country to have rugby league as its national sport . Four countries – Australia, England, France, and New Zealand – have teams that play at
10230-710: The season convincingly 39–18 over the Western Suburbs Magpies and along with the North Sydney Bears and Newtown Jets , the South Queensland Crushers remain one of the few defunct clubs to have won their final game. With the unification of the Australian Rugby League and Super League competitions following the 1997 season, the new National Rugby League competition was formed. This meant that three of
10340-524: The sideline. Rugby league and rugby union are distinct sports with many similarities and a shared origin. Both have the same fundamental rules, are played for 80 minutes and feature an oval-shaped ball and H-shaped goalposts. Both have rules that the ball cannot be passed forward, and dropping it forwards leads to a scrum. Both use tries as the central scoring method and conversion kicks , penalty goals and drop goals as additional scoring methods. However, there are differences in how many points each method
10450-526: The specific issues associated with a tag based game. Rugby League played with nine players per team with nine minutes per half, in addition to slight rule modifications to aid the game. Rugby League played with seven players per team with seven minutes per half, in addition to slight rule modifications to aid the game. The top five attendances for rugby league test matches (International) are: The top five attendances for domestic based rugby league matches are: * NRL double header played to open Round 1 of
10560-663: The sport in the south of the country where most of the Super XIII teams are based. In other parts of Europe, the game is played at semi-professional and amateur level. As of 2023, there is no professional rugby league in North America. From 2017 to 2020, the Toronto Wolfpack were North America 's only active professional Rugby League team, competing in the English Rugby League system. They won
10670-482: The try line. In addition to tries, points can be scored by kicking goals. Drop goals (or field goals) can be attempted from the hand at any time for a single point. Following a successful try, the scoring team gains a free kick to try at goal with a conversion worth a further two points. Penalty kicks at goal, known simply as penalties, may also be awarded for general foul play, and are also worth two points. Unlike drop goals, penalty kicks and conversions are taken from
10780-507: The twelve Super League teams are based outside of these traditional counties: Catalans Dragons and London Broncos . One other team from outside the United Kingdom, Toulouse Olympique , competes in the British rugby league system , although not at the highest tier Super League level, but rather in the second tier Championship . Super League average attendances are in the 8,000 to 9,500 range. The average Super League match attendance in 2014
10890-488: The twenty-two teams participating in 1997 would be axed as part of the rationalisation process aimed at reducing teams to an optimal number. With the introduction of the Melbourne Storm and the fact that the agreement between the Australian Rugby League and Super League was to have a fourteen-team competition in 2000, the future for the Crushers was inevitably demise. In late 1997, the club's only option of survival
11000-580: The war. The sport was unbanned after the Liberation of Paris in August 1944 and the collapse of the Vichy regime, although it was still actively marginalised by the French authorities until the 1990s. Despite this, the national side appeared in the finals of the 1954 and 1968 World Cups, and the country hosted the 1954 event. In 1996, a French team, Paris Saint-Germain was one of eleven teams which formed
11110-430: The years and was just over 49 percent in 1997. The INL business was bought by News Limited's main rival in 2003 – Fairfax Media . Over the next ten years, as his press empire grew, Murdoch established a hugely lucrative financial base, and these profits were routinely used to subsidise further acquisitions. In his early years of newspaper ownership Murdoch was an aggressive, micromanaging entrepreneur. His standard tactic
11220-654: Was 16 November 2015 Murdoch moved to Britain and rapidly became a major force there after his acquisitions of the News of the World , and The Sun in 1969 and The Times and The Sunday Times in 1981, which he bought from the Thomson family. Both takeovers further reinforced his growing reputation as a ruthless and cunning business operator. His takeover of The Times aroused great hostility among traditionalists, who feared he would take it "downmarket." This led directly to
11330-472: Was 8,365. In 2018 average Super League match attendance was 8,547. Ranked the eighth most popular sport in the UK overall, rugby league is the 27th most popular participation sport in England according to figures released by Sport England ; the total number of rugby league participants in England aged 16 and over was 44,900 in 2017. This is a 39% drop from 10 years ago. While the sport is largely concentrated in
11440-552: Was created and had its first world cup in 2022 to coincide with the rescheduled 2021 Rugby League World Cup competitions. Rugby league football takes its name from the bodies that split to create a new form of rugby, distinct from that run by the Rugby Football Unions, in Britain, Australia, and New Zealand between 1895 and 1908. The first of these, the Northern Rugby Football Union , was established in 1895 as
11550-479: Was hosted by England during October and November 2022, staged the Men's , Women's and Wheelchair competitions together for the first time. The competition formerly featured 16 teams, but has been cut down to 10 for the upcoming 2026 Rugby League World Cup . The Asia-Pacific Rugby League Confederation 's purpose is to spread the sport of rugby league throughout their region along with other governing bodies such as
11660-410: Was replaced as the major sponsor by AVJennings . The club only won four games of the twenty-two match season. The 1997 season for the Crushers saw their home game attendances dwindle to an average of 7,000 and even with free days, which allowed supporters to come to the games free of charge, the club didn't gather support as it had in its inaugural season. The Crushers did however win their final match of
11770-816: Was replaced by former Australian international Bob Lindner . Darryl van der Velde , a former Brisbane player with experience coaching in England, was the club's inaugural chief executive. The club chose Lang Park , which had been abandoned by the Brisbane Broncos in favour of QE II Stadium in 1992, as their home ground. The Crushers signed Queensland representative players Trevor Gillmeister , Mark Hohn and Dale Shearer , as well as three rugby union international players, Garrick Morgan , Anthony Herbert and Fili Seru . The Crushers also attempted to lure former Australian international captain Mal Meninga out of retirement for one more season, but failed. By
11880-420: Was the Crushers' first season. The Crushers, whose whole existence was against the backdrop of the Super League war , were an unsuccessful club. They had to compete for support with the other Brisbane-based club, the Brisbane Broncos , who were already well-established. The Crushers only competed in the three seasons of the Australian Rugby League's premiership, winning the wooden spoon twice for being last in
11990-512: Was to buy loss-making Australian newspapers and turn them around by introducing radical management and editorial changes and fighting no-holds-barred circulation wars with his competitors. By the 1970s, this power base was so strong that Murdoch was able to acquire leading newspapers and magazines in both London and New York, as well as many other media holdings. To gain subscriptions for its new pay television business, News Ltd recruited rugby league football administrators, clubs and players to form
12100-710: Was to merge, with the most likely contender the Gold Coast Chargers , who like the Crushers, were struggling to be able to compete in the competition with the hugely successful Brisbane Broncos being the dominant team in south-east Queensland. However, the National Rugby League approved the Gold Coast team for the 1998 season, and they went alone into the re-unified competition. The South Queensland Crushers were liquidated in December 1997 with debts totalling over A$ 3 million. Over their three-year presence in
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