The oldest nicknames are
Kangaroos and
Wallabies for the
rugby league football and
rugby union teams. The other names are more recent, mostly invented to help publicise sports not traditionally popular in Australia. Some journalists have criticised the practice as embarrassing, gimmicky, or PR-driven. The name "Wallabies" was chosen by the 1908
rugby union side, making its first tour of the Northern Hemisphere.
British newspapers had already nicknamed
the 1905 New Zealand touring team the "All Blacks" from their sporting uniform predominant colour; the 1906
South African tourists had adopted "Springboks". "Rabbits" was first suggested for Australia, but rejected since
rabbits there are notorious as pests. "Kangaroos" originally referred only to teams on "
Kangaroo Tours" to Britain and France. In 1994 the
Australian Rugby League extended the nickname to all internationals for sponsorship reasons, drawing criticism for the break with tradition. Among the longer-established sports, the
test cricket and
Davis Cup tennis teams have no common nickname.
Harry Beitzel's 1967
Australian Football World Tour team was unofficially nicknamed the
Galahs from their flashy uniform. Though this side was a precursor of subsequent
Australian international rules football teams, the nickname has not been retained.
Australian Tennis magazine invited readers to suggest a nickname for the Davis Cup team in 1996. The
Australia Fed Cup team has been called the
Cockatoos, first suggested by player
Casey Dellacqua in a press conference at
the April 2012 match against
Germany. The name has been embraced by teammates and used on the website of governing body
Tennis Australia. As part of a 1998 strategic business plan,
Cricket Australia surveyed "stakeholders" in 1998 about a possible nickname, to enhance marketing opportunities. State cricket teams in the
Sheffield Shield had benefited from adopting nicknames in the 1990s. and partly because the best names were already taken by other teams.
Athletics Australia held a competition for a nickname for its squad for the
2001 World Athletics Championships. The winning entry was "the
Diggers", from the nickname for
ANZAC soldiers. after criticism from the
Returned and Services League of Australia and others that this was an inappropriate use of the term. In December 2004, the Australian Soccer Association renamed itself
Football Federation Australia (FFA) and announced an effort to rebrand association football as "football" rather than "soccer" in Australia. The national team had been nicknamed "the Socceroos" by journalist Tony Horstead on a 1967 tour to
South Vietnam. FFA chairman
Frank Lowy commented "It has been commonly used and is a much loved name but we may see it fade out as evolution takes place", and suggested
few national football teams had nicknames. ==Table==