The modern code of rugby league In 1895, rugby football underwent a schism in England over the issues of expenses and payment to injured players. This led it to split into
rugby union and
rugby league. Luring professional sportsmen, the new code of rugby league arrived in Australia in 1907 and came to dominate the sporting scene in
Queensland and
New South Wales. However, it was not immediately introduced into Victoria, where Australian rules football's VFL, which paid players, was already increasingly popular. Rugby union, however, continued to be played in Victoria by a small number of amateurs. The
1914 Great Britain Lions tour of Australia and New Zealand included a match in
Melbourne, the first rugby league game to be played in the state. The match between
England and
New South Wales drew 13,000 spectators. The
Victorian Rugby League was running a rugby league premiership by the 1920s, and also selected a representative Victorian XIII to tour domestically. The first interstate match held in Victoria was between
Western Australia and Victoria at Yarra Park in 1952. The occasional
New South Wales Rugby League Premiership match was taken to Melbourne over the following decades - the most notorious being in 1978 when
Manly and
Western Suburbs initiated their 'Fibros v Silvertails' battles. In 1991 the
St Kilda Football Club unsuccessfully sought to have NSWRL games played at
Moorabbin Oval. but the NSWRL had let Melbourne host a number of premiership games during the early 1990s; with a 1993
Western Suburbs Magpies home game against the
St. George Dragons played at
Olympic Park. The next season, the
Sydney Tigers played two home games at
Princes Park. But attendances for the State of Origin games in the state during the 1990s had been strong. The next year,
the second Test between Great Britain and Australia was played at
Princes Park in front of a crowd of 33,005.
The first professional team emerges In August 1991 the NSWRL began to express interest for its 1993 competition, Plans to enter Melbourne gained momentum in November 1994 when both the ARL and the organisers of the (then called)
News Limited rebel competition both began initiatives to fast track their own teams in the Victorian capital. In 2006 the deciding game of the
State of Origin drew 54,833 spectators at
Telstra Dome. Also that season, Melbourne's television audience for the Storm's NRL grand final appearance was higher than Sydney's was for the Swans' second successive AFL grand final appearance. This would occur again in 2016. The 2007
preliminary final between
Parramatta and
Melbourne Storm saw the largest ever crowd drawn by the Storm in Melbourne, 33,472. It was a larger than Manly's preliminary final crowd of 32,611. In 2007 the
Victorian Government confirmed that it would be building a
new 31,500 rectangular stadium at
Olympic Park, for rugby league, union and soccer. The opening round of the
2008 season saw 20,084 spectators watch the Storm defeat
New Zealand Warriors in their first game at
Telstra Dome. Melbourne finished the 2008 season with a home average attendance of 12,474, considerably larger than their 2007 average of 11,711. They recorded their largest crowd average ever in the 2010 season at 14,670. For the
2008 Rugby League World Cup, the only game in Melbourne against
England drew a crowd of 36,297 at the Telstra Dome. This was the second highest attended game in the competition, surpassed only by the
final, played in
Brisbane that drew 50,559. 2015 saw new records set for rugby league in Victoria with 91,513 spectators attending the second Origin match at the MCG, won by NSW. The Storm who have won four premierships to date: (
1999,
2012,
2017,
2020); as of 2022 regularly attract over 16,000 people to matches, and set a new club membership record of over 40,000. In a boost for the code in Victoria, Victoria's Rugby League Centre of Excellence was constructed at Seabrook Reserve in
Broadmeadows, with the $16.9 million facility opening in 2023. The facility serves as the home ground for
Northern Thunder as well as the administration base for
NRL Victoria and Touch Football Victoria. It additionally serves as a hub for rugby league programs, and a venue for training, camps and state and national level tournaments, and is also set to serve as the home ground of any future Melbourne Storm NRLW team. Features of the facility include a show pitch, three community access competition pitches, a female-friendly pavilion including high-performance training and recovery facilities, and car parking.
Local development and expansion Players such as
Jeremy Smith, born in New Zealand, and
Gareth Widdop, born in England, have come through the junior ranks in Melbourne. In round 23 2012,
Mahe Fonua became the first Victorian-born and bred player to play in the
NRL when he made his debut for Melbourne Storm. He played his junior career for South East Titans (formerly Berwick Bulldogs) in the
Victorian Rugby League. Although born in
Samoa,
Young Tonumaipea and
Richard Kennar both emigrated to Melbourne at young ages and played their junior football with local side
Northern Thunder before making their senior NRL debuts for Melbourne Storm. The junior team (which is largely made up of Victorian locals) were runners up to the Bulldogs in the
S. G. Ball Cup in 2009. ==Participation==