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The Adelaide Rams were an Australian professional rugby league football club based in Adelaide, South Australia. The team was formed in 1995 for the planned rebel Super League competition, which eventually ran parallel to the rival Australian Rugby League (ARL) competition in 1997. The Rams lasted two seasons, the first in the Super League competition in 1997 and the second in the first season of the National Rugby League (NRL) in 1998. The Rams were not a successful club, winning only 13 out of 42 games. However crowd numbers in the first season were the fifth highest of any first-grade club that year, but dwindled to sixteenth in the second season. The Adelaide club was shut down at the end of the 1998 season as a result of poor on-field performances, dwindling crowd numbers, financial losses and a reduction in the number of teams in the NRL. They remain the only team from the state of South Australia to have participated in top-level rugby league in Australia.
[edit] History[edit] BackgroundThe Australian rules football code, introduced to South Australia in 1877,[1] had long dominated sport in the state. South Australia had two teams competing in the national Australian rules competition, the Australian Football League (AFL). Adelaide, the capital of South Australia, was considered an Aussie rules stronghold; the possibility of the city sustaining rugby league, a sport relatively unknown to the South Australian public, was traditionally considered unlikely.[2][3] [edit] FormationThe New South Wales Rugby League premiership (NSWRL) begun in 1908, as a rugby league competition for clubs in the Sydney region of Australia. In the 1980s the competition expanded outside this region, first to outer Sydney and then to other parts of New South Wales, to Canberra and eventually to Queensland. In 1992 the NSWRL decided to extend the competition further, by admitting four new teams for the 1995 competition from Western Australia, New Zealand and Queensland. The NSWRL also decided to test the viability of a rugby league team from the South Australian capital, and between 1991 and 1995 programmed five matches to be played in Adelaide. These trial games were popular. In 1991, the St. George and Balmain match attracted more than 28,000 people, the largest attendance for any rugby league game in South Australia.[4] Around 20,000 attended the two matches in 1992 and 1993, and around 10,000 in 1994 and 1995.[4] Despite this evidence of popular appeal, the NSWRL, already in the process of setting up a 20-team competition, could not see their way to admitting a team from Adelaide.[2] In 1995 the media company News Limited began developing a rival competition to the NSWRL, the "Super League premiership". In response to this move the Australian Rugby League (ARL), the governing body of rugby league in Australia, took over the NSWRL. After eight of the 20 teams in the ARL competition signed with News Limited to play in their proposed Super League competition in 1996, the organization began looking for further teams to make the new competition viable. In June 1995 the South Australian Rugby League (SARL), which governs the game of rugby league in South Australia, officially signed with Super League, who subsequently gave them a licence to form a franchise which would allow the SARL to create a Super League team.[2] On 13 December 1995 the SARL officially launched the Adelaide Rams, the tenth team to join the Super League competition. The team was owned and supported by News Limited. However, a legal ruling prevented the Super League from beginning competition in 1996, and the Rams were put on hold. In mid-1996 News Limited successfully appealed this ruling, which enabled the competition to proceed. Thus the first, and only Super League season, was held in 1997.[2] [edit] Inaugural seasonFor more details on this topic, see Super League (Australia) season 1997. SARL appointed the former Auckland Warriors marketing manager Liz Dawson as the Rams' chief executive – the first female chief executive of any rugby league club in either the ARL or the Super League. The club had appointed St. George Dragons mentor Rod Reddy to be their inaugural coach, along with two-time NSWRL premiership-winning hooker Kerrod Walters from the Brisbane Broncos to be the first captain of the team. Most of the other players were drawn from the SARL's lower grade competitions in the region.[2] The club played its first premiership match against the North Queensland Cowboys and, after leading 16–4 at half time, eventually lost 24–16. Their first home match, against the Hunter Mariners, was also the Rams' first win, and drew a record attendance of 27,435. This was one of the season's two wins for the Rams at their home ground, the Adelaide Oval. The Rams also won four away games, but their overall record placed them second last on the premiership ladder.[2]
The Rams did not achieve much greater success in the 1997 World Club Challenge, a newly formatted tournament involving teams from both the Australian and European Super League competitions. The Rams won all their matches played in Australia but lost two of their three matches in Europe, which meant that they failed to reach the series finals.[2][3] Following the unification of the Super League and ARL competitions after the 1997 season, a new National Rugby League (NRL) competition was formed. This meant that three teams would be demised, as part of the rationalisation process aimed at reducing teams to an optimal number. With the introduction of the Melbourne Storm, and an agreement between Super League and the ARL to have a competition limited to 14 teams by 2000, the future for the Rams looked bleak. However, the Rams' home ground support, which averaged 15,330 fans each week, ensured that they remained in the unified 1998 competition.[2][6] [edit] Final seasonFor more details on this topic, see National Rugby League season 1998. The demise of three clubs from the Super League and ARL saw some player re-shuffling, and brought Noel Goldthorpe, Tony Iro and Matt Daylight to the Adelaide club.[3] However, after the Rams lost nine of their first ten games, coach Reddy and the entire coaching staff were sacked by the Rams' administration. Reddy was replaced by former Perth Reds coach Dean Lance and mid-season saw the arrival of Canberra Raiders centre Graham Appo. In June the club changed home grounds from the Adelaide Oval to Hindmarsh Stadium, celebrating the move with a record 52 - 0 win over the Balmain Tigers.[7] The club went on to win six of their last fourteen games after Lance's arrival, enough to avoid the wooden spoon awarded to the team finishing lowest on the competition ladder. Their overall results were comparable to those of their first season, coming fourth last in the 20–team competition. Appo broke several team records in his 14 games with the Rams. Throughout the 1998 season, the Rams attempted to build a stronger supporter base, to avoid removal from the competition in 1999 or 2000; however, average home attendance dwindled to 7,472 over the course of the season.[2][6]
The NRL had planned to continue a 20–team competition in 1999, with a reduction to 14 teams in 2000. The Rams' management had their minds set on a place in the reduced competition, and went on a buying spree, obtaining rights for players that they hoped would be productive enough for the team to survive the cut in 2000. However, after the merger between rugby league clubs St. George Dragons and Illawarra Steelers, News Limited told the Rams they would no longer receive funding. The cost of building and sustaining an uncompetitive rugby league team in an area dominated by another football sport had resulted in News Limited incurring heavy financial losses. Subsequent attempts to merge with a Sydney club failed, and the NRL demised the Rams on the 1 December 1998.[2] There was disappointment in the lack of committment shown to the Adelaide club.
[edit] FutureWhile the Adelaide Rams have folded, numbers in junior rugby league in Adelaide have risen, and the SARL has begun again to promote the idea of a team based in Adelaide.[9] Due to its efforts, NRL teams have been brought to the city to revive interest; in 2006 the Penrith Panthers scheduled a home game at Adelaide's Hindmarsh Stadium while their home ground was under renovation.[10] The NRL helped with the promotion of the match, although the SARL were disappointed with the small crowd of 7,017.[11] In 2008, Sydney based club the Cronulla Sharks announced they would play three matches over the next three years at Adelaide, with coach Ricky Stuart saying he wanted Adelaide to become the Sharks' second home. SARL general manager Bruce Walker has suggested that the NRL itself should take more responsibility for scheduling games in Adelaide.[12] The 2009 match against North Queensland Cowboys attracted 8,547 people.[13] In 2008, several NRL club bosses expressed the view that the NRL should be a "national" competition,[14] since it now had teams from all around Australia rather than just on the eastern seaboard. Such a move would increase the competition's revenue. Peter Parr, the CEO of North Queensland Cowboys and former assistant coach for the Rams in 1998, said that if the NRL had stuck with the Adelaide Rams, then rugby league in Adelaide might have flourished, making comparisons with the Melbourne Storm, a team performing successfully on and off the field in AFL heartland.[14] [edit] Colours, emblem and stadiumThe emblem of the team was a ram (a male sheep). The ram was chosen, according to Super League chief executive John Ribot, because it was "readily identifiable with strength and hardness".[3] This name was considered a better alternative to the first choice, the Adelaide Aces, which Ribot believed was too soft a name and did not work well as a brand for a Super League team. The main colours of the Adelaide Rams were red and blue, although there was yellow in their emblem. Their jerseys remained red and blue until the last game they played in 1998, when they used a mainly yellow jersey to avoid a colour clash with the similar jerseys of the Newcastle Knights.[3] The Rams' initial home ground was Adelaide Oval, a round park that had been used for cricket and Rules for over a century. For their first season they had average home attendances of 15,330, the fourth highest of the Super League teams and fifth highest of all 22 teams in both competitions.[2][15] In 1998, however, the Rams' home attendances diminished, dropping to an average of about 7,500, the fourth lowest of any team in the 20–team competition.[2][6][15] During 1998, the South Australian Cricket Association had ongoing problems with the SARL and the Rams' use of their stadium, Adelaide Oval. The Rams then moved to Hindmarsh Stadium, a rectangular oval more suited to rugby league and owned by the South Australian Soccer Association. They celebrated with a 52-0 defeat over Balmain in the their first match at the stadium. However, attendances did not improve after the move, falling below 7,500.[2][6] [edit] Records and statistics[edit] Individual recordsKerrod Walters, the club’s inaugural captain, played 41 games for the Rams, more than any other player. Most of the club's individual records are held by Graham Appo, who scored the most points in a season, along with the most tries in a season, both achieved in 1998. Appo also held the record for scoring the most points in a match, scoring 24 points twice, against the Balmain Tigers, and then against the Gold Coast Chargers. In these matches he scored three tries, another club record. Appo achieved 116 points for the Rams, two more than Luke Williamson. Appo scored the most tries for the Rams with 12; Williamson, with 45, holds the record for most goals.[2][16] None of Adelaide's players reached international status during its tenure as a club. Kevin Campion in 1997 was the club's only player to represent his state or country, having played for the Queensland state rugby league team in the Super League Tri-Series.[2] [edit] Team performance summaryThe Rams did not win any premierships, minor premierships or wooden spoons in their two seasons. Their biggest win was 52-0 over the Balmain Tigers in 1998 and their biggest losing margin was 42 points, which occurred twice: against the Canberra Raiders in 1997 and the Penrith Panthers in 1998.[2] The Rams had a 32.14% win percentage for all of their premiership games, which made them statistically the sixth worst team in first grade rugby league in Australia, out of 33 teams.[17] [edit] Footnotes
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