Aussie Sports Teams That Never Played

Aussie Sports Teams That Never Played

Dylan Leach

With the Redcliffe Dolphins confirmed to be the 17th NRL team to enter the competition from 2023, we saw fit to pay tribute to the teams and competitions that never got off the ground.

From failed bids, botched-up merger deals, and rebel leagues, Australian Sport has no shortage of could have been/sliding door moments that would have changed to course of history.

We list just a few of them that never took to the field.

NRL:
Brisbane Firehawks

A bid from traditional Q-Cup/BRL Club Easts Tigers, the team would have been known as the Brisbane Firehawks.

Given the NRL already had a Tigers team, the bid committee opted to go with the Firehawks as the nickname.

Easts CEO Brian Torpy described the Firehawk as “We wanted something unique, Australian, not something ripped from American sport. So we came up with the Firehawk. A bird that changes the environment for the better, to sustain it. We’re hunters, not cannibals.”

Brisbane Bombers

It’s been up to a decade since the NRL started talking about another team in Brisbane, with the Brisbane Bombers being an early contender to be the Broncos new cross-town rival but it didn’t eventuate.

It was a somewhat controversial nickname name choice, with the Essendon Bombers in the AFL threatening legal action.

The Bombers bid persisted for the good part of a decade until the group director Nicholas Livermore teamed up with the Western Corridor/Ipswich bid.

Brisbane Jets

The Brisbane Jets was a consortium made up of the Brisbane Bombers and Western Corridor bids for which the club would have been based in the West Brisbane/Ipswich region, one of Queensland’s Rugby League heartlands.

In the brutal climate of “code wars” and the AFL making inroads to the area, the Jets believed they had what it took to combat the rival games charge with the bid targeting the likes of Cameron Munster and Harry Grant.

Like the Firehawks, it missed out on the 17th licence to the Redcliffe Dolphins.

Central Coast Bears

https://youtu.be/IH3K4weA2ac

After the North Sydney Bears merged with Manly to become the Northern Eagles from 2000-02, and then de-merged they were left on their own.

Enter the Central Coast Bears, which was one of three bids to be the 16th NRL team back in 2006, but missed out to the team that would become known as the Gold Coast Titans.

Whenever expansion of the competition is mentioned, North Sydney/Central Coast Bears always tends to be in the conversation but nothing has come of it yet.

Actually, having heard the song “Bring Back the Bears” we can understand the NRL’s decision not to allow them in the comp.

South Pacific Cyclones

There was a proposal for a second New Zealand-based team to enter the NRL known as the aptly titled South Pacific Cyclones.

The Cyclones would have been based in Wellington with half of their home games played in the NZ capital and the others spread around the country and the Pacific, with Rotorua considered.

Nothing ever came of it, but a clash with the Melbourne Storm would have created epic Wild-Weather derbies.

Global League

When Super League was prevented from going ahead in 1996 (it did in 1997), the players who had signed contracts with News Limited proposed another rebel competition with knock-off team names.

This report from the old Channel 10 Sports Tonight program explains the player’s proposal.

Spoiler alert: it never happened.

AFL:

Fitzroy Bulldogs

At the end of the 1989 season, the merger between Fitzroy and Footscray to play as the Fitzroy Bulldogs in 1990 was all but a done deal.

It took a last-minute court injunction and the Footscray supporters raising the funds needed to save the club in just under a month to prevent it from happening.

The 1990 Melways street directory even lists the Fitzroy Bulldogs home ground as Princes Park.

Port Adelaide 1990

South Australia held off joining the newly named AFL in the early days until the SANFL’s biggest club, the Port Adelaide Magpies went behind SA footy’s back and were to join the national competition from 1991.

The rest of South Australian Football took Port to court seeking an injunction and in the process formed the Adelaide Crows.

Port had to come back and take up the second South Australian licence in 1995, making their debut as Port Power in 1997.

East-Coast Bears

Legend has it that in the early 1990s when both the Sydney Swans and Brisbane Bears were struggling in the AFL, League commissioner Graeme Samuel proposed that the two clubs merge to become the East-Coast Bears.

It was laughed out of the room.

North-Fitzroy Kangaroos

It was just about a done deal in 1996 when North Melbourne and Fitzroy was set to become the North-Fitzroy Kangaroos, but the other AFL clubs weren’t having a bar of it, thinking that a superclub would then dominate the competition.

North withdrew from the merger negotiations, and Fitzroy who was under administration at the time merged with the Brisbane Bears who agreed to the other clubs terms and conditions.

The Brisbane Lions were born, the North-Fitzroy Kangaroos was dead.

Melbourne Hawks

Back in 1996, Melbourne had money, Hawthorn was broke, both teams had a similar fan base. In the times when mergers were all the rage at AFL HQ, it made sense.

No one asked the fans though, ironically these two sides would meet in the final home and away round of 1996 in the famous “merger match” for which the Hawks won by a point.

The NO MERGER campaign was strong for both camps and when both sets of members went to a vote in September of that year, Hawks legend Don Scott famously ripped off a velcro Hawk of a Melbourne jumper and the Melbourne Hawks never happened.

Both clubs have gone on to win premierships (Hawthorn 4, Melbourne 1) in their own right 25-years later.

Tasmania

Tassie has been trying to get into the AFL for years.

When the AFL made it clear they wanted to expand and put teams on the Gold Coast and Western Sydney back in 2008, Tasmania, an actual football heartland state, saw fit to throw their hat into the ring.

It even had public support and Mars committed to being the Tassie team’s major sponsor.

The then Premier of the state Paul Lennon met with AFL CEO Andrew Demetriou but got the “Don’t call us, we’ll call you” treatment.

Tassie still doesn’t have a team and it’s a disgrace.

A-LEAGUE:
Southern Expansion

Southern Expansion was hardly an inspiring name, but in the recent round of the A-League adding more teams, the bid was controversial at best.

Drawing the ire of Sydney FC in the bidding process, and accused of treading on their turf the bid which had the likes of Craig Foster as the public face of the proposed club missed out when the FFA gave the green light to Macarthur and Western United.

The bid team took it well, with an explosive statement from the CEO Chris Gardnier when they failed

“Sadly, we believe this an opportunity lost not only for the Southern region but the whole of the A-League and W-League.

“Unfortunately, it will now take at least a decade of projected growth elsewhere in Sydney to even come close to what Southern had put on the table,” he said.

“If FFA wanted immediate success for A-League expansion, it’s surprising that they’ve voted against Southern Expansion.”

Team 11

A South-East Melbourne based bid to join the A-League to be based at Dandenong/Casey Fields.

The club had proposed a Stadium in Dandenong but no solid plans had been set in stone.

However, Melbourne City will now base itself in the region effectively becoming what Team 11 wanted to be.

South Melbourne

Whenever the A-League wants to expand, the traditional NSL Club South Melbourne is the first one to come knocking on the door, only to get knocked back every time.

Only recently, Western United, the club which beat South for the most recent round of A-League licences tried to hire Lakeside Stadium for a number of home games this season, only to have South kick them out as part of the club’s lease agreement.

Petty revenge at its best.

Clive Palmer’s Football Australia

When Clive’s Gold Coast United got kicked out of the A-League, Clive Palmer hit back setting up his own governing body for the World Game in Australia – FOOTBALL AUSTRALIA.

With the motto of “WE KICK HARDER”, Clive promised a royal commission into the sport but the findings are still yet to be released.

NBL:

Southern Huskies

There’s no shortage of teams that have come and gone in the NBL, but there’s only a handful of franchises that never even graced the court.

The Southern Huskies was the brainchild of local businessman and former Devils player Justin Hickey who made a proposal to get a Tassie team back in Basketball for the 2020 season.

The bid fell short when the local council wouldn’t give access to the arena.

In season 2021-22, the Jackjumpers will be the apple isle’s newest NBL team but the Huskies really could have been something.