Wagga Tigers

Despite boasting a population of only 40,000 or so the Riverina town of Wagga Wagga has produced a disproportionately high number of champions in numerous sports, with football among the best served. It is hardly surprising therefore that the town’s football team, the Wagga Tigers, has performed with consistent credit since being formed in 1928. During the last decade and a half of the twentieth century in particular, the team was prodigiously successful: between 1985 and 2001 the Tigers contested virtually every RivFL grand final, winning the flag on eight occasions. The club’s dominance was so consummate that it began to seek a more challenging environment in which to flex its muscles. When overtures to the Ovens and Murray Football League floundered, the Tigers were delighted to receive an attractive proposal from the one of the strongest leagues in the country, the Australian Capital Territory Australian Football League.\n\nThe Tigers took their ACTAFL bows in 2002, and while it would be fair to suggest that they found the increase in standard somewhat daunting, they were far from overwhelmed. Sixth position in its first four seasons and seventh in its fifth was, on the face of it, nothing to get particularly excited about, but the club proved itself a viable contributor to a vibrant, high standard, professionally run competition. At the conclusion of the 2006 season, however, the decision was taken, for a combination of reasons, to return ‘home’ to the RivFL, where immediate premiership success was attained thanks to an emphatic 16.17 (113) to 6.13 (49) grand final defeat of Narrandera. The Tigers have continued to perform quite strongly since, especially in 2009 when they topped the ladder going into the finals, but there have been no further premierships.