Touch Football Australia

{{See also|Rugby league}}

The Australian Touch Association (ATA) was founded in 1978, following the formation of several state-level organisations, as the national governing body of the sport. The ATA was responsible for the coordination of the sport at a national level, which included the creation of a national championships and the release of the first official rule book, in 1980.{{Cite web|url=http://touchfootball.com.au/a-brief-history-of-touch-football/|title=A brief history of Touch Football – Touch Football Australia|website=touchfootball.com.au|language=en-US|access-date=2018-05-21}}

In 2004, following a review into the sport by David Shilbury and Pamm Kellett,{{Cite web|url=http://touchfootball.com.au/australian-touch-delivering-a-better-product/|title=AUSTRALIAN TOUCH- DELIVERING A BETTER PRODUCT – Touch Football Australia|website=touchfootball.com.au|language=en-US|access-date=2018-05-21}} the ATA adopted a new national structure, absorbing the operations of all member states and territories (with the exception of the Queensland and New South Wales association) and began trading as Touch Football Australia.

There are now over 600,000 registered members and 500,000 children who participate in Touch Football and according to Australian Sports Commission statistics, it is among the top participation based, organised sports in Australia.

File:NRL Touch Football logo.svg

On August 13, 2013, Touch Football Australia and the National Rugby League announced a joint-venture partnership between the two organisations to work together and form the largest sporting community in Australia.{{Cite web|url=http://touchfootball.com.au/an-historic-day-for-touch-football/|title=An Historic Day for Touch Football! – Touch Football Australia|website=touchfootball.com.au|language=en-US|access-date=2018-05-15}} The partnership resulted in a major boost to funding and promotion of touch football across the country, with an aim to boost participation rates of both sports. As part of the partnership, the "NRL Touch Football" brand was created to align the marketing of the sport to the NRL brand profile.

Australia's national touch football teams are known as the [https://touchfootball.com.au/pathways/australian-emus/ Emus].

• Men's Open
• Women's Open
• Mixed Open
• Women's Over 27 Years
• Senior Mixed
• Men's Over 30 Years
• Men's Over 35 Years
• Men's Over 40 Years
• Men's Over 50 Years
• Australian Referees

{{Main|National Touch League}}

Founded in 1997, the National Touch League was the only domestic competition for touch football in Australia, until the formation of the sport's first national home and away competition, the NRL Touch Premiership, in 2018.{{Cite news|url=https://www.nrl.com/news/2018/04/18/nrl-announces-historic-touch-football-premiership-competition/|title=NRL announces historic Touch football premiership competition|date=2018-04-18|work=National Rugby League|access-date=2018-05-15|language=en-AU}}

{{Main|NRL Touch Premiership}}

In May 2018, in partnership with the National Rugby League, Touch Football Australia launched the NRL Touch Premiership. The competition features six touch football teams aligned to NRL teams.

The inaugural teams include:{{Cite web|url=http://touchfootball.com.au/the-nrl-touch-premiership-clubs-have-been-announced/|title=The NRL Touch Premiership clubs have been announced! – Touch Football Australia|website=touchfootball.com.au|language=en-US|access-date=2018-05-15}}

• QLD Cowboys (North Queensland Cowboys)
• QLD Titans (Gold Coast Titans)
• QLD Broncos (Brisbane Broncos)
• Newcastle Knights (Newcastle Knights)
• Parramatta Eels (Parramatta Eels)
• Wests Tigers (Wests Tigers)

The competition is divided into two conferences - Queensland (Cowboys, Broncos, Titans) and New South Wales (Knights, Eels, Tigers) - during the regular season, and culminates in the first placed teams from each conference competing in the grand final.

All matches are played prior to NRL matches with coverage being provided by broadcast partners Fox Sports Australia.

[https://touchfootball.com.au/news/2022/02/1/team-announcement-harvey-norman-indigenous-and-maori-all-stars/ Elite Indigenous and Maori Touch Football teams] have regularly taken part in the [https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-02-12/nrl-all-stars-indigenous-vs-maori-mens-and-womens/100825902 NRL Indigenous Australian vs Maori All-Stars event], playing the curtain-raiser to the men's and women's NRL games.

Australia participates in the Touch Football World Cup at an international level. Since the inaugural World Cup in 1988 they have won 332 games out of the 362 they have played.

At the recent World Cup that was hosted at the Coffs Harbour International Stadium in Coffs Harbour Australia won eight of the nine categories they competed in.{{cite web|url = http://touchfootball.com.au/index.php?id=13&tx_ttnews%5Btt_news%5D=4771&cHash=ce6d7950c9|title = Australia wins the 2015 World Cup!|author = touchfootball.com.au|date = 7 May 2015|accessdate = 12 May 2015}}{{cite web|url=http://www.coffscoastadvocate.com.au/news/aussies-dominate-gold-medals-touch-world-cup/2626856/ |title=Aussies dominate gold medals at Touch World Cup |author=Ben Harris|date=3 May 2015 |accessdate=12 May 2015}}

Australia's national touch football teams compete against New Zealand in [https://touchfootball.com.au/trans-tasman/ Trans-Tasman Test Series].

There are eight member associations in each state:

• [http://www.acttouch.com.au/ Touch Football Australian Capital Territory]
• [http://www.nswtouch.com.au/ Touch Football New South Wales]
• [https://touchfootball.com.au/nt/ Touch Football Northern Territory]
• [http://www.qldtouch.com.au Touch Football Queensland]
• [http://www.touchsa.com.au/ Touch Football South Australia]
• [http://www.tastouch.com.au/ Touch Football Tasmania]
• [https://touchfootball.com.au/vic/ Touch Football Victoria]
• [http://www.sportingpulse.com/assoc_page.cgi?client=1-704-0-0-0 Touch Football Western Australia]

Australian touch football Hall of Famers:{{cite web|url=http://touchfootball.com.au/index.php?id=1272 |title=Hall of Fame |author=touchfootball.com.au |date=2015 |accessdate=12 May 2015}}

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• Terry Jacks
• Karen Smith
• Lisa Neal
• Ray Lawrence
• Ron Wall
• Kerry Norman
• Mark Boland
• Scott Notley
• Craig Pierce
• Katrina Toohey (née Maher)
• Bob Brindell
• Peter McNeven
• Rick Borg

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• Mick McCall
• Peter Bell
• Garry Lawless
• Stacey Black (née Gregory)
• Stephen Pike
• Dean Russell
• David Cheung
• Tim Kitchingham
• Renee Murphy
• Sharyn Williams
• Darren Shelley
• Gai Taylor
• Owen Lane

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{{Reflist}}

• {{Official website|http://www.touchfootball.com.au/}}

{{Sports governing bodies in Australia}}

Category:Touch (sport)

Category:Sports governing bodies in Australia