The NSWRL has been crowned the Organisation of the Year at the prestigious 2022 Rebel NSW Champions of Sports Awards at the International Convention and Exhibition Centre in Darling Harbour on Monday night.
NSWRL Chief Executive David Trodden collected the award after the NSWRL was chosen over the other finalists including Football NSW, Little Athletics NSW, Volleyball NSW, and Wheelchair Sports NSW/ACT.
It is the second time in four years the NSWRL has been named Organisation of the Year after also taking out the award in 2019.
“This is a great honour for our organisation and acknowledgment of the efforts for our game across the state,” NSWRL Chief Executive David Trodden said.
“I am very proud of everyone that I have the privilege to work with and proud of everyone in the NSWRL family for the outcomes they continue to achieve.”
The NSWRL continued to enjoy success both on and off the field in 2022 despite the extremely difficult circumstances of the past two seasons which have confronted all sports across the state, including the COVID pandemic and extreme weather conditions of bushfires and flooding.
The participation figures for 2022 are at almost 106,000, which includes a record number of 23,109 participants for women’s Rugby League.
The NSWRL also enjoys the support of almost 26,500 volunteers and coaches every season which is acknowledged in the annual NSWRL Community Awards. A club and three people from NSW later went on to claim four of the six awards in the NRL Community Awards.
The NSWRL has demonstrated its commitment to community with several programs to promote diversity and inclusion, including a Women in Sport Leadership program which provides aspiring elite female coaches and administrators with further skills and knowledge to excel as leaders.
Other programs include the Blues Youth Leadership Program, which saw NSW Blues coach Brad Fittler share the values of the NSW Origin team to more than 2000 high school students across the state, and the Changing Rooms program, which involves True Blue Paul Langmack talking to teenagers about the importance of mental fitness.
The NSWRL also committed $600,000 in funding as part of a flood relief package for communities across the state, particularly in northern NSW, which had been devastated by the floods.
On the field, the NSWRL fell just short of a clean sweep of the State of Origin series after winning three of the four major elite trophies. The Harvey Norman NSW Sky Blues won the Shield back for the first time since 2019; the Under 19s Women’s maintained their unbeaten run; while the Under 19s Men’s made a triumphant return to the representative arena after COVID forced the match to be abandoned for the past three years.
The NSWRL congratulates the Penrith Panthers after they were named Team of the Year at the 2022 Rebel NSW Champions of Sport Awards. The Panthers became the first club in history to win four competitions in the same season: the Telstra Premiership in the NRL, and The Knock-On Effect NSW Cup, Jersey Flegg Cup and SG Ball Cup in the NSWRL.
