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Illawarra Steelers
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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| Full name | Illawarra Steelers |
| Colours | Scarlet (red) and white |
| Entered 1st grade | 1982 |
| Departed 1st grade | 1998 |
| Sport | Rugby league |
| League | NSWRL/ARL, NRL |
| 1998 | 12th of 20 |
| Premierships | Nil |
| Runners-up | Nil |
| Minor premiers | Nil |
| Wooden spoons | 3 - 1985, 1986, 1989 |
| Biggest win | 45 - 0 vs. Canberra, April 25, 19821 |
| Worst defeat | 0 - 51 vs. Newtown, May 2, 19822 |
The Illawarra Steelers are a rugby league football club based in the city of Wollongong in New South Wales, Australia. The club previously played in Australia's top-level rugby league competition from 1982 when they, along with the Canberra Raiders, they were admitted into the New South Wales Rugby League premiership until 1999 when they merged with the St George Dragons.
Their first 8 seasons produced 3 wooden spoons, however a third placing was secured in 1992, and team narrowly missed out on a Grand Final appearance. In the game in which the Steelers would have qualified for the Grand Final, they lost to eventual merger partners St. George Dragons 4-0, despite contentious referee decisions to disallow tries by Illawarra on three separate occasions.
In 1997's stand-alone ARL competition, the Steelers finished sixth, again qualifying for the Finals series, only to bow out in the first week. 1998 saw the Steelers come agonisingly close to the finals, only missing out because of other results going against them.
The Illawarra Steelers produced some brilliant playing talent, most notably International representatives Rod Wishart and Paul McGregor. Former Steelers players Trent Barrett, Shaun Timmins and Craig Fitzgibbon have gone on to represent their country since the Steelers' final stand-alone season in 1998.
In the 1999 season, the Illawarra Steelers merged with the St. George Dragons to form the St George Illawarra Dragons. The Illawarra and St George contingents are equal stakeholders in the new club, and as such half of the new team’s home games are played at the Steelers' former home ground, WIN Stadium. The Illawarra Steelers have at times provided the bulk of St George Illawarra's squad, including internationals Matt Cooper, Luke Bailey, Jason Ryles, Shaun Timmins, Trent Barrett and Ben Creagh.
Some supporters, however, feel that the Illawarra is not appropriately acknowledged in St George Illawarra, as the logo and main jersey were taken directly from those of St George (albeit with the addition of "Illawarra" to the bottom of the emblem). More recently, however, St George Illawarra has taken steps to appropriately acknowledge both St George and Illawarra as equally as possible. One example of this is that, in 2006, St George Illawarra introduced an alternate jersey which was predominantly red (with white stripes), this being recognisably similar to the former Steelers' jersey. This replaced the "blood and bandages" jersey of red-and-white horizontal stripes, which was also a former St George jersey.
While Illawarra is represented in the NRL and New South Wales Rugby League by the St George Illawarra Dragons (in First Grade, NSWRL Premier League and Jersey Flegg competitions), the Illawarra Steelers still participate as a single entity in junior competitions, most notably S.G. Ball and Harold Matthews Cup.
In early 2006, WIN Television Network bought a 25% share in the St. George Illawarra club for $6.5 million, erasing any debt Illawarra had to St. George.
- Allan Fitzgibbon 1982-1983 and 1995
- Brian Smith 1984-1987
- Terry Fearnley 1988
- Ron Hilditch 1989-1990
- Graham Murray 1991-1995
- Allan McMahon 1996
- Andrew Farrar 1997-1998
- This game was played using an obsolete scoring system. Under current scoring guidelines, the score in this game would have been 54–0
- This game was played using an obsolete scoring system. Under current scoring guidelines, the score in this game would have been 0–61