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Other ball sports

Basketball

Basketball is a widely played sport throughout Victoria, equally popular with both males and females. There are numerous basketball associations around the state. As well as those based in Melbourne, there are many in large - and not so large - country towns. Competitions cater to both senior and junior players, and associations have representative sides that compete at inter-association tournaments. There are also state leagues available for all ages.

At the national level, there is the National Basketball League (NBL) for men and the Women's National Basketball League (WNBL). The NBL is an eight-team competition in which there is one team from Victoria, the Melbourne Tigers. A long established club that fields teams at all levels of competition, the Tigers first joined the competition in 1980. Their NBL home games are played at the State Netball Hockey Centre in Parkville.

In the WNBL, three of the ten teams competing are from Victoria. The Bulleen Boomers has been in the league the longest, followed by the Dandenong Rangers and the Bendigo Spirit, which joined in 2007.

Another top league is the South East Australian Basketball League (SEABL) which has competitions available for both men's and women's teams from New South Wales, South Australia, Tasmania and Victoria.

Further information:
- Basketball Victoria: www.basketballvictoria.com.au
- NBL: www.nbl.com.au
- WBL: www.nbl.com.au
- SEABL: www.seabl.com.au
- State Netball Hockey Centre: www.snhc.com.au

Hockey

Although not as widely played as sports such as football and netball, hockey is popular throughout Victoria. There are over 60 clubs in Melbourne and 22 associations in country regions. Played mainly in winter, there are competitions available for players of all skill levels.

As with many team sports, there is the opportunity for talented players of all ages to compete in top class events. State leagues pit the best teams in Victoria against each other, while national competitions bring together the best players from each state.

There are several national championships held each year catering to both senior and junior players. There are also national indoor and veterans championships held. National championships are run by Hockey Australia with the host state or territory rotated each year.

The top national senior competition for both men and women is the Australian Hockey League (AHL). It is an eight-team competition with each state and territory represented. The Victorian men's team is known as the Victorian Vikings and the women's as the Victorian Vipers. Rather than a weekly competition, it is run as a round robin tournament of seven rounds followed by finals. The first five rounds take place over two weekends, a couple of weeks apart. Then a full week of competition takes place in which further rounds are played, followed by the finals. Matches are played in a number of states each year giving spectators around the country the chance to see top class hockey action.

Further information:
- Australian Hockey League: www.hockey.org.au
- Hockey Victoria: www.hockeyvictoria.org.au

Netball

While football is the predominant winter sport for Victorian males, netball is the female equivalent. In country areas, netball competitions have traditionally followed the local football fixtures, a fact which is now recognised by the recent name change of many of the football leagues to football netball leagues.

Netball competitions in their own right, however, are also found throughout the state, catering for beginners of all ages through to elite athletes.

The top netball competition in Australia is the ANZ Championship, a trans-Tasman competition with five teams each from Australia and New Zealand. The Victorian representative team is the Melbourne Vixens. Their home games are played at either Hisense Arena, at Melbourne Park, or the State Netball Hockey Centre (SNHC), which is located next to the Melbourne Zoo at Parkville, and features five indoor netball courts, the main court with seating capacity for over 3000 spectators.

There is also a ten team state league which battles for the Holden Cruze Cup. These games are mostly played at the SNHC.

As has become the case with a number of traditional men's sports, netball is crossing the gender gap, with men's and mixed competitions becomingly increasingly popular. The M League is the top Victorian men's and mixed competition. The SNHC is also the venue for these games.

Further information:
- Netball Victoria: www.netballvic.com.au
- Victorian Mens Netball League: www.mensnetballvic.com.au
- Hisense Arena: www.hisensearena.com.au
- State Netball Hockey Centre: www.snhc.com.au

Rugby

Although it doesn't have as many followers in Victoria as Aussie rules football, rugby is steadily growing in popularity. Rugby league is probably the better known of the rugby codes in Victoria due to the inclusion of the Melbourne Storm club in the National Rugby League (NRL) from the late 1990s.

Rugby union, however, is the older of the two codes and is the more widely played in Victoria, with about twice as many clubs as rugby league. The newly formed Melbourne Rebels, Victoria's first professional rugby union club, will join the international Super 15 tournament in 2011.

Elite level rugby games are played at AAMI Park, a stadium purposely built for rugby and soccer, near Melbourne Park and the MCG.

Further information:
- NRL: www.nrl.com
- Victorian Rugby Union: www.vicrugby.com.au
- AAMI Park: www.aamipark.com.au

Soccer

Regarded by some as the true form of football, soccer is another sport emerging from the shadow of Aussie rules football. This is probably, at least in part, due to the growing cultural diversity in Victoria.

As with other sports, Victoria hosts competitions catering to all levels of ability. At the upper state level is the Premier League, with competitions for both men and women, played at various venues around Melbourne.

At the national level, Melbourne's first club is the Melbourne Victory. They field teams in both the men's A-League competition and the women's W-League and are also part of the Asian Champions League. In 2010, a second Melbourne club, Melbourne Heart, joined the A-League.

National matches are played at either AAMI Park, in the Melbourne sports and entertainment precinct, or Etihad Stadium at Docklands. Melbourne also hosts some international matches, with these sometimes being played at the MCG.

Further information:
- A-League: www.a-league.com.au
- Football Federation Victoria: www.footballfedvic.com.au
- AAMI Park: www.aamipark.com.au
- Etihad Stadium: www.etihadstadium.com.au