The History of Touch
Touch Football has over 400,000 registered members and an additional 500,000 children
participating in school programs and rel ated activities, which places the sport among the
top participant based, organised sports in Australia.
The game of Touch had very humble beginnings indeed. Used as a training technique for
Rugby League teams during the 1950 ’s and 60’s it was never seen as a sport in its own right.
Eventually more and more people turned to touch for a safe social game to play and it soon
became inevitable that an official competition would be held. It was in 1968 that the first
recognised competition took place with the forma tion of the South Sydney Touch Football
Association at Pioneer Park, Malabar. The sport quickly took hold in a number of inner -city
areas of Sydney and the New South Wales Touch Association was formed in 1972, catering
for six affiliated associations and a pproximately 1500 registered players. The first country
association was in Wagga Wagga, which was formed in 1973 .
Touch later spread to a number of other NSW country regions before it became an official
sport in Brisbane. From there it spread to every othe r state and territory in Australia, and
the Australian Touch Football Association was subsequently formed in November 1978.
With the formation of several Associations, rules began to be standardised, although an
official rule book was not developed until late in 1980. I n September 1981 the sports name
was officially changed from `Touch Football' to `Touch', though to many the sport has also
been known as 'Touch Rugby'. A number of other changes followed, including the
introduction of an official touch ball, which is smal ler than a League or Union ball , and some
major rule changes such as the move from 7 to 6 -a-side in the mid 90’s.
The Australian Touch Association has since re -branded itself as “Touch Football Australia”
with the sport now also once again identi fied as 'Touch Football' in an effort to clarify that
it is a 'sport with a ball'. Whilst kicking i s not a feature of Touch football, the use of the
term 'Touch Rugby' lends itself to an impression that the sport may be of a hard, physical
nature, which is far from the truth.
The earliest interstate clashes in Touch occurred when the Brisbane Touch Asso ciation
representative team played a NSW (South Sydney) team in 1973, 1974, and 1975. NSW
wanted to have this match played ten -a-side but Brisbane would not allow this and the
matches were played 8-a-side on a standard Rugby League field. One of the games in the
series was played as a curtain raiser to an interstate Rugby League clash. In 197 7, following
a tied first match, Touch was played as a curtain raiser to the replayed Sydney Rugby League
Grand Final between the St George Dragons and the Parramatta Eels.
The first National Championships were held on the Gold Coast in December 1980.
In 1985 the Federation of International Touch was formed in Melbourne with Canada, the
USA, Fiji, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea and Australia the inaugural members. The first
recognised international game was a test ser ies played between Australia and New Zealand
at the South Melbourne Cricket Ground on 23 March 1985
In 1997 the National Championships was replaced with the National Touch League (NTL) a national tournament designed to be the pinnacle of domestic competition in Australia,
and allowing competitors to identify with a regional area . This tournament has recently
seen the addition of the Elite 8 super series.
The North Queensland Touch Association
The North Queensland Touch Association (NQTA) was officially formed in 197 4, and
consists of affiliated Touch associations spread from Mackay in the South to Weipa in the
North and stretching out to Mount Isa in the West.
The first NQ Championships were staged in Townsville in June 1978, with teams from the
then ten (10) affiliated bodies competing in the sole division of Men ’s Over 25 years.
The NQTA continues to be amongst the best performing . and professionally administered,
regional bodies across the country. At the representative level, the region is
affectionately known as the “North Queensland Tropical Cyclones ”.