A comprehensive guide to Sydney’s sports teams

Going to a stadium to support your team is an incredible way to meet people, build community and feel life’s highs and lows. But who will you support? Here’s a guide to Sydney sport.

Destination NSW

Aug 2023 -

min read

Australians love sport, but unlike most other countries, we don’t have a national sport. Instead, people play and watch many sports, depending on the season and their preference. Sydney is no different, with well-supported teams in football, rugby, cricket, Aussie rules football (AFL) and more. This guide will help you pick the right sport and team for you.

Football (soccer)

Almost every country in the world has their own football competition and in Australia it’s called the A League, a competition with passionate fans and international players across men’s and women’s competitions. Sydney has three teams, which each have both active and non-active fan support, so you can either chant and jump up and down or be more relaxed and simply watch the game.

Sydney FC ALW Grand Final Champions - Credit: Sydney FC

Sydney FC are based in Moore Park and have a tradition of English-style fan support where fans sing and chant throughout the game. Western Sydney Wanderers, based in Parramatta, have a multicultural fan base and a European style of support with drumming, flags, jumping up and down and ole ole chants. Then there’s Macarthur FC, known as the Bulls, who represent South West Sydney. Their fans bring cow bells to the games for extra noise.

Commbank Stadium in Parramatta

Tickets: While individual game tickets are around $15 to $30 (depending on the team), season tickets, which give you access to all home games, start at $115.

AFL (Australian Rules Football)

AFL is a sport unique to Australia. It involves two teams wrestling and sprinting to get control of an oval ball that they need to kick through two goalposts at either end of the field. It’s high scoring and extremely athletic. The men’s AFL league is one of the five highest attended leagues of any sport in the world, so expect big crowds with lots of fans showing their team colours at games. The women’s, a newer professional league, is growing fast.

GWS Giants

Sydney has two teams, competing in both men’s and women’s. The Sydney Swans, an east Sydney team who play in the historic Sydney Cricket Ground, are Sydney’s original team. GWS Giants are their rivals. They have a multicultural fan base and play at Sydney Olympic Park in west Sydney.

Tickets: Entry to a match starts at $10 and season tickets start at $90. Note, tickets to the men's games are significantly more expensive than tickets for women’s.

Rugby League

With nine men’s teams and five women’s teams, Sydney is the home of Rugby League. Choosing a team from NRL, the national competition, can be hard. You can pick based on favourite colour, team culture or just go for the winning team (historically, that’s South Sydney Rabbitohs). Our recommendation is to choose based on location, with almost every region of Sydney is represented. You can see a map of the stadiums here.

Manly Sea Eagles vs Sydney Roosters at ANZ Stadium NRL Rugby League Grand Final

Tickets: NRLW, the women’s competition, has tickets going from as low as $8. Tickets to men’s games usually start around the $20 to $30 mark.

Rugby Union

Rugby Union differs from Rugby League in both rules and culture. While Rugby League is much more locally popular, Rugby Union has a bigger international following. The local competition, called Super Rugby, has teams competing from Fiji, New Zealand and the Pacific Islands (South Africa, Argentina and Japan have competed in the past too). There is only one Sydney team, NSW Waratahs, who play at Sydney Football Stadium.

Allianz Stadium at Moore Park

Tickets: Entry to a game usually starts in the $30 to $40 range for men’s with women’s tickets going for considerably less.

Cricket

There are two kinds of cricket to watch in Sydney. Longer form, traditional test cricket where matches can go for multiple days, and the fast-paced Twenty20 style of cricket, where matches last just a single evening. Fans love the former for its tactical depth and links to international test cricket, while the latter is popular with families and sometimes includes fireworks and music. In test cricket you can follow the NSW Blues, a team with international-level stars who play in the Sheffield Shield.

In the local Twenty20 competition, The Big Bash League, there is the Sydney Thunder based in Western Sydney and the Sydney Sixers who are based in the east. All three teams, the Blues, Sydney Thunder and Sydney Sixers, have both men’s and women’s teams.

Sydney Cricket Ground

Tickets: Big Bash men’s tickets usually start at around $20 and $10 for women’s. The Sheffield Shield is even cheaper.

Other sports

Sydney also has professional teams in a number of other leagues. In netball you can follow the Giants (Western Sydney) or the NSW Swifts (inner Sydney). If you’re into basketball, you can support the Sydney Kings in the men’s competition or the Sydney Flames in the women’s (both based at Sydney Olympic Park). The Blue Sox are a baseball team based in Blacktown. There are also three hockey teams: NSW Pride in field hockey (based at Sydney Olympic Park) and the Sydney Bears and the Sydney Ice Dogs for ice hockey (both play at the Macquarie Ice Rink).