Group 20 is a rugby league competition in the region of Griffith, New South Wales, Australia. The competition is played in six grades, with these being Under 16s, Under 18s, Women's League-Tag, Women's Tackle, Reserve Grade and First Grade. Currently, a home and away season consisting of eighteen rounds is played. The best five teams then play-off according to the McIntyre system, culminating in the Group 20 Grand Final, which is traditionally held at E.W. Moore Oval in Griffith, currently known as Solar Mad Stadium for sponsorship purposes. The defending premiers are the Leeton Greenies, who won their eighth title in 2023 after finishing the regular season in second place.

History

Group 20 was established in 1954, as the Wagga Wagga district competition, after many of those clubs left Group 9 and Group 13. Griffith teams, and others based in the Murrumbidgee Irrigation Area, previously played in both Group 17 and Group 9, prior to various rezonings and redistributions as the code's popularity grew throughout the first half of the 20th century. The competition initially featured the Griffith, Wagga Kangaroos, Wagga Magpies, Leeton, Narrandera, Yanco, Wamoon, Yenda, Batlow, Tumbarumba, Barellan and Turvey Park clubs.

Murrumbidgee Rugby League

In 1966, four Group 20 clubs (and a number of Group 9 clubs including Gundagai, Junee and Tumut) broke away from their competitions to form the rebel Murrumbidgee Rugby League broke away from the Country Rugby League, leading to four years of reshuffled boundaries from 1967 to 1970. The Murrumbidgee Rugby League was renamed to Riverina Zone 3 in 1969-70. Given that a large number of the Group 9 clubs (including Cootamundra, Gundagai, Junee, Tumut) joined the five clubs who broke away from Group 20 to form the new competition (Batlow, Tumbarumba, Turvey Park, Wagga Magpies and Wagga Kangaroos), Group 9 was severely weakened. Therefore, the remaining Group 9 clubs were divided up and put into neighbouring competitions. Barmedman, Temora and West Wyalong joined from Group 9 during this period, leading to the 9/20 name, with all remaining Group 20 clubs from the original split remaining in that competition. Group 20 history recognises the Group 9/20 Premiership as its official history. The dispute was settled in 1971, with Barmedman and West Wyalong deciding to stay in Group 20, whilst Temora returned to Group 9. Barmedman moved to the Group 9 Second Division after the 1972 season.

Recent History

The Darlington Point-Coleambally club won four premierships in the 1980s, with these titles coming in 1980, 1983, 1987 and 1988. The 1990s were dominated by the Yanco-Wamoon club, who won five consecutive premierships from 1992-1996, including three consecutive victories over the Griffith Waratahs club. After being a founding member of the league and winning three premierships in 1986, 1991, and 1999, the Narrandera Lizards club were in recess in the 2000, 2002 seasons, spent 2001 in Group 17, rejoined Group 20 in 2003 and 2004 and again went into recess from 2005 till 2011. Narrandera and Yanco-Wamoon briefly merged to form the Bidgee Hurricanes from 2012 to 2014, although the merger collapsed in 2015 and Yanco-Wamoon emerged as a standalone club. Narrandera then re-formed again and moved to the Western Riverina Community Cup in 2018. The Hay Magpies joined from Group 17 in 2006 after that competition collapsed. Yenda became the first Group 20 side to win the prestigious Clayton Cup as the best team in the state in 2009, when they won their sixth premiership of the decade.

Current clubs

As of 2023, there are eight clubs in the First Grade competition, three of which are located in the City of Griffith where the competition is based (the Griffith Waratah Tigers, who withdrew from all senior competitions in 2023, still compete in the junior competitions). The size of the towns competing varies in size, from Griffith and Leeton at 25,000 and 11,000 respectively, to Yenda and Yanco at 1,000 and 250 people respectively.

Map

Previous clubs

First Grade Grand Finals

Ladies League Tag Grand Finals

Reserve Grade Grand Finals

Under 18's Grand Finals

Under 16's Grand Finals

Group 20 Awards

Ray Thorpe Medal

Ian Herd Memorial Rookie of the Year

Rising Star Award

Club Championship

Juniors

Group 20 Junior Rugby League

Juniors playing in NRL

Griffith Griffith Waratahs ** Leeton** Narrandera Yanco

Sources