In Strathfield, 2004, a group of Maltese-Australians, including former Parramatta Harold Matthews coach Joe Grima and his assistant Tony Farr, hatched a plan to bring the greatest game of all to the islands of Malta.
Today, rugby league is one of the fastest growing sports across Europe, with Sweden, Denmark, Norway, the Czech Republic, Germany, Italy and Greece among the Rugby League European Federation member nations.
But it took a lot of hard work to get here, said Maltese national coach and co-founder of Malta Rugby League, Anthony Micallef:
“Our plan was to bring rugby league to Malta and give the locals another sporting outlet.”
It has been hard to gain a foothold in Malta, given they have had football on the islands for over 100 years and rugby union starting up at the end of the second world war.
“It has been an uphill battle in terms of funding, players and facilities… government funding is little to nothing at all, we play in the summer which is restricted due to the high temperatures and we share facilities with the football clubs,” Micallef added.
As Micallef said, many of the players are trying a new sport and as such development won’t happen overnight, but they have development squads in the UK, Australia and the US, in addition to a fledgling, four-team national championship.
Malta has had the fortune of being able to call on NRL level players in the past, including former Penrith Panthers and current Bradford Bulls halfback Jarrod Sammut, retired Eels forward Michael Vella, Dan and Ben Galea as well as former Roosters, Parramatta and Penrith first grader Shane Shackleton.
“We have nearly 200 Maltese eligible players based in Australia and our development teams in the US and the UK are doing their best to find more Maltese talent,” Micallef said.
Australian Brad Littlefair has been selected in Malta’s provisional 33 man squad to face the British Army’s Mercian 1’s team.
“Littlefair is a good player and he’ll trial with the team next week. It’s great to see though that we have 25 of the 33 man squad based in Malta… it shows how far Maltese rugby league has come and that we are continually improving the game locally.”
A major hurdle for the game In Malta has been funding, with the ARL providing no funding to the European teams. The majority of funding comes from England.
“Obviously some funding from Australia would help the game grow over here. We have so many Australian-based players and there is a large amount of support for the Maltese in Australia,” Micallef pointed out.
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