In Australia’s smallest football league Ravensthorpe and Hopetoun face off every single week

ABC NEWS (Australia)

Western Australia has what it claims to be Australia’s smallest football league. The Ravensthorpe and Districts Sport Association has only two clubs. The two teams often share players, and even sometimes change the rules to make sure there is a game every weekend.

Transcript

00:00Few footballers can say with confidence they'll play in the grand final before the first bounce

00:07down of the season.

00:08That is, unless you play for Hopeton or Ravensthorpe.

00:11So as far as I know we're the only two team comp in the country, or there's one other

00:16possibly floating around, so it is a pretty special rivalry.

00:20It's really good for this community.

00:22One training a week and a game and a few beers and a laugh.

00:25The teams have faced off every round since 2017, when Lake King was no longer able to

00:30field a side.

00:31We have kids from 14 and up, no upper age limit and no requirement for skill or anything.

00:42Sometimes it's a struggle for numbers, so they scale down to a soccer pitch.

00:45We do have to share players from time to time and we also try to play 14 a side, but sometimes

00:54if we don't even have enough for that we'll change our field and play the AFL X.

00:59It's more just to play really, what else are you going to do on the weekend, it's really

01:02important that we keep the footy going.

01:04A lot of people will work together in the towns because we're so close, so yeah it's

01:10super social but then come grand final it is on, oh god.

01:17The tempo gets serious in the game that decides the premiership cup and the wooden spoon.

01:21Definitely on grand final day if you live in Hopi you play for Hopi and if you live

01:25in Ravey and the surrounds you play for Ravey, so serious stuff.

01:29It's been a challenging year for the community with the loss of more than 300 jobs at the

01:33Ravensthorpe Nickel Mine, but at the footy field the show goes on.

01:37Ravey and Hopi and Lakes, they're resilient guys, resilient people and come from good

01:43stock, they've done it before so they'll do it again.

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