Koori Knockout 2026: 180 teams at King Park

The Hunter is about to get very busy over the October long weekend. The 2026 Koori Knockout has been confirmed for King Park — the Kings Park Sporting Complex at 2 Newline Road, Raymond Terrace, on the lands of the Worimi People — and it runs from Friday 2 October to Monday 5 October. The Newcastle Yowies, who are the defending champions, are hosting this time around, which is the prize for winning the last one: the champions earn the right to put on the next knockout.

It is a massive weekend. Around 180 teams have registered to compete, and the carnival is expected to pull in roughly 10,000 people a day across four days of rugby league matches, food stalls and community activities. It has earned the description of a modern-day corroboree and is one of the biggest Indigenous gatherings in Australia, so it is as much a cultural outing as a sporting one, and a popular one for families to take in.

King Park is well set up for it. The complex sits along the Williams River and has five fields that double for cricket, soccer and touch football, plus accessible amenities, change rooms and a canteen. Port Stephens Council has put some real work into the place, securing an $840,000 grant to upgrade the facilities at the complex, and Mayor Leah Anderson has said hosting the event helps position Port Stephens as a premier sporting destination.

If you cannot make it down in person, you can still follow it. NITV holds the exclusive broadcast rights, with coverage across NITV, SBS On Demand and NITV's digital platforms. The broadcast kicks off on Thursday 1 October at 6:30 pm AEST, and the live matches air from 9:00 am AEST on both Sunday 4 October and Monday 5 October. The commentary team is a big draw in its own right, with Over the Black Dot presenter and Anaiwan Aboriginal Dean Widders, Bidjigal Aboriginal Brad Cooke, Ngemba-Muruwari Aboriginal Dan Conifer, international Timana Tahu, Gudjula and Erubiana Aboriginal and award-winning touch, rugby union and rugby league player Bo de la Cruz, and NRL player and Dunghutti Aboriginal Beau Champion all involved.

There is some real history behind the whole thing. The Knockout was founded in 1971 by six men affiliated with Koorie United — Bob Smith, Bob Morgan, Bill Kennedy, Danny Rose, Victor Wright and the late George Jackson, with Barbara Flick added as a seventh founder by some accounts. The first one was held at Camdenville Park, also known as Camdenville Oval, in St Peters, over the October weekend of 1971, with only seven teams. More than 55 years on, it is still run largely by and for the Aboriginal community, funded mostly through private sponsorship and community support and put together on a volunteer basis. The Redfern All-Blacks hold the record for the most titles, with eight. The Yowies, based at 71 Prospect Road in Garden Suburb, are the ones to beat this year.