Adelaide Roller Derby (ADRD) is a

roller derby Roller derby is a roller skating contact sport played by two teams of fifteen members. Roller derby is played by approximately 1,250 amateur leagues worldwide, mostly in the United States. Game play consists of a series of short scrimmages (j ...

league based in Adelaide, South Australia. Founded in 2007, the league has four competitive home teams; The Mile Die Club, The Salties (formerly The Salty Dolls), The Road Train Rollers and The Wild Hearses, an officiating 'Team Zebra'. and a combined representative team, the "Adeladies", that compete against other leagues. Adelaide Roller Derby's home season is held at the

Adelaide Showgrounds The Adelaide Showground holds many of Adelaide's most popular events, including the Royal Adelaide Show. The Showground (also popularly known as the Wayville Showgrounds) is located in the inner-southern Adelaide suburb of Wayville, just so ...

, and the league is a member of the

Women's Flat Track Derby Association The Women's Flat Track Derby Association (WFTDA) is the international governing body for the sport of women's flat track roller derby, and association of leagues around the world. The organization was founded in April 2004 as the United Leagues Co ...

(WFTDA). Adelaide Roller Derby also host The Great Southern Slam.

History

Adelaide Roller Derby was founded in 2007, with their inaugural season launching in July 2008. Between the club's formation and the start of their first season, the club hosted the first interstate roller derby competition in Australia, ''Skate of Origin'', against the Victorian Roller Derby League. Their first local competition started in 2008 and featured two teams, the Mile Die Club and the Salty Dolls, with the Salty Dolls winning the three-match series. The second year of competition in the league saw the introduction of a new team, the Road Train Rollers, but it was the Mile Die Club who took out the series, winning undefeated. The same year also saw the second interstate bout between Adelaide and Melbourne. ''Skate of Origin 2'' was hosted in Melbourne, but the Adelaidies were able to come out on top in a close match. This was followed by a three-state competition hosted in Adelaide between two Adelaide teams created for the event, the Phantoms and the Tornado, and teams from Brisbane and Sydney – the Brawl Stars and the Assassins. Once again, the two Adelaide teams were successful. 2010, the third year of competition for the Adelaide Roller Derby league, saw the introduction of a fourth team in the form of Wild Hearses. This brought the registrations for the league up to 120 per year, and 2010 saw over 100 people trying out for positions at the annual "Fresh Meat" program. The season started with an appearance leading the

Adelaide Fringe The Adelaide Fringe, formerly Adelaide Fringe Festival, is the world's second-largest annual arts festival (after the Edinburgh Festival Fringe), held in the South Australian capital of Adelaide. Between mid-February and mid-March each year, ...

parade, and ended in a double-header with a win to the Road Train Rollers. The same year saw Adelaide Roller Derby hosting the first '' Great Southern Slam'' – the largest roller derby tournament to be held outside of the United States, with 500 competitors from Australia and New Zealand. In 2011 four teams competed over six bouts, with a double-header grand final won by the Salty Dolls. In addition to the local season, three interstate/international competitions were played. The first was with Bunbury and

Perth Perth is the list of Australian capital cities, capital and largest city of the Australian states and territories of Australia, state of Western Australia. It is the list of cities in Australia by population, fourth most populous city in Aust ...

teams at Arena Joondalup, followed by travelling to Newcastle to compete with the local league there, and finally a trip to

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 List of islands of New Zealand, smaller islands. It is the ...

to compete against the

Pirate City Rollers Pirate City Rollers is a women's flat track roller derby league based in Auckland. Founded in 2006, the league is a member of the Women's Flat Track Derby Association (WFTDA). History and organization Pirate City founded by Black Dahlia, who ha ...

Auckland Auckland (pronounced ) ( mi, Tāmaki Makaurau) is a large metropolitan city in the North Island of New Zealand. The most populous urban area in the country and the fifth largest city in Oceania, Auckland has an urban population of about I ...

. Adelaide Roller Derby was featured in the documentary film ''

This Is Roller Derby ''This Is Roller Derby'' is a 2011 Australian documentary film by Daniel Hayward on four Australian roller derby teams over the course of a season. The film features members from roller derby associations from Australia and the United States, p ...

''. The league was accepted into the Women's Flat Track Derby Association Apprentice program on 24 January 2014.WFTDA Accepts 22 Additional Apprentice Leagues
, WFTDA, 24 January 2014 In March 2015, Adelaide was made a full member of the

Team Name Change

At the first double header of the 2022 season, The Salty Dolls were officially renamed "The Salties", the name change comes after several

Non-Binary Non-binary and genderqueer are umbrella terms for gender identities that are not solely male or femaleidentities that are outside the gender binary. Non-binary identities fall under the transgender umbrella, since non-binary people typicall ...

identifying players joined the league, in attempts to promote inclusion.

WFTDA competition

In 2017, Adelaide was ranked at 23rd overall in the WFTDA, but was ineligible for Division 1 Playoffs for not meeting sanctioned game minimum requirements. In 2019, Adelaide formally qualified for the WFTDA post-season for the first time, as the tenth seed for the North American West Continental Cup held in

Orem, Utah Orem is a city in Utah County, Utah, United States, in the northern part of the state. It is adjacent to Provo, Lindon, and Vineyard and is approximately south of Salt Lake City. Orem is one of the principal cities of the Provo-Orem, Utah Me ...

in the United States. The Continental Cups model groups teams regionally by geography, and without sufficient numbers to hold a standalone tournament in the Asia Pacific region, Adelaide was sent to Utah. There they upset seventh-seeded

Jet City Roller Derby Jet City Roller Derby (JCRD) is a women's flat track roller derby league based in Everett, Washington. Founded in 2006, Jet City is a member of the Women's Flat Track Derby Association (WFTDA). History Jet City was founded as Jet City Rollergi ...

in the opening round, before losing to Sun State Roller Derby in the quarterfinals, and ended the weekend with a consolation bracket win against Rocky Mountain Rollergirls.

WFTDA rankings

Death of Sarah Strong-Law

On February 21, 2022, the league founder Sarah Strong-Law (aka Barrelhouse Bessy) was killed in a car accident involving a truck on

Kangaroo Island Kangaroo Island, also known as Karta Pintingga (literally 'Island of the Dead' in the language of the Kaurna people), is Australia's third-largest island, after Tasmania and Melville Island. It lies in the state of South Australia, southw ...

. The funeral was broadcast via Facebook Live and Zoom for people in Adelaide who couldn't travel or who were stuck in isolation due to

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was identified in Wuhan, China, in December 2019. The disease quickl ...

References

External links

Adelaide Roller Derby

''This is Roller Derby'' (documentary)
{{AUS roller derby leagues Sports teams in South Australia Roller derby leagues in Australia Roller derby leagues established in 2007 Sport in Adelaide 2007 establishments in Australia