Darwin Rovers FC were a

football (soccer) Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 Football player, players who almost exclusively use their feet to propel a Ball (association football), ball around a rectangular f ...

club based in

Darwin, Northern Territory Darwin ( Larrakia: ') is the capital city of the Northern Territory, Australia. The city has nearly 53% of the Northern Territory's population, with 139,902 at the 2021 census. It is the smallest, wettest, and most northerly of the Australi ...

. They competed in the

NorZone Premier League The NorZone Premier League is a semi-professional soccer league in Darwin, Australia. The NorZone Premier League is one of three top tier state-level soccer competition in the Northern Territory of Australia. It comprises teams within the Nor ...

. The Rovers played their games at

Darwin Football Stadium Darwin Football Stadium is a sports stadium in Darwin, Australia in the Marrara Sporting Complex, and is located adjacent to the TIO Stadium. Work began on the stadium in 2007 and was officially opened on 28 July 2007 when it played host to ...

in the suburb of Marrara. In 2018 they merged with

Palmerston FC Palmerston Football Club was an Australian football club based in Palmerston, the Northern Territory. Palmerston competed in the NorZone Premier League. After the 2008 season the club was relegated, but was reinstated in the Territory's top lea ...

to form Palmerston Rovers FC.

History

The club was established by James 'Jimmy' Culligan and Shane Kavanagh, in 2014 as Shamrock Rovers Darwin FC; their inaugural season was in 2015 in the Northern Territory's All Age competition. In 2016 they were accepted to compete in the

, the highest level of competition in the Territory. In 2016, Rovers won the Northern Territory Sports Minister's Cup, qualifying them for the national stages of the

2016 FFA Cup The 2016 FFA Cup was the third season of the FFA Cup, the main national soccer knockout cup competition in Australia. 32 teams again took part in the competition proper (from the round of 32), including the 10 A-League teams and 21 Football Fede ...

. Rovers drew

National Premier Leagues Queensland The National Premier League Queensland (NPL Queensland or NPL QLD) is the top tier state-level soccer competition in the Australian state of Queensland. The conference, run by Football Queensland, is a sub division of the National Premier Leagues ...

side

Brisbane Strikers FC Brisbane Strikers Football Club is an Australian semi-professional football club based in Brisbane, Queensland. Founded in 1991 as Brisbane United, the club competed in the National Soccer League until the 2003–04 season. Brisbane Strikers ...

at home. Brisbane proved far too strong for Darwin, winning the clash 6–0 in front of over 1300 people at the

. The club was renamed Darwin Rovers FC in 2017. On the 2 August 2017, Darwin Rovers played against

Sydney FC Sydney Football Club, commonly known as Sydney FC, is a professional association football, soccer club based in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. They compete in the top-tier men's league in Australia, the A-League Men. Established in 2004, ...

in the

Round of 32 A single-elimination knockout, or sudden-death tournament is a type of elimination tournament where the loser of a match-up is immediately eliminated from the tournament. Each winner will play another in the next round, until the final match-up, w ...

of the 2017

FFA Cup The Australia Cup (currently known as the Hahn Australia Cup for sponsorship reasons) is the national soccer knockout cup competition in Australia. This annual competition is organised by Football Australia (known as Football Federation Austra ...

and lost 8–0.

References

2014 establishments in Australia Association football clubs established in 2014 Soccer clubs in the Northern Territory Soccer in Darwin, Northern Territory Irish-Australian culture Diaspora sports clubs in Australia Defunct soccer clubs in Australia {{NorthernTerritory-stub