Australian rules football in the Riverina

In the Riverina, Australian rules football is the equal most popular football code (with rugby league) and has a long history since the establishment of the Federal Football Club (founded 1861 now known as the Wagga Tigers) with the earliest recorded interclub match occurring in 1881 against the Albury Football Club (founded 1876). Unusually for New South Wales, Australian rules football is quite popular in the Murray and Southern Riverina especially in the larger cities of Albury and Wagga Wagga. The region is considered to form part of the Barassi Line which divides areas where Australian rules and rugby are popular. There are many clubs and leagues in the district, including the Riverina Football League, Farrer Football League, Hume Football League and Northern Riverina Football League. In addition, many clubs along the border play in Victorian leagues such as the Ovens & Murray Football League, Murray Football League, Picola & District Football League and the Golden Rivers Football League.

The Murray region of western New South Wales, sometimes referred to as the southern Riverina, though the state's least populated, had by 2021 become the highest per capita producer of AFL talent in the world, far surpassing Melbourne's by the same measure. The "Wagga Effect" is a term that has been used frequently in the Australian media to describe the disproportionately large number of elite sportsmen and women that originate from the region. It is speculated that the phenomenon may arise in rural areas where the population is large enough to sustain the presence of a large number of sporting codes, but small enough to ensure that talented individuals are exposed to adult-level competition at an earlier age.