Editing Albury (section)

==Sport==
[[File:Lavington Urana Road Oval 002.JPG|thumb|left|Urana Road Oval, Lavington]]
[[soccer in Australia|Soccer]] is a very popular code of football with more than 2,500 players registered from twelve local clubs (six from Albury) competing in the [[Albury Wodonga Football Association]]. Clubs have teams from U10s through to Senior Men and Women and play on Sundays with MiniRoos providing Football for ages 4–12 on Saturdays. Since 2016, [[Murray United FC|Murray United Football Club]], a team encompassing Albury, Wodonga and the wider region, has been competing in the [[National Premier Leagues Victoria]], the highest level of Football in the area. On 9 February 2014, [[Melbourne City FC|Melbourne City]] (then known as Melbourne Heart) triumphed 2–1 against [[Perth Glory]] in scorching conditions, where the temperature got as high as 41&nbsp;°C, at the [[Lavington Sports Ground]].

The Albury-Wodonga Steamers are the local [[rugby union]] club, playing in the Southern Inland Rugby Union competition. The Steamers have produced several players for the [[Australian Rugby Union]] National Talent Squad.

[[Cricket]] is the most popular summer sport in the region, with the local [[Country Cricket New South Wales#Cricket Albury Wodonga|Cricket Albury Wodonga]] competition administered by [[Country Cricket New South Wales#Cricket Albury Wodonga|Country Cricket New South Wales]]. In the [[1992 Cricket World Cup]], the [[Lavington Sports Ground]] hosted Albury's only international cricket match. It was a [[One Day International]] in which Zimbabwe defeated England in the biggest upset of the tournament. Albury also regularly hosts [[Big Bash League]] matches in both the pre-season and regular season, often involving the [[Sydney Thunder]] and [[Melbourne Stars]].

Albury has a strong [[rugby league]] community, with three senior teams based in the city, the [[Albury Thunder]], Border Bears and CSU Mud Dogs. The Thunder compete in the strong, [[Riverina]]-based [[Group 9 Rugby League]] competition, while the Bears and Mud Dogs compete in the [[Goulburn Murray Rugby League]] run under the banner of the [[Victorian Rugby League]]. Albury Thunder Juniors is one of the largest junior rugby league clubs outside of metropolitan areas, offering rugby league and league tag to the Border's young men and women from 5 years to 16 years.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Home |url=http://www.alburythunderjuniors.com.au/ |access-date=12 January 2022 |website=Albury Thunder Juniors |language=en-gb}}</ref> Albury has produced many great rugby league players, with the two most famous exports being former Canberra and Penrith flyer [[Adrian Purtell]] and [[Australia national rugby league team|Australian]] fullback [[Dylan Edwards]].

Despite being located in New South Wales, Albury is a stronghold of [[Australian rules football]]. There are five [[Australian rules football]] clubs in Albury, the [[Albury Football Club]], the [[Lavington Panthers Football Club]], the Murray Magpies Football Club, the [[North Albury Football Club]], and the [[Thurgoona Football Club]]. Albury, Lavington Panthers and North Albury compete in the [[Ovens & Murray Football League]] (OMFNL), while the Murray Magpies compete in the [[Hume Football League]] and Thurgoona compete in the [[Tallangatta & District Football League]]. The OMFNL is one of the strongest regional leagues in the nation, with the [[Grand final|Grand Final]] regularly drawing 15,000 spectators. Many players from Albury have moved on to play in the [[Australian Football League]], including [[Haydn Bunton Senior]], who won three [[Brownlow Medal]]s and was an inaugural ''legend'' of the [[Australian Football Hall of Fame]]; Fitzroy 1936 Brownlow medallist Denis "Dinny" Ryan; and [[Sydney Swans|South Melbourne]] Brownlow medallist [[Fred Goldsmith (Australian rules footballer)|Fred Goldsmith]].<ref name="HallofFame">{{cite web|url=http://www.aflhalloffame.com.au/home/inside.asp?ID=94&pnav=93 |title=Australian Football Hall of Fame – Legends |publisher=AFL World |access-date=21 May 2007 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060827004003/http://www.aflhalloffame.com.au/home/inside.asp?ID=94 |archive-date=27 August 2006 }}</ref>

The Albury Gold Cup horse race is the major autumn event for the district. In 2005, it attracted a record crowd in excess of 18,600 racegoers.<ref>{{cite web |title = ALBURY: Cup Carnival The Envy of Country Racing |publisher = Racing and Sports |date = 17 April 2005 |url = http://www.racingandsports.com.au/racing/rsNewsArt.asp?NID=61196 |access-date = 21 May 2007 |archive-date = 27 September 2007 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20070927231025/http://www.racingandsports.com.au/racing/rsNewsArt.asp?NID=61196 |url-status = dead }}</ref>

Albury has lately become a stronghold of junior hockey, boasting one of the few synthetic fields in the area. The town also has the Albury Grass Tennis Courts. [[Supercars Championship]] team [[Brad Jones Racing]] is based in Albury, making it the only team in the championship to have its workshop in New South Wales.

The [[Albury Wodonga Bandits]] compete in the [[South East Australian Basketball League]] (SEABL) East Conference of the [[Australian Basketball Association]] (ABA), playing their home games at the [[Lauren Jackson Sports Centre]] (previously known as the Albury Sports Stadium). The Lady Bandits joined the women's SEABL in 2006.

Albury is the birthplace of controversial former tennis player [[Margaret Court]], winner of 62 Women's Grand Slam titles including eleven Australian titles, four Grand Slam singles titles played in one year (1970), four mixed doubles titles with Ken Fletcher in 1963 and many other titles around the world. [[WNBA MVP]] winner [[Lauren Jackson]], [[NRL]] Player [[Adrian Purtell]], and [[test cricket]]er [[Steve Rixon]] are among other champion sports people from the area.