History
The Mudgee Touch Association was established in 1983 and since that time, the club has gone from near-collapse to becoming the Mid-West region’s largest participated sport with just under 1000 registered players.
On the field, Mudgee Touch has held its own against much larger touch football affiliates. The 1990s brought tremendous success for Mudgee Touch with the club winning multiple Western Region titles, a country championship and producing a number of elite touch players whom went on to represent their state and country. It continued throughout the 2000s with more players from Mudgee Touch representing NSW and Australia.
Since the late 1980s, Mudgee Touch’s popularity has steadily increased. So much so that it wasn’t too long before the club started to outgrow various locations including Victoria Park, Cahill Park, the Hockey Fields and Mudgee Racecourse before finding a permanent home at Glen Willow at the turn of the century. Plans of a redevelopment of Glen Willow provided Mudgee Touch a plethora of opportunities to host major events and carnivals. In 2012, that became a reality.
The 2012 Trans-Tasman Series put Mudgee Touch, Glen Willow and the entire region on the international touch football map. Touch enthusiasts from across the country and the world tuned in and streamed the series online. Later the series was replayed on Fox Sports to a nationwide audience. In 2014, Mudgee Touch again hosted the Trans-Tasman Series to an either larger online audience. The series opened the door for Mudgee Touch to host carnivals such as the Don Green Western Junior Championships, NSW PSSA championships and NSW CHS state titles.
Locally, Mudgee Touch saw an explosion in participation with registration numbers pushing beyond 1100 in the mid-2010s. The new competition format of men and women competitions playing on Tuesday nights, and junior (up until 2018-19) and mixed competitions playing on Thursday nights from October to March also helped to increase registration numbers. The junior competition is now played on Tuesday nights.
The increased number of players has allowed Mudgee Touch to continually send multiple teams to several junior and senior Hornets and NSW Touch tournaments. The culmination coming in 2015 when Mudgee won the Mixed Open Bowl (B-grade) title at the senior State Cup. In more recent years, Mudgee have won Country Championship titles in the Men’s 30s and Women’s 30s, and in 2024 were crowned Under 12s Girls State champions. The club continues to produce elite touch football players and referees for their state and country; at the 2019 Touch World Cup there were five Mudgee Touch members representing Australia.
In 2021, the Stage 2 upgrade of Glen Willow has seen the sporting facility grow along with the club, with the addition of four full length football fields helping Mudgee Touch to increase the number of games played for each time slot.
Much has happened in the 41 years of Mudgee Touch, but one thing is for sure, the club will continue to provide an opportunity for Mid-West residents to participate and fall in love with touch football.
Up the Mudcrabs!
