The 2024 Koori Knockout will be held on October 4th to 7th at the newly completed Hereford Street Rugby Complex in Bathurst.

Walgett Aboriginal Connection won the rights to host next year’s knockout after defeating Wiradjuri Aboriginal Rivers 22-12 in the final at Tuggerah.

Walgett player George Rose told Koori Radio Bathurst was selected because of it’s proximity to Western New South Wales and the home ground advantage that provides.

“I love with the Knockout being able to travel around to different communities every year, and an opportunity to travel to the Bathurst community is going to be fun for everyone involved,” George told DJ BrothaBlack.

It’ll be Bathurst’s first time hosting the event for 13 years and George Rose said it’s great to get the Knockout back into the bush, after about a decade of dominance from Sydney, Newcastle, and Central Coast teams

“For the last 10 or so years it’s been really dominated by the Newcastle and Sydney sides, so a lot of the knockouts have been around there and a lot of our country teams have had to travel.”

“It’s great to be able to get the Knockout back out there.”

140+ teams will converge on Bathurst for what will be the 52nd knockout, and 30,000 spectators are expected to travel to Bathurst for a weekend of football, family and culture.

Tune into Making Tracks live on Koori Radio 93.7FM or on the Koori Radio app every weekday afternoon from 3pm – 6pm AEDT.