Sport has a rich history in Australia and whether our team is named after a powerful big cat or a native animal, fans love to cheer on their side with passion.
While it’s easy to cheer proudly when supporting the Tigers or Kangaroos, the name chosen for the most recent addition to the National Basketball League (NBL) may be tough for fans to get enthused about.
While many old Canberra Cannons fans wouldn’t have been surprised by being snubbed once again, the name of the new Tasmania ‘JackJumpers’ would only rub salt into the wounds.
The ‘JackJumpers’ announcement prompted CW to have a light-hearted look at of some of the other worst team names in Australian sport.
City of Sydney Astronauts (former NBL team)
The Astronauts were also an inaugural NBL team, competing from 1979 to 1981 before changing to the Sydney Supersonics and eventually merging with the West Sydney Westars (honourable mention) to become the Sydney Kings in 1988.
It’s hard to know what the worst part of this name is. Whether it’s the ‘City of Sydney’ (just say Sydney) or the Astronauts nickname.
Many kids dream about becoming an astronaut and head into space, but it seems strange to name a team after another profession. If they wanted a space name, surely the Rockets or even the Sydney Stars would have made more sense. Oh well, they eventually found the Kings moniker which has stuck nicely ever since.
Football Kingz FC (former soccer team)
This list is in no particular order, but this one has to be the worst.
While the Kingz are actually from New Zealand, they competed in the National Soccer League from 1999 to 2004 so must be included in any badly named teams list.
The Kingz were based in Auckland and perhaps a name like the Auckland Kings would have been better but calling yourself the Football Kingz is pretty arrogant. Given they finished no better than eighth in their five season means they didn’t quite live up to the name.
Also, using a ‘z’ instead of an ‘s’ at the end of ‘Kingz’ is something you would expect to see from a primary school child rather than a professional sporting team. They were changed to the New Zealand Knights for the start of the A-League in 2005 for good reason.
West Coast Fever (Super Netball team)
The Fever recently lost the 2020 Grand Final by just two points, but that may be the least of their worries, especially in these COVID dominant times.
It’s hard to know exactly the inspiration behind the name, perhaps they were going for something similar to the Brisbane Heat in the Big Bash League (BBL), but instead it reads like a team that won’t be allowed into the arena to play.
Nunawading Spectres (former NBL team)
The Spectres were an inaugural team in the NBL in 1979 before merging with the South Melbourne Saints in 1992. They also entered a team in the Women’s National Basketball League (WNBL) in 1982 where they won six championships in 10 seasons.
However, this exercise isn’t about a team’s success – and it’s hard to imagine a stadium full of fans all screaming for the Spectres given that very few people want to cheer for apparitions (assuming they know what spectres are).
Victoria Bushrangers (domestic cricket team)
Victoria has had a long history of cricket and has produced some of the game’s biggest stars such as Bill Lawry, the late Dean Jones, and Shane Warne, but for some reason their state team was named after a gang of outlaws for a while.
The name sounds alright on face value but becomes stranger the more you think about it. Victoria adopted the name in 1995 until 2018, before dropping the Bushrangers to simply be called Victoria.
Comment below any other interesting sport team names from either Australia or around the world.
