It started when a retired professional footballer came across a former teammate living out his life, unknown and forgotten, in a nursing home.

Twenty years later and recognising the more-inclusive nature of society, the rugby league grassroots charitable foundation "Men of League" has just changed its name to "Family of League".

Almost self-deprecatingly referring to itself as "The Greatest Game of All", rugby league is and remains very much a working peoples' sport, with some former players, often with only moderate education and post-game career prospects, sometimes falling on hard times.

Since it was first established by rugby league greats Ron Coote, Jim Hall and Max Brown in 2002, this unique sporting charity has supported the rugby league family in times of hardship or crisis, providing over $10 million of financial support and 10,000 hours of volunteer service.

"We are enormously proud of our heritage and legacy, and recognised the need to evolve to continue that legacy into the future," said Helen Wood Grant, Chair of Family of League.

"Our new name more accurately reflects and represents what we have grown to be, who we now are, and the invaluable work our organisation, members and volunteers do to care for those in need in the family of league,” she added.

Just as the sport has expanded with women's tag, touch and professional players now making up a large proportion of the game's supporters, so has the group expanded its services, she said.

“While Men of League was the perfect name for our charity in 2002, when male ex-players were the focus of our assistance, 'Family of League' perfectly describes the wider group we help now. Over the past two decades our volunteers have increasingly identified and helped women and children in need in our rugby league family, as well as men."

Family of League’s network of more than 6500 members and volunteers, and 39 dedicated committees across NSW, Queensland, the Australian Capital Territory and Victoria, come together for the game, and for each other, she added.

In other football news, Dubbo has missed out in the 2023 NRL draw after the South Sydney Rabbitohs announced they would not return to our region next year, despite subsidies in the hundreds of thousands for them to play here.

One of the NRL's most famous teams based out of Redfern, "the Bunnies" played in Dubbo in 2021 and 2022, but could not replicate their top-of-the-table form, being smashed by Penrith in 2021 and beaten easily by the Canberra Raiders in 2022.