The Redfern All Blacks Made It Back-To-Back Premierships In Front Of A Bumper Crowd At Redfern Oval Yesterday

The iconic Redfern Oval sits in the centre of the city, rimmed by housing commission flats on every side. It belongs to the Redfern All Blacks rugby league team, the pride of the city's Aboriginal community, who yesterday won their second rugby league grand final in as many years. The win also marking a timely resurgence for a community under threat from one of the most aggressive gentrification programs in the world.

Their opponents were the Coogee Wombats, the traditionally Bra-Boy affiliated rugby league club from Sydney's south-east. The game was tough, spiteful at times, and even managed to feature a prisoner on day release from Long Bay jail. Acura "Junior" Niquila was jailed in 2012 for his role in a "conspiracy to commit an armed robbery." The Redfern-bred former Australian Rugby Sevens star has two years left to serve though has been granted day release to train with the All Blacks once a week and play each Sunday in South Sydney's rugby league competition this year.

"My hope for Junior is this proves to be part of his healing. He's taking giant steps forward at the moment and it's an honour we have this opportunity, no one else in the country has it. I feel a big boost whenever he walks into the ground with his smile because I know he has great ability to change people," Redfern All Blacks Captain-Coach and former Parramatta Eels star, Dean Widders told the Sydney Morning Herald earlier this year.

Widders, who carries a bit more weight than his days in the National Rugby League, still possesses a silky skill set. He showed as much with a miracle pick up off his boot laces as the All Blacks approached the Coogee Wombats try line in the first half. At other times he delivered much needed composure to the sometimes erratic, always entertaining, attacking spark of the Redfern All Blacks. Former Randwick Rugby Union star, Brandon Williams, now in his late 30s, was also electric in his contributions from hooker.

The Wombats, with their typically multicultural-working-class mix of wharvies, Bra Boys, Aboriginals, Maoris and Polynesians are a heavyweight in park rugby league. They play a no-frills, straight-running brand of football that is always bruising and are a certainty to show up in the grand final each year.

They've been beaten by the Redfern All Blacks two years in a row now, falling victim to a team bursting with ex-NRL players in Dean Widders (Parramatta, South Sydney) and Nathan Merritt* (South Sydney, NSW State Of Origin), alongside an abundance of underground Aboriginal footballing talent.

The All Blacks dominance is a shining light for a community set to be uprooted and demolished by Mike Baird's Liberal government as he attempts to fill the area with up-market luxury apartments. Up to 4000 residents from the housing commission flats surrounding the oval will have to be evicted before that can happen, and you didn't have to look far to find the animosity.

"Fuck off," scowled a young local woman at a banker in a blue BMW with its top-down as he attempted to edge across the pedestrian crossing outside the ground. He sat wide-eyed with fear as his daughter put her head in her lap in embarrassment.

The Redfern All Blacks will also host this year's Koori Knockout at Leichhardt Oval this October after winning last year's title in the most dramatic of circumstances (Redfern Oval is too small to accomodate the tournament).

In Reserve Grade, Bondi United claimed their second premiership in a row, despite being without star player Jared Byron. The bruising centre and Botany Bay wharfie was handed a 12 match suspension for his part in a wild brawl during last year's grand final which saw police enter the field to restore peace. United's opponents this year were the Coogee Dolphins, the rugby league team who tragically lost six of their players in the 2002 Bali Bombings (Jared Byron's sister, Chloe, was also killed in the blast).

Led by bruising Scum Valley Prop, Will Veron and the light-footed Jamie Hardaker in the halves, United were pushed to the brink in a highly entertaining game. Former Easts Rugby Union star and Super 15 player, Gavin Debartolo shrugged off a troubling groin injury to step up and slot a 40-meter penalty conversion to break the Golden Point deadlock, bringing the South Sydney trophy back to the Eastern Suburbs for the second year running.

Follow Jed Smith on twitter, here.