Goodison Park
Liverpool (Walton), Merseyside, England
Goodison Park, Liverpool (Walton), England — opened 24 August 1892, 4 rugby league games hosted, home of Everton F.C. (football), 1892-2025 — no rugby league club was ever tenant; rugby league use was a handful of one-off international/representative fixtures tied to touring Kangaroo/Australasian sides.
Sourcing caveat: No full international rugby league Test strictly billed as "Great Britain" was found at Goodison — the four recorded matches were Northern Union/Northern League representative and county (Lancashire) fixtures against touring sides, not capped internationals in the modern sense.
Ground facts
| Opened | 24 August 1892 (The site was previously known as "Mere Green Field" before Everton FC developed it into Goodison Park.) |
| Home club | Everton F.C. (football), 1892-2025 — no rugby league club was ever tenant; rugby league use was a handful of one-off international/representative fixtures tied to touring Kangaroo/Australasian sides |
| Games hosted (rugby league, on record) | 4 |
| Top recorded crowd | 17,000 |
| Capacity | 39,414 (final all-seated capacity) — a period-specific figure for the 1908-1921 rugby league era was not found |
| Test matches hosted | 4 |
| Floodlights installed | not present during the rugby league era — Goodison's first floodlit match was 9 October 1957, decades after the last recorded rugby league match here (1921) |
| Surface | grass |
| First rugby league match | 18 November 1908 — Northern Union XIII 9-10 Australia, part of the 1908-09 Kangaroo Tour (attendance approximately 6,000) |
| Years used | 1908–1921 |
| Location | Liverpool (Walton), Merseyside |
Name history
- Goodison Park — 1892–2025, the only name it carried; Everton FC moved to a new stadium (covered elsewhere on this site) in 2025
Rugby league history
Everton rented out Goodison Park periodically for one-off prestige rugby fixtures tied to touring Kangaroo and Australasian sides, capitalising on its large capacity relative to rugby league's usual grounds. These were Northern Union/county representative matches rather than full England Test matches in the modern sense. Several later proposals to host rugby league finals or matches at Goodison over the decades were declined or staged elsewhere. A notable crossover figure: Everton goalkeeper Clarence Herbert Berry had played senior rugby league for Warrington before joining the football club in 1908.
The historic home of Everton F.C. (football), 1892-2025, before the club's 2025 move to its new stadium.
Historic Test matches, Cup & Grand Finals hosted
- 18 November 1908 — Northern Union XIII 9-10 Australia (c. 6,000)
- 3 March 1909 — Northern Union XIII 14-7 Australia, return fixture of the same tour (4,500)
- 25 October 1911 — Northern Union XIII 3-16 Australasia (c. 6,000)
- 30 November 1921 — Lancashire 6-29 Australia (17,000, our recorded top crowd, described as the record rugby crowd at Goodison)
Pre-dates the site's structured match-by-match records for these competitions, so listed here as sourced facts rather than linked match pages.
Sources
Data last verified: 11 August 2026.
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