About
In 2011, Canberran Roller Derby enthusiasts worked on starting a new league, ANU Roller Derby League, as a student organisation at Australian National University. As the league grew outside of the university, the league officially changed its name to Varsity Derby League (VDL) and incorporated as an independent association.
VDL became the first Canberran Roller Derby league to train men and non-binary gendered skaters as competitive Roller Derby players. VDL has always been heavily focused on its inclusiveness policy, allowing skaters to play Roller Derby or be part of the community as a social skater, irrespective of gender identity.
VDL became a Men's Roller Derby Association (MRDA) League in April 2017
The Dishonour Rollers
The Dishonour Rollers (DHRs) is one of our women's competitive representative teams. The DHRs usually compete in division A tournaments around Australia. In 2014, they competed in The Great Southern Slam. They placed 1st in their division at Eastern Regional Roller Derby (ERRD) championships in 2016 and 5x5 Roller Derby championships in 2017. They also played Tropicarnage Cup in Queensland for the first time in 2017. This year they will compete at Rebellion in Melbourne.
Capital Carnage
Capital Carnage is our men's competitive representative team. Having only started in May 2014, Capital Carnage have grown substantially and competed against the likes of Sydney City SMASH Men's Derby, Brisbane Scartel, and Light City Roller Derby from Adelaide. Capital Carnage have represented VDL at the Australian Men's Roller Derby (AMRD) championships since 2014. They placed 7th in 2014, 4th in 2015 and, 5th in both 2016 and 2017.
Carnage have also had the privilege of playing the New York Shock Exchange (NYSE), who placed 3rd worldwide in the Men's Roller Derby Association (MRDA) at the Bont Invitational in January 2015.
They competed in Australia’s first MRDA-Sanctioned tournament in 2017 which gave them the opportunity to play the ThunderQuads, a team from Argentina.
Three members of Carnage have represented Australia – The Wizards of Oz – at the Men’s Roller Derby World Cup. Copter has represented Australia three times in 2014, 2016 and 2018. Astro Boyd and David Deck’em joined Copter on the Australian team for the first time in the 2018 World Cup and helped to secure Australia a bronze medal. Bobby Smack was also part of the Wizards helping to manage them in the lead up to the world cup and whilst in Barcelona.
The Rogue Scholars
The Rogue Scholars are our second women's competitive representative team. The team had its first bout in 2015 and acts as a development team for a mix of older and newer skaters looking to push themselves and gain Roller Derby experience. The team competes in tournaments all around Australia and have competed in the ERRD championships since 2015. They placed 4th in B Division of ERRD in 2015 and 1st in 2016. They entered Division B of the 5x5 Roller Derby championships for the first time in 2018 and took out 1st place. They also competed at The Great Southern Slam in 2018 and placed 3rd in their division.
The Smackademics
The Smackademics brings together skaters of all genders to play competitive Roller Derby. The Smackademics had their first year in 2015, performing spectacularly. They won against other mixed-gender leagues Light City from Adelaide and Swan City from Perth in the first ever Australian mixed-gender Roller Derby tournament.
The Smackademics compete annually in Division 1 of Australia’s biggest mixed-gender tournament, the United Roller Derby Playoffs. They placed 2nd in the first year of the tournament back in 2015, 6th in 2016, 5th in 2017 and, 4th in 2018.
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