Howling winds and Sydney's freezing conditions were not enough to slow players in the ADF's emerging team sport.

Rugby league players form around the country converged at Randwick in Sydney to compete for the national championship and vie selection in the ADF side.

The Defcredit CASRL treasurer, Flt-Sgt Rod Sullivan, said about 110 players made their way to Sydney to take part in the three-day competition.

AB Guy Randall, HMAS HARMAN, busts through the NSW Metro defensive line at the CASRL National Championships. Picture: Cpl Jason Logue

"The aim of the weekend was to trial the players to pick a national side to tour Victoria next February and compete in the Arafura Games in May," Flt-Sgt Sullivan said.

"Rugby league has only been the official sport in the ADF for the past 18 months and this carnival shows that league is now up there with the other sports," he said.

Regional teams from North Queensland, Southern Queensland, the NSW metropolitan area, the ACT/NSW country area and a mixed side from the southern states each played three matches throughout the carnival to gain valuable points for the national trophy.

The NSW metro side rallied themselves for a brilliant second half in the game of last weekend to defeat North Queensland and take out the championship undefeated.

NSW metro second rower Cpl Aaron Smith furthered his teams success by winning the Best and Fairest Player award as voted by match referees.

The sheer intensity of the matches came through at the completion of each game as more and more players headed for the ice, the strapper or in some cases the local hospital.

Several players backed up for other teams when starting line-ups became seriously depleted and a few players managed five games over the course of the weekend.

Flt-Sgt Sullivan said the standard of competition was quite high despite several players feeling every tackle towards the end of the competition.

Selectors had found the job of culling the ADF side back to 20 players extremely difficult despite expert assistance from the ARL's Peter Bevan.

"The ARL has provided us with magnificent support for the weekend including footballs, jumpers and NRL referee Steve Clark," he said.

By CPL Jason Logue