| HISTORY
 Warriors
NRL History
 1978:
A combined Auckland team was admitted into the popular Amco Cup competition. The
Amco Cup was a mid-week knock-out competition showcasing first grade teams as
well as interstate, country and international sides. It was essentially a side
event to the powerful Sydney competition, controlled by the New South Wales Rugby
League (NSWRL). In their first year, the Auckland side made the semi-finals only
to be defeated by eventual Cup winners Eastern Suburbs.
1987: An
Auckland side toured Great Britain, defeating powerhouse clubs Leeds and Wigan. 1988:
Encouraged mainly by the Mt Albert club, serious investigation into an Auckland
team entering the Sydney competition commenced.
17 May 1992: Announcement
released that an Auckland-based team will compete in the Sydney-based first grade
in 1995. This followed big crowd turnouts to a number of NSWRL club games played
in Auckland. The new team was to be called the Auckland Warriors and run by the
Auckland Rugby League organisation. The original colours selected were blue, white,
red and green. Blue and white are recognised as the colours of Auckland, while
red and green were the colours of the Warriors' original sponsor, DB Bitter.
1995:
The newly formed Auckland Warriors are admitted into the Australian Rugby League's
Winfield Cup Competition.
 The
Warriors debut match was against the Brisbane Broncos on March 10, 1995 in front
of 30,000 people at Mt Smart Stadium. The Warriors led 22-10 at one point in the
second half, but the Broncos came back to defeat the new club by 25-22.
The
Warriors came within one victory of making the finals in 1995, and the players
actually did enough to secure that victory only to see the club penalised two
competition point for an interchange breach. In round 3, the Warriors posted their
first ever victory when they downed Western Sububs by 46-12 at Mt Smart Stadium.
But the Warriors were found to have made an interchange error when they used five
interchange players instead of the allowed four. The error was costly as the NRL
deducted the points and the Warriors utimately missed the finals by just two competition
points.
The Warriors had to wait until round 6 to collect their first competition
points when they defeated the Illawarra Steelers by 38-12 at Mt Smart.
1995
also saw the debut of future star, Stacey Jones, who scored a try on debut when
the Warriors thrashed Parramatta 40-4 in Sydney.
In their first season,
the Warriors finished 10th out of 20 teams: 1995
Stats (10th out of 20)
Played | Won | Lost | Pts
for | Pts
against | +/- | Points | 20 | 13 | 9 | 538 | 501 | +37 | 26 |
1996:
The Warriors joined the breakaway Super League competition.
It was a tumultous period for rugby league with the Australian Rugby League and
Super League fighting it out in the courts for control of the game. Following
one such court ruling, Super League was put on hold. After being awarded two competition
points in the first round (Broncos forfeited), the Warriors and other Super League
clubs rejoined the Australian Rugby League for the remainder of the 1996 season,
the Warriors finishing 11th and missing out on a finals berth.
 1997:
Super League gets the green light from the courts and the competition is split
in two, the Warriors play one year with the rebel competition and the Warriors
finished 7th out of 10 teams.
John Monie was replaced by Frank Endacott
as coach midway through the season.
1998: The 'Super League War'
is over and new national governing body is formed, the Warriors join the National
Rugby League (NRL).
1999: Former Kiwi Mark Graham took over as coach
from Frank Endacott.
2001: The Warriors qualify for their first
ever NRL finals. Finishing 8th in the minor premiership (out of 14), the Warriors
were comprehensively beaten 56-12 by competition front-runners the Parramatta
Eels - the largest finals loss in the competition's history. Nevertheless, the
season was viewed as a success following several years of turmoil which included
financial difficulties and management difficulties, 2001 being a turnaround year
for the Warriors.
2002: The best season yet for the Warriors. Finishing
first as minor premiers comong into the finals, the Warrriors almsot went all
the way in qualifying for the grand final.
2002
stats (Minor premiership, 1st out of 15)Played | Won | Lost | Bye | Pts
for | Pts
against | +/- | Points | 24 | 17 | 7 | 2 | 688 | 454 | +234 | 34 |
On their road to the grand final, the Warriors defeated the Canberra
Raiders 36-20 in the qualifying final before defeating the Sharks
16-10 in the preliminary final.
Played in front of 80,130 peeople, the grand final against the
Sydney Roosters was a hard fought encounter for the first 60 minutes.
The Roosters led 6-2 at half time, before the Warriors took the
lead just after halftime when halfback Stacey Jones scored a memorable
try on the back of senstational 40 metre run to the try line.
The Roosters hwoever, ran away with the match in the final 20
minutes. The final score: 30-8.
2006: Salary cap worries for the Warriors and the club
is docked four competition points. Prior to the 2006 season kicking
off, NRL officials announce that the Warriors were found to have
committed breaches of the salary cap in 2005 following the signings
of Steve Price and Ruben Wiki. In addition to being deducted four
competition points, the club would fined $430,000 AUD. Despite
the off-field dramas, the Warriors performed well in 2006, winning
eight of theor last 12 games to narrowly miss out on a finals
berth.
In June 2006, the Warriors recorded their largest ever win, defeating
South Sydney 66-0 at Telstra Stadium. The Warriors also caused
a major season upset in defeating the Minor Premiers Melbourne
Storm by 24-20 at Olympic Park.
2007: Auckland's participation in the Australian rugby
league increased when Bartercard Cup club Auckland Lions joined
the NSWRL Premier League (second grade) competition. The Warriors
finished the regular season in fourth place, going down narrowly
to the Parramatta Eels 12-10 at Mount Smart Stadium in week one
of the finals. Their season ended with a 49-12 loss to the North
Queensland Cowboys in Townsville.
2008: In week two of the NRL finals, the Warriors came from behind
to defeat the Sydney Roosters 30-13 at Mt. Smart Stadium, the
home side piling on 24 unanswered points. The Warriors, however,
were defeated the following week by 32-6 to eventual premiers
the Manly Sea Eagles.
Warriors
Fact File
• The New Zealand Warriors were formerly known as the Auckland
Warriors.
• The Warriors home ground is Mt Smart Stadium (formerly
Ericsson Stadium) in Auckland.
• Dean Bell was the first club captain
1995.
• John Monie was the club's first coach in 1995.
•
Phil Blake scored the club's first premiership try in 1995 (round 1 v Broncos)
•
Half back Stacey Jones has played the most games for the Warriors with 238 games.
•
Stacey Jones holds the most career points scored for the Warriors with 654 points.
•
Francis Meli has scored the most club tries in one season with 23 tries in 2003.
•
Ivan Cleary holds the club record for most points in a season with 242 points
in 2002.
• Ivan Cleary and Gene Ngamu jointly holds the club record for
most points (28) in a match.
—Ivan Cleary: 28 points. 1 try, 12 goals
vs Northern Eagles, 2002 (Won 68-10)
—Gene Ngamu: 28 points. 3 tries,
8 goals vs North Queensland, 1996 (Won 52-6)
| Coaches
•
John Monie 1995-1997
• Frank Endacott 1997-1998
• Mark Graham
1999-2000
• Daniel Anderson 2001-2004
• Tony Kemp 2004-2005
•
Ivan Cleary 2006- |
Footnote:
In 1995, the Australian Rugby League took over control of the
newly expanded national competition called the 'Winfield Cup',
effectively replacing the New South Wales Rugby League (NSWRL)
Sydney competition (instigated in 1908) as Australia's richest
first grade competition. The Winfield Cup was played for by
the 16 NSWRL teams that played in 1994 plus four new clubs:
the Auckland Warriors, the North Queensland Cowboys, the South
Queensland Crushers and the Western Reds.
In 1998, the National Rugby League (NRL) was formed following
the 'Super League War', the NRL being a combination of the News
Limited backed Super League and the Australian Rugby League.
International Rugby League - NZRL Summary
 New
Zealand rugby league predates the Australian NSWRL.
Formed in mid-1907 by Albert Baskerville, the 'All Golds' (as
they were disparagingly dubbed by rugby union) toured England
via Sydney. Playing 'professional rugby' (rugby league) against
teams of the Northern Football Union, Baskerville's Kiwis paved
the way for international rugby league.
 In
1908, Wales and New Zealand played the first ever rugby league
international tour match on January 1st at Aberdare. Wales won
the game 9-8 before a crowd of 17,000.
Also in 1908, the first ever Test match took place between Great
Britain and New Zealand on the 18th January at Headingley. Referred
to as the 'Northern Union', Great Britain won the match 14-6.
The second Test went to New Zealand by 18-6 in London. The third
Test at Cheltenham was won 8-5 by the visiting New Zealand side.
The New Zealand Kiwis and the Great Britain Lions continue to
compete for the Baskerville Shield.
The Kiwis have featured in three World Cup Finals in 1988, 2000
and 2008 as well as playing in the 1999, 2005 and 2006 Tri-Nations
Finals.
In 2005, underdogs New Zealand stunned the rugby league community
by comprehensively defeating Australia 24-0 in the Tri-Nations
final.
In 2008, rugby league's centenary year, New Zealand became world
champions for the first time when they defeated Australia 34-20
in the World Cup Final. [match
report]
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