1999 Auckland Warriors season

1999 Auckland Warriors season
NRL Rank	11th
1999 record	Wins: 10; draws: 0; losses: 14
Points scored	For: 538; against: 498
Team information
CEO	Trevor McKewen
Coach	Mark Graham
Captains	Matthew Ridge Stacey Jones John Simon
Stadium	Ericsson Stadium
Avg. attendance	11,135
Top scorers
Tries	Stacey Jones (15)
Goals	Matthew Ridge (34)
Points	Matthew Ridge (80)
← 1998 2000 →

The Auckland Warriors 1999 season was the Auckland Warriors 5th first-grade season. The club competed in Australasia's National Rugby League. The coach of the team was Mark Graham while Matthew Ridge was the club's captain.

Milestones

• 13 March – Round 2: Tony Tatupu plays his 50th match for the club.
• 21 March – Round 3: Brady Malam plays his 50th match for the club.
• 16 May – Round 11: Tony Tuimavave plays his 50th match for the club.
• 30 May – Round 13: Logan Swann plays his 50th match for the club.
• 21 August – Round 25: Stacey Jones becomes the first player to appear in 100 first-grade games for the club.

Jersey & Sponsors

For 1999 the Warriors again used a similar style of jersey, produced by Nike, Inc., with Vodafone the shirt sponsor and Bartercard as sleeve sponsor.

Sale to Tainui

Between the 1998 and 1999 seasons the Auckland Rugby League sold the Auckland Warriors to a consortium that included majority investor the Tainui tribe as well as Graham Lowe and Malcolm Boyle. The new owners cleaned out the management and coaching structures and also straightened the tongue on the Warriors logo, as a curved tongue is believed to be cursed in Māori culture.

The consortium paid $2 million in cash, $1.5 million in deferred settlement over three years and an annual development grant of $250,000. The Auckland Rugby League was forced to write off the deferred settlement in 2000 when the Auckland Warriors folded and the assets were purchased by the New Zealand Warriors.^[1]

Fixtures

See also: List of New Zealand Warriors results

The Warriors used Ericsson Stadium as their home ground in 1999, their only home ground since they entered the competition in 1995.

Country Carnival

Date	Round	Opponent	Venue	Result	Score	Tries	Goals	Attendance	Report
12 February	Trial 1	Melbourne Storm	Lang Park, Brisbane	Win	16-14	Oudenryn (2), Ridge	Ridge (1)	2,500	[1]
20 February	Trial 2	Brisbane Broncos	Toowoomba	Loss	10-22	Manuel, Jones	Ridge (1)	7,146	[2]

Regular season

Date	Round	Opponent	Venue	Result	Score	Tries	Goals	Attendance	Report
8 March	Round 1	Sydney Roosters	Sydney Football Stadium, Sydney	Win	26-16	Ridge (2), Galuvao, Jones	Ridge (5)	10,124	[3]
13 March	Round 2	North Sydney Bears	Ericsson Stadium, Auckland	Lost	18-22	Galuvao, Jones, Swann	Ridge (3)	20,268	[4]
21 March	Round 3	Manly Sea Eagles	Brookvale Oval	Win	36-10	Death, Henare, Jones, Manuel, Swann, J.Vagana, N.Vagana	Jones (3), Ngamu (1)	7,077	[5]
28 March	Round 4	Sydney Roosters	Ericsson Stadium, Auckland	Lost	14-28	Manuel, N.Vagana	Ridge (3)	17,492	[6]
3 April	Round 5	Balmain Tigers	Leichhardt Oval, Sydney	Lost	8-17	Jones	Ridge (2)	7,460	[7]
9 April	Round 6	Melbourne Storm	Ericsson Stadium, Auckland	10-38	10-38	Lauitiiti, Oudenryn	Jones (1)	10,343	[8]
18 April	Round 7	North Queensland Cowboys	Ericsson Stadium, Auckland	Lost	0-24			8,954	[9]
	Round 8	Bye
2 May	Round 9	South Sydney Rabbitohs	Ericsson Stadium, Auckland	Lost	8-12	Beverley	Doherty (1), Jones (1)	7,241	[10]
8 May	Round 10	Parramatta Eels	Parramatta Stadium, Sydney	Lost	6-28	Koopu	Ridge (1)	13,087	[11]
16 May	Round 11	Canberra Raiders	Ericsson Stadium, Auckland	Win	32-30	Galuvao, Lauiti'iti, Manuel, Mears, J.Vagana	Ridge (6)	9,423	[12]
23 May	Round 12	Canterbury Bulldogs	Telstra Stadium, Sydney	Lost	28-24	Lauiti'iti (2), Endacott, Jones	Doherty (4)	9,062	[13]
30 May	Round 13	Parramatta Eels	Ericsson Stadium, Auckland	Lost	18-25	Jones, Swann	Doherty (5)	8,940	[14]
	Round 14	Bye
12 June	Round 15	Penrith Panthers	CUA Stadium, Sydney	Lost	20-34	N.Vagana (2), Mears	Doherty (4)	7,097	[15]
19 June	Round 16	Canterbury Bulldogs	Ericsson Stadium, Auckland	Win	30-10	N.Vagana (2), Hoppe, Jones, Manuel, J.Vagana	Simon (3)	9,500	[16]
26 June	Round 17	Balmain Tigers	Ericsson Stadium, Auckland	Win	22-4	Swann, Manuel, Seuseu, N.Vagana	Simon (1)	8,506	[17]
4 July	Round 18	Canberra Raiders	Canberra Stadium, Canberra	Lost	22-46	Hoppe, Manuel, Mears, N.Vagana	Simon (3)	10,155	[18]
10 July	Round 19	Brisbane Broncos	ANZ Stadium, Brisbane	Lost	16-24	Death, Lauiti'iti, Nelson	Simon (2)	14,941	[19]
16 July	Round 20	Cronulla Sharks	Ericsson Stadium, Auckland	Lost	20-22	Jones, Oudenryn, Mears	Simon (4)	8,000	[20]
25 July	Round 21	South Sydney Rabbitohs	Sydney Football Stadium, Sydney	Win	20-16	Jones, Manuel, Swann, Tuimavave	Ridge (2)	7,364	[21]
1 August	Round 22	Melbourne Storm	Olympic Park Stadium, Melbourne	Lost	14-16	Lewis, Tuimavave	Simon (2), Ridge (1)	13,435	[22]
6 August	Round 23	St. George Illawarra Dragons	Ericsson Stadium, Auckland	Win	32-18	Beverley, Jones, Lauiti'iti, Manuel, Meli, N.Vagana	Simon (4)	9,564	[23]
14 August	Round 24	North Queensland Cowboys	Dairy Farmers Stadium, Townsville	Win	40-14	Oudenryn (3), Jones, Swann, J.Vagana, N.Vagana	Ridge (4), Simon (2)	13,832	[24]
21 August	Round 25	Newcastle Knights	Ericsson Stadium, Auckland	Win	42-0	Death (2), Lauiti'iti, Oudenryn, Ridge, Simon, N.Vagana	Ridge (7)	15,385	[25]
29 August	Round 26	Western Suburbs Magpies	Campbelltown Sports Ground, Sydney	Win	60-16	Jones (4), Beverley (2), Oudenryn (2), Manuel, Meli, J.Vagana, N.Vagana	Simon (5), Swann (1)	7,793	[26]

Ladder

1999 NRL season v t e
Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	B	PF	PA	PD	Pts
1	Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks	24	18	0	6	2	586	332	+254	40
2	Parramatta Eels	24	17	0	7	2	500	294	+206	38
3	Melbourne Storm (P)	24	16	0	8	2	639	392	+247	36
4	Sydney City Roosters	24	16	0	8	2	592	377	+215	36
5	Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs	24	15	1	8	2	520	462	+58	35
6	St. George Illawarra Dragons	24	15	0	9	2	588	416	+172	34
7	Newcastle Knights	24	14	1	9	2	575	484	+91	33
8	Brisbane Broncos	24	13	2	9	2	510	368	+142	32
9	Canberra Raiders	24	13	1	10	2	618	439	+179	31
10	Penrith Panthers	24	11	1	12	2	492	428	+64	27
11	Auckland Warriors	24	10	0	14	2	538	498	+40	24
12	South Sydney Rabbitohs	24	10	0	14	2	349	556	-207	24
13	Manly Warringah Sea Eagles	24	9	1	14	2	454	623	-169	23
14	North Sydney Bears	24	8	0	16	2	490	642	-152	20
15	Balmain Tigers	24	8	0	16	2	345	636	-291	20
16	North Queensland Cowboys	24	4	1	19	2	398	588	-190	13
17	Western Suburbs Magpies	24	3	0	21	2	285	944	-659	10

Squad

See also: List of New Zealand Warriors players

Thirty two players were used by the Warriors in 1999, including eight players making their first grade debuts.

No.	Name	Nationality	Position	Warriors Debut	App	T	G	FG	Pts
3	Sean Hoppe		WG	10 March 1995	13	2	0	0	8
6	Gene Ngamu		FE	10 March 1995	6	0	1	0	2
12	Tony Tatupu		SR	10 March 1995	21	0	0	0	0
13	Tony Tuimavave		PR / LK	10 March 1995	16	2	0	0	8
18	Joe Vagana	/	PR	18 March 1995	24	5	0	0	20
19	Syd Eru		HK	28 March 1995	2	0	0	0	0
24	Stacey Jones		HB	23 April 1995	24	15	5	0	70
32	Nigel Vagana	/	CE	4 April 1996	21	12	0	0	48
33	Awen Guttenbeil	/	SR	14 April 1996	3	0	0	0	0
37	Brady Malam		PR	23 June 1996	8	0	0	0	0
38	Bryan Henare		SR	23 July 1996	7	1	0	0	4
40	Matthew Ridge		FB	1 March 1997	10	3	34	0	80
42	Logan Swann		SR	1 March 1997	24	7	1	0	30
44	Shane Endacott		FE	29 March 1997	17	1	0	0	4
47	Lee Oudenryn		WG	6 July 1997	17	8	0	0	32
50	Jerry Seu Seu	/	PR	16 August 1997	16	1	0	0	4
55	Ali Lauitiiti	/	SR	19 April 1998	20	7	0	0	28
56	Joe Galuvao	/	FB / CE	2 May 1998	13	3	0	0	12
58	Odell Manuel		WG	8 March 1999	24	9	0	0	36
59	Jason Death		HK / LK	8 March 1999	18	4	0	0	16
60	Terry Hermansson		PR	8 March 1999	24	0	0	0	0
61	Monty Betham		HK / LK	8 March 1999	3	0	0	0	0
62	Cliff Beverley		FE	21 March 1999	16	4	0	0	16
63	Peter Lewis		CE	3 April 1999	11	1	0	0	4
64	Wairangi Koopu		CE / SR	9 April 1999	6	1	0	0	4
65	Francis Meli	/	WG	2 May 1999	3	2	0	0	8
66	Clinton Toopi		CE	2 May 1999	2	0	0	0	0
67	Carl Doherty		FB	2 May 1999	5	0	14	0	28
68	Robert Mears		HK	16 May 1999	15	4	0	0	16
69	John Simon		FE	12 June 1999	12	1	26	0	56
70	Boycie Nelson		CE	19 June 1999	5	1	0	0	4
71	Talite Liava'a		PR	4 July 1999	2	0	0	0	0

Staff

• Chief executive officer: Trevor McKewen
• Football manager: Hugh McGahan

Coaching Staff

• Head coach: Mark Graham
• Assistant coach: Mike McClennan^[2]

Transfers

Gains

Player	Previous Club	Length	Notes
Jason Death	North Queensland Cowboys
Terry Hermansson	Souths
Boycie Nelson	Widnes Vikings

Mid-Season Gains

Player	Previous Club	Length	Notes
Robert Mears	Canterbury Bulldogs		Debut Rd 11
John Simon	Parramatta Eels		Debut Rd 15
Talite Liava'a	Balmain Tigers		Debut Rd 18

Losses

Player	Club	Notes
Stephen Kearney	Melbourne Storm
Tea Ropati	Retired
Marc Ellis	North Harbour Rugby Union
Anthony Swann	North Sydney Bears
Paul Staladi	Northland Rugby Union
Aaron Whittaker	Canterbury Rugby League
Kevin Iro	St Helens R.F.C.
Quentin Pongia	Sydney Roosters
Tyran Smith	Canberra Raiders
Zane Clarke	Cessnock
Frank Watene	Wakefield Trinity Wildcats

Mid-Season Losses

Player	Future Club
Gene Ngamu	Huddersfield-Sheffield
Sean Hoppe	St Helens R.F.C.

Other Teams

During the 1999 season players not selected for first grade competed in the NZRL's National Provincial competition.^[3] The Warriors also sent four players a week to play for the Wynnum Manly Seagulls and Brisbane Souths.^[4][5]

Awards

Jason Death won the club's Player of the Year award.^[6]

References

1. Coffey, John and Bernie Wood Auckland, 100 years of rugby league, 1909–2009, 2009. ISBN 978-1-86969-366-4.
2. New Zealand Rugby League Annual '98, New Zealand Rugby Football League, 1998. p.58
3. Peter Jessup Injury gives Hoppe a starting chance New Zealand Herald, 16 March 1999
4. Jonathan Smith rugbyleague.co.nz
5. Peter Jessup Price could rule out stadium New Zealand Herald, 18 September 1999
6. New Zealand Rugby League Annual 2002, New Zealand Rugby Football League, 2002. p.50

External links

• Warriors official site
• 1999 Warriors Season at rugbyleagueproject.org