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In order to understand whether or not the NZ Warriors have any responsibility toward growing the game of Rugby League in New Zealand, it’s necessary to take a look back at how the team from Penrose in Auckland actually got started.
A New Zealand based (and based is the important word here) team in, what was, the Winfield Cup competition, was actually the brain child of some forward thinking folks from the Mt Albert club in 1988. The idea outgrew the good folks from Mt Albert and Auckland Rugby League took over the charge to have a team involved in the NSWRL competition.
To gauge the potential success, or otherwise, of an Auckland based team in their competition, the NSWRL actually held a series of Australian Club games, both trials and actual competition round games at Carlaw Park in the early 90‘s. It goes without saying that the old park was filled to the gunnels for these matches, and the officials were always suitably impressed.
Finally, on the 17th of May, 1992, it was announced that a team from Auckland, New Zealand, would compete in the Winfield Cup at the commencement of the 1995 season. The bid had been accepted on the basis of how a team from Auckland could help assist and grow the NSWRL Winfield Cup Competition. Not necessarily grow Rugby League in New Zealand.
So, quite clearly from day one, although there may be a natural “flow on†effect, there was never an objective or a responsibility to assist the game in New Zealand. Whilst the Auckland Warriors, as they were to be named, were administered by Auckland Rugby League, the Auckland Warriors Board operated completely autonomously. Chaired by a former Auckland Rugby League Chairman, Peter McLeod, the Board had Auckland Clubs representation on it, though, history shows that this individual had little or no say at all in the running of the club or where it’s development responsibilities lay.
The fact that the Auckland Warriors Board employed a CEO who came out of Australian Football League was never going to enhance the chances of any assistance for grass roots league in this country. Cheque book hero, Ian Robson, was many things, but never a proponent of domestic league. In his “rah rah, rev ‘em up†meetings at Auckland clubs, prior to their entry, he would expound the theory that the Auckland Warriors were going
to stop the player drain to Australia !!!
I would strongly suggest that the drain has become a flood, most of which, the Warriors have been responsible for.
Now - if all of the above was disadvantageous to the local game, what happened next was absolutely soul destroying. Super League and it’s war with NSWRL and Australia Rugby League served only to vastly widen the already large gap between the top echelon of the game and the players at ground zero. Ian Robson and the Auckland Warriors were the first club to sign. Obscene amounts of money pumped into the break away competition
simply ensured that there was little chance of anything being left over for the nursery.
While, in this country anyway, the Super League war remains a distant memory, little has changed with regard to the Warriors, in their various iterations, and how they perceive any responsibility towards local NZ league. The situation was certainly not helped by the attitude of former CEO, Mick Watson, who steadfastly refused to even talk to the Clubs
about development monies that have been owed back to the Clubs for some years.
Nett - Do the Warriors have a responsibility to grow the games popularity throughout New Zealand ? Legally or contractually - not one iota, never have and are never likely to. Morally - probably, but it won’t change anytime soon.
The supreme irony in all of this is, while they have no responsibility, they have a dramatic impact on the game in this country. When the Warriors are going well on the paddock, the kids are falling over themselves to play league. When the Warriors are going bad, no one wants to know the code……….sad isn’t it.
