Glenora won the Fox this year. I thought I would post this history lesson for Mount Wellington so he can appreciate all that has gone before in the Auckland game.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=3502394
Obituary: Guiding hand of rugby league
23 May, 2003 7:43pm
George Rainey. Rugby league administrator, nurseryman. Died aged 73.
For 50 years George Rainey was a powerful presence hovering over New Zealand rugby league, guiding the development of the game's players and facilities, its profile and its future.
He had a big hand in the purchase of Carlaw Park and the work to drain what was known as "The Swamp".
He fought the player-drain to Australia and England, and he pushed for inclusion of a New Zealand team in the Australian competition when others in league management were opposed.
Rainey died in Green Lane Hospital this week after a battle against lung cancer. It was one of the few fights he lost and, despite a style of leadership that tended towards the autocratic, most of those whom he beat now agree he deserved to win.
"I don't think that the chairman has to be the most popular guy in creation," he once said. But everyone knew he could do the job and do it well.
Rainey was the longest-serving chairman of the Auckland Rugby League, 13 years from 1972, then went on to chair the New Zealand Rugby League board from 1986 to 1992.
At meetings, all members could have their say. Then George would have his. They'd take the vote and the Rainey Way would win.
Occasionally he would be called to account and would threaten to resign. The overwhelming support would induce him to stay.
Rainey's family moved from the Hokianga area to the staunchly league suburb of Glen Eden just after World War II. At age 11, he turned up at the Glenora club to play.
He stuck with the game despite pressure to play rugby at Mt Albert Grammar School. And despite his slight frame he was a prop-secondrower.
But he was better known for his organisational drive.
And he was always a sportsman.
He won the J.S.W. Dickson Medal for most sportsmanlike player in the Auckland junior league in 1949.
As chairman attending big games, he would visit the dressing rooms of both teams pre-match to tell the players they were on show, to wear their jerseys with pride and play hard, not to disgrace the game with foul play.
Rainey stopped playing in 1953 when he married Eleanor, because his full attention was required by the nursery business he had started. In the early 1960s he bought land on Mountain Rd, Henderson, developing it into one of Auckland's largest plant suppliers. The couple moved to the property and raised sons Brian and Chris and daughter Patricia.
Rainey started in league management at Glenora, elected club secretary at 17, and was still involved when he died, as adviser to the judicial committee. He had managed the club side that included Kiwis Bill Sorenson and Maunga Emery. More recently he was a board member in the early days of the Auckland Warriors.
He was also a long-serving administrator for the NZ Nurserymen's Association, including three terms as president. His knowledge of plant propagation was widely sought and he had advised staff at the Auckland Botanical Gardens and television's Maggie's Garden Show.
The nursery was sold when Rainey "retired" but it kept his good name and he continued working from the sidelines. You would see him driving a small truck laden with plants around the western suburbs.
And you'd often see him at the league. He was at Carlaw Park for what is regarded as the ground's farewell, the 2002 Bartercard Cup final, not at all bitter about the possibility that the park he created would be sold.
"It's all part of the cycle of how the game moves forward," Rainey said.
He will be farewelled at the Glenora clubrooms at 1.30pm Monday - as a funeral notice said, at peace on the largest playing field.