1919 Auckland Rugby League season

The 1919 season of the Auckland Rugby League was its 11th. It was the first season post World War I and unsurprisingly it saw a resurgence in playing numbers with 56 teams across the six grades. North Shore Albions who had previously dropped out of the senior competition again fielded a senior side. As did Otahuhu, who had dropped out during the 1917 season. Ponsonby United won their third consecutive first grade title, while Newton Rangers won the Roope Rooster trophy.

The season was also summarised by the league as well. Forty-nine teams were entered across all grades. Sunnyside won the second grade, Manukau won the third grade, City won the fourth and fifty grades, while Ponsonby won the sixth grade. It was stated that the standard of play in the senior club competition was not as good as it would have been due to the fact that 19 of the best club players from Auckland were away for a large part of the season representing New Zealand in Australia.

Marist Old Boys enter first grade
A new club was formed, namely Marist Old Boys. They were composed of old boys of the Marist Brothers’ schools. They had initially included many members of the Railways rugby side of 1917 who fell out with the Auckland Rugby Union and in 1918 played under the umbrella of the Grafton Athletic club. While they would go on to wear the famous green of Marist in this initial year they took the field in blue jerseys. The senior club season commenced on 3 May.

Eden Ramblers club folds and Point Chevalier is founded
At the Auckland Rugby League meeting on 30 April it was announced that the Eden Ramblers club had been disbanded. They had formed in 1911 and played in the senior competition from 1911 to 1913 before becoming a lower grade club until this season. Curiously though 3 weeks earlier on April 5 however it was reported that a "new club that has just been affiliated is the Eden Ramblers, boys from Avondale and Point Chevalier". The new team however was not to become known as the Eden Ramblers but in fact were named Point Chevalier. Point Chevalier however did not field any teams in the 1919 season and it wasn't until the 1920 season that they were officially registered with the league.

Charitable efforts and league funds
During the war most of the revenue gained by Auckland Rugby League was donated to the war efforts meaning they could not make much progress financially towards developing the game and facilities. In 1919 they once again raised 75 pounds to distribute to local charities nominated by the mayor. They also put on a match at the end of the season to raise money for the St. John Ambulance Brigade. Due to the large crowds at some of the matches, including the match with Australia it was anticipated that the league would gain over 1,000 pounds to establish a fund for obtaining a playing ground. This would of course be Carlaw Park.

Scrum rules
At the end of the season J.B. Cooke stated in a meeting that next season the ball would be rolled into scrums and forwards would have to keep their feet on the ground while the halfback was putting the ball in. These changes were to “brighten the game”.

Representative season
The Auckland representative team was only able to play one inter provincial fixture against Hawkes Bay after matches with Canterbury and Wellington were unable to be scheduled due to the busy New Zealand representative schedule. Likewise Ponsonby were unable to schedule a defense of the Thacker Shield for the same reason. An Auckland Junior team was however able to make a trip out to Napier to play Hawkes Bay and they were victorious by 12 points to 5. Auckland played a match in front of an enormous crowd at the Auckland Domain against the touring Australian side but did not fair any better than the New Zealand national side, going down by 32 points to 8.

Myers Cup (1st Grade championship)
Otahuhu's first grade team were to only last one round into the season before pulling out. Grafton also struggled to field a team when they lost players to the New Zealand team which was touring Australia. In round 6 rather than default they were provided with players from the City and Newton clubs however they too did not survive to the end of the competition. Ponsonby United won the championship for the third consecutive season.

Round 1
Round 1 saw the senior rugby league debut of Frank Delgrosso. He had played for Ponsonby rugby seniors in 1918 at the age of 18 but switched codes at the start of the season. Delgrosso would go on to become a New Zealand rugby league international in 1921 and play for New Zealand 42 times. He also played for the North Island 3 times and played 23 matches for Auckland including several as captain. Delgrosso also captained Ponsonby and played a remarkable 184 games for them from 1919 to 1934. At the end of his career he also began coaching their senior side and continued coaching into the 1940s. In 1934 he also coached both the Taranaki and Auckland sides in representative matches. He was later inducted into the Auckland rugby league hall of fame.

Round 2
Otahuhu wrote to the league during the week that they had insufficient players to continue in the senior competition. However with a number of players returning from the front they would likely be able to enter a team in the Roope Rooster knockout competition later in the season.

Round 4
There was confusion with the Round 4 draw with the newspapers listing the match between North Shore and Maritime when in fact it was Newton who were supposed to be the opponent. As a result, Newton players did not arrive at the ground. Eventually Newton found enough substitutes but they still began the game 2–3 players short. In spite of this they still managed to win by 14 points to 9. Also the City team took the field with 6 juniors while Grafton had 2 juniors and played a man short. The chief issue was with the New Zealand team touring Australia at the time meaning many key players were absent from their club teams. The Marist club was having trouble assembling a full thirteen players in its inaugural season in senior grade and their captain, Con McDevitt requested a postponement of their match with Ponsonby at the mid week ARL meeting and the request was granted. A number of their players moved to the Marist Rugby Union side around this time. R Osborne of the Grafton side badly sprained and ankle and was taken from the field for their side.

Round 5
In the match at Devonport the Marist team was led from the field by their captain, Con McDevitt with the score at 9–0 to North Shore in protest at a refereeing decision. After hearing the report of referee, Mr Cleal, and a statement from McDevitt, it was decided to suspend McDevitt for 12 months after it was he who had told the referee that he would be taking his team from the field in protest after the awarding of North Shore's third try and proceeded to do so. Cleal had said that the match to that point had been a "disgrace". McDevitt appealed to the New Zealand Rugby League however a few weeks later however the ARL decided as a Peace Day gesture to lift the ban.

Round 6
Grafton were not able to field a full team and were reinforced by players from Newton who had a bye. This was done so that they would not be forced to drop out of the competition. They were missing test players Karl Ifwersen and Dougie McGregor. Marist continued their difficult season with a heavy defeat and took the field with only 11 players.

Round 7
Nelson Bass debuted for Newton. He was selected for New Zealand in the same year and played 7 matches for them from 1919 to 1921. He would ultimately play 20 games for Newton before transferring to Marist in 1922 where he played 24 games over 2 seasons and then moved once more to City Rovers where he played 44 games over 4 seasons before suffering a career ending knee injury. Bass also played 21 games for Auckland and 2 for Auckland Province.

Round 9
The Auckland Star reported that the matches at Victoria Park saw the largest crowds for club games ever on that ground.

Round 10
Round 10 featured two rarities. The Newton v North Shore match was played as a curtain-raiser to the Ponsonby v Maritime match on Auckland Domain 1. When matches were normally played at the same venue they all were played at the same time of 3pm on adjacent fields. In the 3rd match due to be played on the Domain the referee, Frank Thompson failed to turn up and after waiting for 40 minutes the decision was made to abandon the game. It was later revealed that he had been called away on an urgent business matter and had tried to contact the league but been unable to. The Auckland Rugby League accepted his explanation. The round was also significant for another reason. Craddock Dufty debuted for Newton and kicked 2 conversions. The previous Saturday he had played for Thames rugby representatives against Auckland and switched codes midweek. He was to go on to represent New Zealand for many years along with touring with the New Zealand Maori side and was a prodigious point scorer.

Roope Rooster knockout competition
The round 1 match between Ponsonby United and Newton Rangers was abandoned towards the end with Newton leading by 12 points to 10 after Ponsonby supporters encroached on the field in protest against the referee and refused to move back. Marist Old Boys recorded their first competitive win in their history with a round 1 win over North Shore Albions. The final was won by Newton Rangers after they defeated Maritime by 8 points to 5.

Round 1
In the Newton match with Ponsonby there was no crossbar and so they tied a piece of string between the two posts to act as a makeshift marker for kicks at goal. The match was ultimately called off near fulltime after Ponsonby supporters objected to some refereeing decisions and were ten yards over the sideline. The referee Billy Murray and his assistants tried to clear the field but after the spectators failed to move he called the game off. The Auckland Rugby League ordered the match replayed the following week. In the Marist Memories book produced by the Marist club for their Golden Jubilee the Robinson brothers who played for Marist were in fact the Nunn brothers from Wellington. The story was retold by Bill Glover senior 50 years later that they were trying to avoid detection from the military police and gave aliases to the police. The Marist team featured several new players in their surprising win which was their first ever in first grade competition. One of them was Horace Nunn who had played rugby union for Wellington and the North Island. He was a deserter from military camp at Trentham and in 1920 was arrrested and spent a year in prison with hard labour. After being released he joined the Petone rugby league club and played for Wellington and New Zealand in 1921.

Round 1 replay
The replay was described as "undoubtedly the fastest and most exciting" of the season. And was also played in good spirits and well refereed.

Semi final
Former New Zealand international Bob Mitchell had joined the Marist side and scored a try in their narrow loss.

Top try scorers and point scorers
The following point scoring lists include Senior Championship matches and the Roope Rooster competition matches only. George Davidson the champion New Zealand sprinter, who represented New Zealand at the 1920 Olympics top scored with 64 points and he also led the league with 14 tries.

Several teams featured multiple players with the same surname with many sets of brothers. As a result, some of the scoring lists are inaccurate. For Ponsonby Laurie Cadman scored 1, his brother Arthur Cadman scored 2, and "Cadman" scored 3. Laurie was also a boxer and in June 11 or 12, 1925 he disappeared from the Manaia steamer which was traveling from Tauranga to Auckland. His body was never found.

Lower grades
There were 5 lower grades in 1919. In the middle of the season the Post & Telegraph Football Club asked to be affiliated to the Maritime Football Club which had been formed a year earlier. This request was approved by the league.

Second grade (G Wright Cup)
Sunnyside won the championship after an 8-8 draw with City Rovers in the last round of the season. Sunnyside had been leading the competition at the time with City in second place. The City club asked for a rematch but were refused by the Junior Management Committee. Thames Old Boys, Marist Old Boys, and Newton Rangers all withdrew after round 2 with Marist and Newton defaulting their matches. There were 22 scores/results reported, with 26 scores/results not reported therefor the standings are considerably incomplete.

Third grade
The third grade initially had 6 teams entered but several withdrew during the season and only Northcote and Manukau completed the season. Manukau won the competition and were undefeated however there were only 3 scores reported in the entire season (Northcote 0 Ponsonby 0, Manukau 18 Otahuhu 0, and Otahuhu 13 Ponsonby 0). Otahuhu also recorded a default win over Sunnyside in round 1 with the Sunnyside team then withdrawing from the competition. Thames Old Boys withdrew after round 2, Otahuhu following round 6, and Ponsonby following round 7. This left Northcote and Manukau to play each other on July 5, July 12, and July 19 before the competition stopped. None of these results were reported.

Fourth grade
City were reported to have finished one point ahead of Otahuhu and Maritime. Then followed Sunnyside, Richmond, and Northcote. Though there were a large number of results not reported so the table is incomplete. During the season the Post & Telegraph club affiliated with the Maritime Football Club and subsequently assumed that name. Grafton Athletic withdrew after 6 rounds, as did Manukau.

Fifth grade
City Rovers won the competition. Sunnyside withdrew after the first round after defaulting their match with City. Newton and Maritime withdrew from the competition after 2 rounds. At the time the Maritime team was in fact Post & Telegraph, but their club became affiliated with the Maritime Football Club mid season.

Sixth grade
Ponsonby United were one competition point ahead of City when they then beat them 7-3 in the curtain-raiser to the 3rd test between New Zealand and Australia. This was the penultimate round and sealed the championship for Ponsonby. Sunnyside withdrew after 2 rounds, while Manukau withdrew after 11 rounds.

Benefit match for Albert Asher
A match was played on 27 September between Maritime (though the team included members of the Marist side including Neville St George, and City Rovers with the proceeds going to the benefit of Mr. Opai Asher, a league veteran who was incapacitated as the result of an accident. A match was also played between the Auckland Star and The New Zealand Herald. It was won 23 points to 5 by the Star.

St Johns benefit match
To end the season a rugby union and rugby league match was played at the Auckland Domain for the benefit of the St. John Ambulance Brigade, whose members regularly attend league and union matches to perform first aid to injured players. The rugby league match was between City and Ponsonby, and was won by City 13–10. Ben Davidson made his debut for City Rovers and scored 2 tries in what was to be a prolific try scoring career for City and later Wigan. It is likely that the Cooke who kicked a goal for Ponsonby was Bert Cooke, the famous All Black of the future. He had played junior rugby league for the Telegraph Messengers in 1917 and 1918 before they amalgamated with Maritime in 1919. The club had been affiliated with Ponsonby prior to this. He switched to rugby union the following year.

Maritime team tour
In Mid October the Maritime senior team embarked on an end of season tour to Hawkes Bay on board the S.S. Arahura. They played Petane and Ahuriri and had two comfortable victories. Ahuriri had won the Vigor Brown Shield and the Charity Cup and the match was reportedly played in front of a large crowd. Their touring team was G.H. White, F. Avery, Bert Avery, George Cargill, George Paki, Harry Francis, Eric Grey, Clifford Grey, R. Hunt, Arthur Sutton, W. Lusty, C. Wilkie, Eric McGregor, Dougie McGregor, B. Shera, P. O'Brien, J. Brien, W. Miller, E Roberts, John Sutton, and W. Liversidge. The side was strengthened by some players from other sides including George Paki and Harry Francis of City. After their return they travelled to Thames on 18 October to play in a series of exhibition matches along with the Richmond club though the results are unknown.

Representative fixtures
On 14 May the selectors (R Benson, Harold Rowe, and A Powell) conducted a trial match between Auckland A and B teams to help choose both an Auckland and New Zealand team. The B team won the match by 15 points to 14. The first representative fixture of the season was a match played against the New Zealand team which was preparing to depart for their tour of Australia. The New Zealand team won 25–19 at the Auckland Domain in front of 8,000. On Friday, 19 July Auckland played a match at the Auckland Domain with a Returned Soldiers team as part of a “Peace Day” sports celebration involving sports from several different codes. Although the Peace Day celebrations ran over 3 days.

On 23 August Auckland played against a team composed of available members of the New Zealand team which had toured Australia earlier in the year. The Auckland team was composed of Auckland players who remained so in essence was largely a ‘B’ team. The match was played at Victoria Park and resulted in a high scoring win to the ‘NZ’ team 45–30.

Then on 20 September, Auckland played against the touring Australian side and were well defeated by 32 points to 8. The match was played at the Auckland Domain in front of 18,000 spectators.

Auckland v New Zealand touring team
New Zealand was playing a test match against the touring Australian side so as a way to select a team for Auckland for their upcoming match against Australia the selectors decided to play a match between New Zealand players who had toured Australia recently but weren't selected for the test side, and remaining Auckland players. George Yardley, playing in the forwards for Auckland broke his leg after he and Ivan Stewart of New Zealand both kicked at the ball and Stewart's foot collected Yardley between the knee and the ankle, breaking his tibia. Bob Mitchell, who was originally named to play for Auckland in fact turned out for New Zealand and scored one of their tries.

Auckland v Australia
The Auckland team was coached by Harold Rowe who had played 44 matches for New Zealand from 1907 to 1909 and 33 games for Leeds in the 1909/10 season. They went away for a weeks training prior to meeting the Australian side however it made little difference as they were well beaten.

Auckland representative matches played and scorers

 * Bob Mitchell transferred to Marist during the season after his Grafton Athletic side began defaulting games.