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New Zealand Warriors

Club information
Full name	New Zealand Warriors Rugby League Football Club
Nickname(s)	The Warriors, The Wahs
Colours	Blue   Green   Red   White
Founded	1995 as Auckland Warriors
Website	warriors.kiwi
Current details
Ground(s)	Mount Smart Stadium, Auckland (25,000)
CEO	Cameron George
Chairman	Ken Reinsfield
Coach	Andrew Webster
Captain	Tohu Harris
Competition	NRL Men's Premiership
2023 season	4th
Home colours Away colours
Current season
Records
Premierships	0
Runners-up	2 (2002, 2011)
Minor premierships	1 (2002)
Wooden spoons	0
Most capped	301 – Simon Mannering
Highest try scorer	152 – Manu Vatuvei
Highest points scorer	1,398 – Shaun Johnson

The New Zealand Warriors are a professional rugby league football club based in Auckland, New Zealand that competes in the National Rugby League (NRL) premiership and is the League's only team from outside Australia. They were formed in 1995 as the Auckland Warriors, and are affectionally known as the Wahs. The Warriors are coached by Andrew Webster and captained by Tohu Harris. The Warriors are based at Go Media Stadium Mt Smart in the Auckland suburb of Penrose.

For the 1995 season the newly formed Auckland Warriors became the first club from outside Australia to be admitted to the Australian Rugby League's premiership when it expanded from 16 to 20 teams. As a result of the Super League war in the mid-1990s, Auckland left the ARL to compete in the Super League competition of 1997, before joining the re-unified NRL the following year. They re-branded themselves the New Zealand Warriors in 2001. The club has yet to win a premiership as of 2022. They have won one minor premiership (in 2002), and reached two grand finals (2002, 2011), reaching the finals eight times.

History

History of the bid

Rugby league in New Zealand was largely centred around Auckland since the establishment of the New Zealand Rugby League in 1909. Auckland produced the bulk of the New Zealand team for many years, and a number of these players were recruited to play professionally in either Australia or England.

In the 1970s and 1980s, the Auckland representative side consistently provided strong opposition to touring teams. An Auckland team was admitted into the mid-week ARL Amco Cup competition in 1978. In their first year they made the semi-finals, and were defeated by the overall competition winners, Eastern Suburbs. They remained in the competition until the early 1980s. In 1987, an Auckland side toured Great Britain and claimed wins over powerhouse clubs Leeds and Wigan.

In 1988, serious investigation into an Auckland team entering the New South Wales Rugby League (NSWRL) commenced, encouraged mainly by Mount Albert, which at that time was one of the strongest rugby league clubs in the country. On 17 May 1992, it was announced that an Auckland-based club would enter the Australian Rugby League competition in 1995. This followed very good turnouts to a number of NSWRL matches played in Auckland. The new team was to be called the Auckland Warriors and would be run by the Auckland Rugby League. The original colours selected were blue, white, red and green. Blue and white are recognised as the traditional sporting colours of Auckland, while red and green were the colours of the Warriors' original sponsor, DB Bitter. The original logo was designed by Francis Allan, of Colenso.

First season – 1995

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The coach of the new team would be former Parramatta and Wigan coach John Monie. A number of senior players were signed, such as Greg Alexander and Andy Platt. Captain Dean Bell was a high-performing signing. Former Rugby union players such as John Kirwan and Marc Ellis were brought in, in later years.

The Warriors' first year in the Australian Rugby League was 1995. Their debut match was against the Brisbane Broncos on 10 March 1995 in front of 30,000 people at a newly refurbished Mount Smart Stadium. The Warriors led 22–10 at one point in the second half of the match, however Brisbane defeated the new club 25–22.

A home crowd attendance record of 32,174 was set at Mount Smart Stadium in Round 6 of the 1995 ARL season, a record that was not topped until Round 1 of the 2011 NRL season.^[2]

The Warriors were deducted two competition points for an interchange error. In a match against Western Suburbs, the Warriors used five interchange players instead of the allowed four. The Warriors won the match comfortably, 46–12. This error had disastrous consequences for the club, as they ultimately missed the finals by two competition points. The season saw the debut of future star, Stacey Jones, who scored a try on debut in a 40–4 rout of Parramatta in Sydney. The biggest issue with the season was the lack of consistency, that is evident with the Warriors even today, despite a six match winning streak late in the season. It was observed that when the Warriors were not winning by 20 points they were losing by 20 points.

Second year blues – 1996

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The Australian Rugby League season 1996 could have been regarded as a better one for the Warriors. The Warriors found themselves siding with the Super League during the Super League War when the New Zealand Rugby League signed up to the rebel competition. They claimed their first 'victory' over Brisbane in round one of the competition that year, after all Super League clubs agreed to boycott the first round of the competition in protest. The Warriors won the two points when they travelled to Brisbane with a squad of players that were unsigned to Super League, forcing the Broncos to forfeit the match.

With four rounds remaining the Warriors were in sixth place in the competition, seemingly headed for a finals berth. They proceeded to lose all four matches to tumble out of the finals.

Super League war – 1997

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The Warriors spent 1997 in the breakaway Super League Telstra Cup competition. Despite the reduced number of teams, they failed to make an impression on the competition. Monie was replaced by Frank Endacott as coach midway through the 1997 season. The only positive was the team's performance in the World Club Challenge. The Warriors defeated United Kingdom powerhouses Wigan and St Helens, as well as Warrington. The Warriors were knocked out in the semi-finals by eventual winners Brisbane, going down 16–22.

Beginning of the NRL era – 1998

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The first season of the reformed competition was a year that saw few highlights for the club. It was readily apparent that the club needed a new approach and attitude. Fortunately for them, they were in a better position than the other two clubs that joined the competition in 1995.

Tainui era – 1999

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