1998 Auckland Warriors season

The Auckland Warriors 1998 season was the Auckland Warriors 4th first-grade season. The club competed in Australasia's National Rugby League. The coach of the team was Frank Endacott while Matthew Ridge was the club's captain.

Milestones

• 10 April - Round 5: Joe Vagana plays his 50th match for the club.
• 19 April - Round 6: Syd Eru plays his 50th match for the club.

Jersey & Sponsors

For 1998 the Warriors again used a similar style of jersey, produced by Nike, Inc. DB Bitter remained the major sponsor while Bartercard joined as the sleeve sponsor.^[1]

Fixtures

The Warriors used Ericsson Stadium as their home ground in 1997, their only home ground since they entered the competition in 1995.

Pre-season trials

Date	Round	Opponent	Venue	Result	Score	Tries	Goals	Attendance	Report
13 February	Trial 1	North Queensland Cowboys	Ericsson Stadium, Auckland	Lost	22-26				[2]
22 February	Trial 2	Auckland selection	Carlaw Park, Auckland	Win	22-4				[3]
28 February	Trial 3	Canterbury Bulldogs	Queen Elizabeth II Park, Christchurch	Win	20-8	Ngamu, Eru, N.Vagana	Ngamu (4)		[4][5]

Regular Season

Date	Round	Opponent	Venue	Result	Score	Tries	Goals	Attendance	Report
13 March	Round 1	South Sydney Rabbitohs	Ericsson Stadium, Auckland	Loss	18-24	Ngamu, Kearney	Ngamu (5)	9,500	[6]
21 March	Round 2	Newcastle Knights	EnergyAustralia Stadium, Newcastle	Loss	4-33	Hoppe		23,503	[7]
27 March	Round 3	Sydney City Roosters	Ericsson Stadium, Auckland	Win	25-14	Hoppe, Jones, Seuseu, N.Vagana	Ridge (4), Ngamu (FG)	9,000	[8]
4 April	Round 4	St. George Dragons	Oki Jubilee Stadium, Sydney	Loss	24-28	N.Vagana (2), Ropati, Smith	Ridge (4)	10,003	[9]
10 April	Round 5	Melbourne Storm	Ericsson Stadium, Auckland	Win	16-12	Hoppe, Jones, Tatupu	Ridge (2)	14,503	[10]
19 April	Round 6	North Sydney Bears	North Sydney Oval, Sydney	Loss	26-44	Jones, Lauitiiti, Tatupu, N.Vagana	Ridge (5)	10,945	[11]
26 April	Round 7	Newcastle Knights	Ericsson Stadium, Auckland	Loss	14-38	Ropati, N.Vagana	Ridge (3)	7,500	[12]
2 May	Round 8	Sydney City Roosters	Sydney Football Stadium, Sydney	Loss	4-22	Oudenryn		5,308	[13]
8 May	Round 9	Cronulla Sharks	Ericsson Stadium, Auckland	Loss	8-20	Ropati	Ridge (2)	7,500	[14]
16 May	Round 10	Canterbury Bulldogs	Belmore Sports Ground, Sydney	Win	20-6	Jones, Oudenryn, A.Swann	Ridge (4)	5,224	[15]
24 May	Round 11	Canberra Raiders	Ericsson Stadium, Auckland	Win	25-14	Hoppe (2), N.Vagana (2)	Ridge (4), Whittaker (FG)	8,000	[16]
30 May	Round 12	Parramatta Eels	Parramatta Stadium, Sydney	Loss	6-14	Kearney	Whittaker (1)	13,218	[17]
7 June	Round 13	Penrith Panthers	Ericsson Stadium, Auckland	Win	15-14	Ngamu, Whittaker	Ngamu (3 & FG)	7,000	[18]
13 June	Round 14	Western Suburbs Magpies	Campbelltown Sports Ground, Sydney	Loss	16-18	Jones, Oudenryn, Jones	Ngamu (2)	5,933	[19]
21 June	Round 15	St. George Dragons	Ericsson Stadium, Auckland	Win	31-14	Eru, Jones, Kearney, Ropati, L.Swann	Ngamu (5 & FG)	8,300	[20]
27 June	Round 16	Melbourne Storm	Olympic Park Stadium, Melbourne	Win	24-21	Eru, Galuvao, Ngamu, Tatupu	Ngamu (4)	13,127	[21]
4 July	Round 17	Illawarra Steelers	Ericsson Stadium, Auckland	Loss	17-14	Eur, Kearney, J.Vagana	Jones (1)	12,500	[22]
11 July	Round 18	Gold Coast Chargers	Carrara Stadium, Gold Coast	Loss	18-31	Endacott, Eru, Staladi	Ridge (3)	5,490	[23]
17 July	Round 19	Balmain Tigers	Ericsson Stadium, Auckland	Win	21-20	Ridge, Tatupu, N.Vagana	Ridge (4), Jones (FG)	6,000	[24]
26 July	Round 20	Adelaide Rams	Hindmarsh Stadium, Adelaide	Loss	20-22	Ridge, N.Vagana, J.Vagana	Ridge (4)	7,445	[25]
31 July	Round 21	North Queensland Cowboys	Ericsson Stadium, Auckland	Win	34-18	N.Vagana (3), Iro (2), Staladi	Ridge (5)	4,500	[26]
9 August	Round 22	South Sydney Rabbitohs	Sydney Football Stadium, Sydney	Loss	18-20	Lauitiiti (2), Seuseu	Ridge (3)	3,733	[27]
16 August	Round 23	Brisbane Broncos	ANZ Stadium, Brisbane	Loss	4-16		Ridge (2)	16,456	[28]
23 August	Round 24	Manly Sea Eagles	Ericsson Stadium, Auckland	Loss	12-38	Kearney, Lauitiiti	Ridge (2)	12,000	[29]

Kiwi Trial matches

After the National Rugby League season had finished the Warriors played in two trial matches against a New Zealand XIII. These matches acted as a trial for the New Zealand Kiwis before the October test against Australia and the tour of Great Britain.

Date	Opponent	Venue	Result	Score	Report
17 September	New Zealand XIII	Rugby Park, New Plymouth	Win	66-4	[30][31][32]
23 September	New Zealand XIII	Carlaw Park, Auckland	Win	60-16	[33]

Ladder

	Team	Pld	W	D	L	PF	PA	PD	Pts
1	Brisbane	24	18	1	5	688	310	+378	37
2	Newcastle	24	18	1	5	562	381	+181	37
3	Melbourne	24	17	1	6	546	372	+174	35
4	Parramatta	24	17	1	6	468	349	+119	35
5	North Sydney	24	17	0	7	663	367	+296	34
6	Sydney City	24	16	0	8	680	383	+297	32
7	Canberra	24	15	0	9	564	429	+135	30
8	St. George	24	13	1	10	486	490	-4	27
9	Canterbury	24	13	0	11	489	411	+78	26
10	Manly	24	13	0	11	503	473	+30	26
11	Cronulla	24	12	1	11	438	387	+51	25
12	Illawarra	24	11	1	12	476	539	-63	23
13	Balmain	24	9	1	14	381	463	-82	19
14	Penrith	24	8	2	14	525	580	-55	18
15	Auckland	24	9	0	15	417	518	-101	18
16	North Queensland	24	9	0	15	361	556	-195	18
17	Adelaide	24	7	0	17	393	615	-222	14
18	South Sydney	24	5	0	19	339	560	-221	10
19	Gold Coast	24	4	0	20	289	654	-365	8
20	Western Suburbs	24	4	0	20	371	802	-431	8

Squad

Twenty nine players were used by the club in 1998, including four players who made their first grade debuts.

No.	Name	Nationality	Position	Warriors Debut	App	T	G	FG	Pts
3	Hoppe, SeanSean Hoppe	NZL !	WG	March 10, 1995	15	5	0	0	20
6	Ngamu, GeneGene Ngamu	NZL !	FE	March 10, 1995	17	3	19	3	53
11	Kearney, StephenStephen Kearney	NZL !	SR	March 10, 1995	21	5	0	0	20
12	Tatupu, TonyTony Tatupu	NZL !	SR	March 10, 1995	19	4	0	0	16
13	Tuimavave, TonyTony Tuimavave	NZL !	PR / LK	March 10, 1995	9	0	0	0	0
15	Ropati, TeaTea Ropati	NZL !	CE / FE	March 10, 1995	15	4	0	0	16
18	Vagana, JoeJoe Vagana	NZL !	PR	March 18, 1995	22	2	0	0	8
19	Eru, SydSyd Eru	NZL !	HK	March 28, 1995	13	4	0	0	16
24	Jones, StaceyStacey Jones	NZL !	HB	April 23, 1995	24	6	1	1	27
29	Ellis, MarcMarc Ellis	NZL !	FB / WG	March 31, 1996	2	0	0	0	0
32	Vagana, NigelNigel Vagana	NZL !	CE	April 4, 1996	23	13	0	0	52
33	Guttenbeil, AwenAwen Guttenbeil	NZL !	SR	April 14, 1996	10	0	0	0	0
36	Swann, AnthonyAnthony Swann	NZL !	CE	June 23, 1996	9	1	0	0	4
37	Malam, BradyBrady Malam	NZL !	PR	June 23, 1996	24	0	0	0	0
38	Henare, BryanBryan Henare	NZL !	SR	July 23, 1996	1	0	0	0	0
40	Ridge, MatthewMatthew Ridge	NZL !	FB	March 1, 1997	18	2	51	0	110
42	Swann, LoganLogan Swann	NZL !	SR	March 1, 1997	24	1	0	0	4
44	Endacott, ShaneShane Endacott	NZL !	FE	March 29, 1997	17	1	0	0	4
45	Staladi, PaulPaul Staladi	NZL !	WG	April 27, 1997	11	2	0	0	8
47	Oudenryn, LeeLee Oudenryn	AUS !	WG	July 6, 1997	20	3	0	0	12
48	Whittaker, AaronAaron Whittaker	NZL !	HB	June 29, 1997	7	1	1	1	7
50	Seu Seu, JerryJerry Seu Seu	NZL !	PR	August 16, 1997	17	2	0	0	8
51	Iro, KevinKevin Iro	NZL !	CE	March 13, 1998	16	2	0	0	8
52	Pongia, QuentinQuentin Pongia	NZL !	PR	March 13, 1998	18	0	0	0	0
53	Smith, TyranTyran Smith	NZL !	SR	March 13, 1998	10	1	0	0	4
54	Clarke, ZaneZane Clarke	COK !	HK	March 13, 1998	5	0	0	0	0
55	Lauitiiti, AliAli Lauitiiti	NZL !	SR	April 19, 1998	8	4	0	0	16
56	Galuvao, JoeJoe Galuvao	NZL !	FB / CE	May 2, 1998	11	1	0	0	4
57	Watene, FrankFrank Watene	NZL !	PR	August 23, 1998	1	0	0	0	0

Staff

• Chief Executive Officer: Bill MacGowan

Coaching Staff

• Head Coach: Frank Endacott

Transfers

Gains

Losses

Mid-Season Losses

Other Teams

Due to the axing of the Reserve grade competition the Auckland Warriors reserve team played in a series of matches against New Zealand Provincial sides.^[34]

Awards

Joe Vagana was the Player of the Year.^[36]

References

External links

• Warriors official site
• 1998 Warriors Season at rugbyleagueproject.org