1999 Auckland Warriors season

The Auckland Warriors 1999 season was the Auckland Warriors 5th first-grade season. The club competed in Australasia's National Rugby League. The coach of the team was Mark Graham while Matthew Ridge was the club's captain.

Milestones

• 13 March – Round 2: Tony Tatupu plays his 50th match for the club.
• 21 March – Round 3: Brady Malam plays his 50th match for the club.
• 16 May – Round 11: Tony Tuimavave plays his 50th match for the club.
• 30 May – Round 13: Logan Swann plays his 50th match for the club.
• 21 August – Round 25: Stacey Jones becomes the first player to appear in 100 first-grade games for the club.

Jersey & Sponsors

For 1999 the Warriors again used a similar style of jersey, produced by Nike, Inc., with Vodafone the shirt sponsor and Bartercard as sleeve sponsor.

Sale to Tainui

Between the 1998 and 1999 seasons the Auckland Rugby League sold the Auckland Warriors to a consortium that included majority investor the Tainui tribe as well as Graham Lowe and Malcolm Boyle. The new owners cleaned out the management and coaching structures and also straightened the tongue on the Warriors logo, as a curved tongue is believed to be cursed in Māori culture.

The consortium paid $2 million in cash, $1.5 million in deferred settlement over three years and an annual development grant of $250,000. The Auckland Rugby League was forced to write off the deferred settlement in 2000 when the Auckland Warriors folded and the assets were purchased by the New Zealand Warriors.^[1]

Fixtures

The Warriors used Ericsson Stadium as their home ground in 1999, their only home ground since they entered the competition in 1995.

Country Carnival

Date	Round	Opponent	Venue	Result	Score	Tries	Goals	Attendance	Report
12 February	Trial 1	Melbourne Storm	Lang Park, Brisbane	Win	16-14	Oudenryn (2), Ridge	Ridge (1)	2,500
20 February	Trial 2	Brisbane Broncos	Toowoomba	Loss	10-22	Manuel, Jones	Ridge (1)	7,146

Regular Season

Date	Round	Opponent	Venue	Result	Score	Tries	Goals	Attendance	Report
8 March	Round 1	Sydney Roosters	Sydney Football Stadium, Sydney	Win	26-16	Ridge (2), Galuvao, Jones	Ridge (5)	10,124
13 March	Round 2	North Sydney Bears	Ericsson Stadium, Auckland	Lost	18-22	Galuvao, Jones, Swann	Ridge (3)	20,268
21 March	Round 3	Manly Sea Eagles	Brookvale Oval	Win	36-10	Death, Henare, Jones, Manuel, Swann, J.Vagana, N.Vagana	Jones (3), Ngamu (1)	7,077
28 March	Round 4	Sydney Roosters	Ericsson Stadium, Auckland	Lost	14-28	Manuel, N.Vagana	Ridge (3)	17,492
3 April	Round 5	Balmain Tigers	Leichhardt Oval, Sydney	Lost	8-17	Jones	Ridge (2)	7,460
9 April	Round 6	Melbourne Storm	Ericsson Stadium, Auckland	10-38	10-38	Lauitiiti, Oudenryn	Jones (1)	10,343
18 April	Round 7	North Queensland Cowboys	Ericsson Stadium, Auckland	Lost	0-24			8,954
	Round 8	Bye
2 May	Round 9	South Sydney Rabbitohs	Ericsson Stadium, Auckland	Lost	8-12	Beverley	Doherty (1), Jones (1)	7,241
8 May	Round 10	Parramatta Eels	Parramatta Stadium, Sydney	Lost	6-28	Koopu	Ridge (1)	13,087
16 May	Round 11	Canberra Raiders	Ericsson Stadium, Auckland	Win	32-30	Galuvao, Lauiti'iti, Manuel, Mears, J.Vagana	Ridge (6)	9,423
23 May	Round 12	Canterbury Bulldogs	Telstra Stadium, Sydney	Lost	28-24	Lauiti'iti (2), Endacott, Jones	Doherty (4)	9,062
30 May	Round 13	Parramatta Eels	Ericsson Stadium, Auckland	Lost	18-25	Jones, Swann	Doherty (5)	8,940
	Round 14	Bye
12 June	Round 15	Penrith Panthers	CUA Stadium, Sydney	Lost	20-34	N.Vagana (2), Mears	Doherty (4)	7,097
19 June	Round 16	Canterbury Bulldogs	Ericsson Stadium, Auckland	Win	30-10	N.Vagana (2), Hoppe, Jones, Manuel, J.Vagana	Simon (3)	9,500
26 June	Round 17	Balmain Tigers	Ericsson Stadium, Auckland	Win	22-4	Swann, Manuel, Seuseu, N.Vagana	Simon (1)	8,506
4 July	Round 18	Canberra Raiders	Canberra Stadium, Canberra	Lost	22-46	Hoppe, Manuel, Mears, N.Vagana	Simon (3)	10,155
10 July	Round 19	Brisbane Broncos	ANZ Stadium, Brisbane	Lost	16-24	Death, Lauiti'iti, Nelson	Simon (2)	14,941
16 July	Round 20	Cronulla Sharks	Ericsson Stadium, Auckland	Lost	20-22	Jones, Oudenryn, Mears	Simon (4)	8,000
25 July	Round 21	South Sydney Rabbitohs	Sydney Football Stadium, Sydney	Win	20-16	Jones, Manuel, Swann, Tuimavave	Ridge (2)	7,364
1 August	Round 22	Melbourne Storm	Olympic Park Stadium, Melbourne	Lost	14-16	Lewis, Tuimavave	Simon (2), Ridge (1)	13,435
6 August	Round 23	St. George Illawarra Dragons	Ericsson Stadium, Auckland	Win	32-18	Beverley, Jones, Lauiti'iti, Manuel, Meli, N.Vagana	Simon (4)	9,564
14 August	Round 24	North Queensland Cowboys	Dairy Farmers Stadium, Townsville	Win	40-14	Oudenryn (3), Jones, Swann, J.Vagana, N.Vagana	Ridge (4), Simon (2)	13,832
21 August	Round 25	Newcastle Knights	Ericsson Stadium, Auckland	Win	42-0	Death (2), Lauiti'iti, Oudenryn, Ridge, Simon, N.Vagana	Ridge (7)	15,385
29 August	Round 26	Western Suburbs Magpies	Campbelltown Sports Ground, Sydney	Win	60-16	Jones (4), Beverley (2), Oudenryn (2), Manuel, Meli, J.Vagana, N.Vagana	Simon (5), Swann (1)	7,793

Ladder

	Team	Pld	W	D	L	B	PF	PA	PD	Pts
1	Cronulla	24	18	0	6	2	586	332	+254	40
2	Parramatta	24	17	0	7	2	500	294	+206	38
3	Melbourne	24	16	0	8	2	639	392	+247	36
4	Sydney City	24	16	0	8	2	592	377	+215	36
5	Canterbury	24	15	1	8	2	520	462	+58	35
6	St. George Illawarra	24	15	0	9	2	588	416	+172	34
7	Newcastle	24	14	1	9	2	575	484	+91	33
8	Brisbane	24	13	2	9	2	510	368	+142	32
9	Canberra	24	13	1	10	2	618	439	+179	31
10	Penrith	24	11	1	12	2	492	428	+64	27
11	Auckland	24	10	0	14	2	538	498	+40	24
12	South Sydney	24	10	0	14	2	349	556	-207	24
13	Manly	24	9	1	14	2	454	623	-169	23
14	North Sydney	24	8	0	16	2	490	642	-152	20
15	Balmain	24	8	0	16	2	345	636	-291	20
16	North Queensland	24	4	1	19	2	398	588	-190	13
17	Western Suburbs	24	3	0	21	2	285	944	-659	10

Squad

Thirty two players were used by the Warriors in 1999, including eight players making their first grade debuts.

No.	Name	Nationality	Position	Warriors Debut	App	T	G	FG	Pts
3	Sean Hoppe		WG	March 10, 1995	13	2	0	0	8
6	Gene Ngamu		FE	March 10, 1995	6	0	1	0	2
12	Tony Tatupu		SR	March 10, 1995	21	0	0	0	0
13	Tony Tuimavave		PR / LK	March 10, 1995	16	2	0	0	8
18	Joe Vagana	/	PR	March 18, 1995	24	5	0	0	20
19	Syd Eru		HK	March 28, 1995	2	0	0	0	0
24	Stacey Jones		HB	April 23, 1995	24	15	5	0	70
32	Nigel Vagana	/	CE	April 4, 1996	21	12	0	0	48
33	Awen Guttenbeil	/	SR	April 14, 1996	3	0	0	0	0
37	Brady Malam		PR	June 23, 1996	8	0	0	0	0
38	Bryan Henare		SR	July 23, 1996	7	1	0	0	4
40	Matthew Ridge		FB	March 1, 1997	10	3	34	0	80
42	Logan Swann		SR	March 1, 1997	24	7	1	0	30
44	Shane Endacott		FE	March 29, 1997	17	1	0	0	4
47	Lee Oudenryn		WG	July 6, 1997	17	8	0	0	32
50	Jerry Seu Seu	/	PR	August 16, 1997	16	1	0	0	4
55	Ali Lauitiiti	/	SR	April 19, 1998	20	7	0	0	28
56	Joe Galuvao	/	FB / CE	May 2, 1998	13	3	0	0	12
58	Odell Manuel		WG	March 8, 1999	24	9	0	0	36
59	Jason Death		HK / LK	March 8, 1999	18	4	0	0	16
60	Terry Hermansson		PR	March 8, 1999	24	0	0	0	0
61	Monty Betham		HK / LK	March 8, 1999	3	0	0	0	0
62	Cliff Beverley		FE	March 21, 1999	16	4	0	0	16
63	Peter Lewis		CE	April 3, 1999	11	1	0	0	4
64	Wairangi Koopu		CE / SR	April 9, 1999	6	1	0	0	4
65	Francis Meli	/	WG	May 2, 1999	3	2	0	0	8
66	Clinton Toopi		CE	May 2, 1999	2	0	0	0	0
67	Carl Doherty		FB	May 2, 1999	5	0	14	0	28
68	Robert Mears		HK	May 16, 1999	15	4	0	0	16
69	John Simon		FE	June 12, 1999	12	1	26	0	56
70	Boycie Nelson		CE	June 19, 1999	5	1	0	0	4
71	Talite Liava'a		PR	July 4, 1999	2	0	0	0	0

Staff

• Chief Executive Officer: Trevor McKewen
• Football Manager: Hugh McGahan

Transfers

Other Teams

During the 1999 season players not selected for first grade competed in the NZRL's National Provincial competition.^[3] The Warriors also sent four players a week to play for the Wynnum Manly Seagulls and Brisbane Souths.^[4][5]

Awards

Jason Death won the club's Player of the Year award.^[6]

References

External links

• Warriors official site
• 1999 Warriors Season at rugbyleagueproject.org