The Te Atatu Roosters is a rugby league club based in Te Atatū, New Zealand. They participate in the Auckland Rugby League competition. They currently have 25 teams across schoolboy, junior and senior grades. The Roosters premier team is in the 2024 season Fox Memorial Shield competition after qualifying from the 3-match qualifying competition.

Home ground The Roosters play at the council owned Jack Colvin Park located on the Te Atatū Peninsula, next to the North Western Motorway. Junior teams also play at Te Atatū South Park.

History 1950s The Te Atatū club was founded in 1955 after the opening of the North-Western motorway led to suburban growth in the Te Atatū area. The first team was a 7-aside team formed to represent Te Atatū North and South. They initially wore Glenora jerseys (who were a club based in Glen Eden), and their first game was against Wesley at Fowlds Park. The first training area was in a cow paddock on Edmonton Rd, before they were later able to move to Ramlea Park.

1960s In 1961, Te Atatū won their first schoolboy championship in their Te Atatū colours. In 1960–61, Te Atatū Peninsula Park was developed on Neil Avenue and in 1965, they fielded their first senior side in the Senior B grade. The ground is still commonly referred to as 'Neil Ave'.

In the late 1960s, work began on the current club rooms on Toru Avenue. However, before the club rooms could be built, the land needed to be prepared. The land was in extremely poor condition; life member Ken Pitman described the task of preparing it, stating: "What a mess, over six acres of swamp, gorse and pine trees, five feet thick. Well, we were all enthusiastic and silly enough to attempt the impossible. We chopped, scrounged, swore, drank and burned our way through the lot". The council also helped by putting a culvert under the motorway and realigning the creek, which ran through the park.

The club rooms took over 6 years to complete: the foundation stone was laid on 17 December 1962, and the official opening was held on 19 April 1969 by MP Martin Finlay.

1970s By the 1970s, Te Atatū were becoming more competitive on the field at senior levelthey defeated all of the top clubs over a period of time, including Ellerslie Eagles, Mt Albert Lions, Glenora Bears, Richmond Bulldogs and Ponsonby Ponies. At this time, the club also began producing NZ international quality players such as Dennis Williams, who, aged only 18, famously scored a brilliant individual try with his first touch of the ball in his debut test versus Great Britain, along with John Smith and John Wilson. In 1973, they won the Senior Competition and the Phelan Shield. In the same year, they played the first ever Australian Aboriginal rugby league team in a pre-season game, losing 13–17.

Around this time, other branches of the club were formed at Ranui (which later led to the formation of the Waitemata Seagulls), and Massey. Teams playing at Moire Park in Massey were known as Te Atatū Massey. The nickname 'Roosters' was adopted along with the Eastern Suburbs (now Sydney Roosters) style jersey. In 1976, they turned 21 yrs old and celebrated with a ball at the Mandalay in the city. In 1979, club members looking for a summer activity to continue bonding and to develop player skills formed the Te Atatū Roosters Softball Club. The softball club has since relocated to the Massey Rugby Club and plays at Rosedale Park on Auckland's North Shore, but has retained the name Roosters Softball Club.

1980s The 1980s saw the club first begin to experience success. In 1986, they were runners-up in the Fox Memorial Shield to Mt Albert, losing 314, but weeks later were crowned National Club Champions after defeating the same opposition 3610. Then, in 1988, they won the Fox Memorial Shield, beating local rivals Glenora 22–16 in the final at Carlaw Park and a month later won the National Club title for the second time by again defeating Glenora at Eden Park as a curtain-raiser to the Kiwis – Kangaroo World Cup final.

2010s In 2016, Te Atatū formed their first women's premier team. They played six seasons and won the 2nd division title twice (2016 and 2019).

2020s However, they did not field a women's team in 2022.

Titles

Te Atatu's first-ever senior trophy was the Gillette Cup in 1968. They won it again in 1974. Another trophy won by Te Atatu early in their existence was the Sharman Cup, which they won five times: in 1970, 1973, 1974, 1976 and 1978.

Te Atatu had a historic year in 1986 when they won the Rukutai Shield for winning the minor premiership and making the Fox Memorial grand final (both for the first time), where they lost to the Mt Albert Lions 31–4. A month later, they had revenge when they beat the Lions by 36–10 to claim their first National Club title at Carlaw Park, defeating Randwick and Upper Hutt along the way.

Te Atatu finally won the coveted Fox Memorial Shield, awarded to the Auckland club champions in 1988 with a win over local rivals the Glenora Bears. They also went on to win the Lion Red National Club Final against Glenora at Eden Park 18–8 in the same year. The match was televised live as it was the curtain-raiser to the New Zealand – Australia Rugby League World Cup final, which Australia went on to win 25–12 in front of 45,363 spectators.

In 1990, they again made the Fox Memorial final but lost to a Tawera Nikau inspired Otahuhu Leopards. In 1993, they made the Fox Memorial final for the 4th time but were again defeated by the Northcote Tigers 29–10.

In 2005, the Roosters celebrated their 50th Jubilee. In 2007, Te Atatu won the Roope Rooster (which by this time had become a trophy the winning team defended on their home ground). They defeated Mt Albert to win it and defended it for 3 matches before losing it to the Richmond Bulldogs.

In 2010, they finished 4th at the end of the regular season in the Fox Memorial and defeated 3rd placed Howick in the minor final, before losing to Otahuhu in the preliminary final. The 2011 to 2014 seasons were largely uneventful, spent in the lower divisions. The 2014 season was arguably one of the worst in the club's history, with just 2 wins from 18 games, both over the last placed Manukau Magpies.

The club rebuilt in 2015 by appointing Revell Neil and bringing in many new players to the premier team. This saw a massive reversal in results, and over the 2015 and 2016 seasons, they won a remarkable 35 games, with 2 draws and just 3 losses. In 2015, they had their 60th Jubilee, which featured a celebratory match with local rivals Glenora and was won by Te Atatu 38–28.

They also won the Phelan Shield in this time. In 2016 they won the Phelan Shield again along with promotion back to the Fox Memorial when they beat the Bay Roskill Vikings 31–22 in the Sharman Cup final. In 2017 they were competitive in many matches but failed to convert this into wins. They were relegated back to the Sharman Cup and in 2018 were forced to rebuild after losing many of their players to other teams. Former Te Atatu player Lawrence Tagaloa was appointed head coach. They finished the season with a 7–7 record and lost to New Lynn in the Sharman Cup championship final. 2019 saw another change with new coaches (Keith Hanley and Phil Gordon) appointed and many new additions to the team. The 2022 season saw Phil Gordan in charge again as head coach after he had assumed sole responsibility in 2021. Te Atatu had one of their better seasons for over a decade and qualified 3rd in section 2 which included 10 sides with a 7 win, 2 loss record. They then thrashed Mangere East 62-6 in the quarterfinal before losing to eventual finalists Glenora 26-12. In 2023 they finished 8th out of 14 teams in the Fox Memorial competition. They beat Glenora 32-6 in the semi final of the Plate competition before losing to Mount Albert in the final 22-16.

In 2024 Te Atatu had a new coaching regime which changed several times during the season before settling on Lila Vaivai. They won the Denis Williams Cup from Glenora for the first time in over a decade and then on July 6 they defeated Point Chevalier Pirates 26-22 to win the Roope Rooster trophy for the first time since 2006. Year Trophy 1968 Gillette Cup 1970 Sharman Cup 1973 Sharman Cup 1974 Sharman Cup & Gillette Cup 1976 Sharman Cup 1978 Sharman Cup 1986 Rukutai Shield, National Club Championship & Kiwi Shield 1988 Fox Memorial, National Club Championship & Kiwi Shield 2007 Roope Rooster 2015 Phelan Shield 2016 Phelan Shield & Sharman Cup 2024 Dennis Williams Cup, Roope Rooster

Current season and season finishing positions Men's season records 198894, 2003, 20092024