The 1918 Auckland Rugby League season was its 10th since its inception in 1909. It was again severely affected by the ongoing war with several hundred players serving overseas and 44 killed who were named in the annual report. North Shore Albions withdrew from the competition early in the season and on other occasions teams played short-handed. There was also a truncated representative program with only a trial match and one full Auckland representative match versus Canterbury, which was played at the Auckland Domain in front of 10,000 spectators.
The senior grade featured six teams. Ponsonby United won their second consecutive title with an 8-win–1-loss record. Ponsonby then travelled to Christchurch to play Sydenham for the Thacker Shield and they won 11 points to 0. City Rovers won their second Roope Rooster title with a 6–3 win over Maritime following their first win in 1916.
Senior games still regularly attracted strong crowds. The round 4 matches at Victoria Park drew an estimated crowd of 6,000. While 4,000 attended the round 5 matches, 5,000 the round 7 clash between City Rovers and Grafton Athletic at the same venue, and 6,000 witnessed the round 9 match between City Rovers and Ponsonby United.
At the season end many one-off matches were played between various teams. One of the more notable ones was a match between the Auckland Star staff and The New Zealand Herald staff. The game was won by the Auckland Star by 8 points to 4. These company type fixtures were to become a regular feature of Auckland Rugby League for decades to come.
News Epidemic deaths At the conclusion of the year the Auckland Rugby League took out an advertisement acknowledging the deaths of people associated with the game from the recent influenza epidemic. They included Matthew Winter Maddison of the Ponsonby club, and Montrose (Monty) Stanaway who had represented Auckland in 1915 while with the Otahuhu club before later transferring to City in 1917. And also H. Iles, Arthur Winnall, B Evans, P. Sheenan, and Francis Caulam also being mentioned along with "all others who have lost their loved ones".
Parnell Club Although the Parnell club did not officially form until 1921 they were belatedly registered in 1918 and fielded two teams. They had a side in the 4th grade, and another in the 6th grade. Prior to the start of the season they asked the Auckland Rugby League if they could affiliate with Grafton. It was decided to leave the arrangement to the Grafton club.
The reason they had asked to affiliate was that they had been late to register as a club. They then tried to affiliate with Newton Rangers. The Auckland Star in reporting on the matter wrote the “Parnell Club requested permission to affiliate with Newton. Owing to nominations being closed, thus barring Parnell from entering teams, the Northcote Club offered to forego their nominations in the 4th and 6th grade, so as to allow the Parnell Club to participate in the competitions. Affiliation was then granted to the Parnell Club, and the offer of Northcote for the transference of nominations was referred to the Junior Advisory Board”. The New Zealand Herald said that the league granted affiliation with the Newton club.
Competition news Club teams by grade participation Team1st Grade2nd Grade3rd Grade4th Grade5th Grade6th GradeTotalCity Rovers1110115Ponsonby United1101205Otahuhu Rovers0101114North Shore Albions1010114Richmond Rovers0001113Telegraph Messengers0001113Grafton Athletic1001002Newton Rangers1001002Northcote & Birkenhead Ramblers0010102Manukau Rovers0000202Parnell0001012Maritime1000001Māngere Rangers0100001Thames Old Boys0010001Sunnyside0001001Big Store0000101Total645911641
Maritime, Mangere, and Big Store football clubs form The 'Maritime Football Club' applied to join the Auckland Rugby League with the nomination of a senior team. This was accepted by the league. They finished the season with a 1 win, 7 loss record.
The Māngere club applied for affiliation and the registration of 23 players at the Auckland Rugby League meeting on 17 April. This was granted by the league. They were to play in maroon and gold originally as requested but before the season started asked to wear blue instead.
The Big Store Football Club nominated a team to play in the league which was accepted and their colours of blue and white were approved.
New league rooms At the conclusion of the season the league opened their own league rooms on Swanson Street. The rooms were used for the first time with the Auckland Rugby League executive meeting on 23 October. The rooms consisted of "a large billiard room and League office, and a room for clubs to hold their weekly meetings in". It was stated that players did not formerly meet "their fellow players during the summer time, but with this club now on a sound footing they will be able to meet each other and spend enjoyable evenings which should bring about a better feeling between the different teams".
Death of George Cook in World War 1 On January 14, 1918 George Cook died in France during World War 1. Originally he was a rugby player who played for many seasons for Horowhenua before moving to Wellington where he played representative rugby there too. He switched to rugby league in 1912 playing for Wellington and there gaining selection for New Zealand to play New South Wales. Cook moved to Auckland in 1913 and joined the Newton Rangers. He played in 9 matches for them and scored 33 points making him the second highest scorer. He was selected for Auckland and played in 6 matches scoring 4 tries. In 1914 he joined the Otahuhu Rovers club where he played 9 games and scored 29 points which was the 3rd most in the competition. Cook enlisted in the New Zealand Māori (Pioneer) Battalion in 1917. Cook died on October 12, 1918, from broncho-pneumonia while at the No. 7 Canadian General Hospital in the field in France. He was buried at Étaples Military Cemetery in Étaples, near Boulogne in north-west France.
Representative match Auckland played a representative match for the first time in a few seasons. They had taken a hiatus during the war years but they played a trial match between and A and B team before a match with Canterbury at the Auckland Domain. The match attracted an enormous crowd of 10,000 and Auckland won easily by 45 points to 9.
First grade championship The 1st grade championship had been competing for the Myers Cup from 1910 to 1914 but after the beginning of the war the league decided to not award trophies though the grade competitions were still competed for as normal. The season began with 3 preliminary rounds before the competitions began proper on 18 May. Around 5,000 spectators attended the first round matches at Victoria Park and Devonport Domain. North Shore Albions played the preliminary rounds, round 1, and defaulted their next two matches before withdrawing from the competition.
Teams The competition featured 6 teams. City Rovers (red and black) Grafton Athletic (black and white) Maritime (red, white, and blue) Newton Rangers (red and white) North Shore Albions (green and white) Ponsonby United (blue and black)
Statistics Including the knockout games there were 32 first grade games played with 138 tries, 65 conversions, 53 penalties, no drop goals, and 5 goals from a mark. The average number of points per game was 21.5, with 4.31 tries per game. The points per game decreased from 23 in 1917 to 21.5 in 1918 and the number of tries per game decreased from 5.28 to 4.31. With 65 conversions from 138 attempts the successful percentage was 47.1. The successful conversion percentage increased from 40.9 in 1917 to 47.1 in 1918.
Preliminary rounds Round 1 Ernie Herring debuted for Grafton. Former All Black, Dougie McGregor kicked 2 penalties for Grafton in their 27–4 loss to City. His brother Eric scored twice for Ponsonby in their 16–6 win over Ponsonby. For Newton, Wally Somers and George Iles both scored in a 23–9 win over Maritime.
Round 2 North Shore was struggling to field a team owing to the impact of the war on their playing numbers. They only managed 11 players for their match with Maritime who were also fielding a weakened forward pack. Thomas Marchbank, a returned soldier, playing in the North Shore side broke his ankle, further handicapping the side. Marchbank was taken to Auckland Hospital. Maritime managed a tight 4–2 win over North Shore with Dufty kicking 2 penalties. Grafton also had trouble raising a team and were very late taking the field before managing to defeat Ponsonby 12-3 thanks largely to captain Karl Ifwersen scoring a try and kicking 2 penalties. He was back from overseas service after only playing one game in 1917.
Round 3 North Shore defaulted their match with Grafton. Ponsonby achieved a milestone of sorts becoming the first club to reach 1,000 first grade points during their match with Newton. They began the game with 983 points all time and progressed to 1,004 by the end of the match. It had taken them 72 matches to reach the mark.
First Grade standings
TeamPldWDLFAPtsPonsonby United98011035316Newton Rangers97021233714City Rovers8503738510Grafton Athletic8206941254Maritime9108451102North Shore Albions30032300 Ponsonby and Maritime both had default wins over North Shore Albions. Newton had a default win over Maritime (R9). These results are included in the standings.
First Grade results Round 1
Round 2 North Shore lost by default to Maritime. In the City v Grafton match the City player C. (Chook) Mitchell was ordered off by referee Vause for disputing a decision. He wrote a letter of apology during the week and the league ordered him to appear on Saturday to receive a “severe citation” George Reid (City) was knocked unconscious during their match with Grafton and was taken to hospital. While Campney, the Grafton fullback went off injured and Fife who replaced him also had to leave the field with an injury.
Round 3 North Shore once again defaulted and the withdrew from the first grade competition leaving 5 teams. It was stated in the New Zealand Herald that Grafton played 4 men short, though given they won 28-2 it is more likely that it was their opponents Maritime who were short of players. For Grafton, Dougie McGregor scored 2 tries, while H Simpson crossed the line 4 times. Karl Ifwersen and Mcgregor kicked 5 goals between them. Newton easily beat City 18–2 with George Iles scoring once and his brother Arthur converting 3 of their 4 tries.
Round 4 Future New Zealand hooker, Wally Somers scored twice for Newton in their 16–0 win over Maritime.
Round 5 Sheehan was ordered off for Maritime in their match with Ponsonby for striking Arthur Matthews.
Round 6
Round 7 The two round 7 matches were played over 2 Saturday's. Remarkably the match between Newton and Ponsonby at the Domain on July 13 was recorded with footage of the game surviving and being archived on The New Zealand Archive of Film, Television and Sound Ngā Taonga website.
Round 8 A player from each team in the City - Newton match was ordered off for rough play though the newspapers did not name who they were.
Round 9 Late in the match between Ponsonby and City, Montrose (Monty) Stanaway and Arthur Cadman exchanged blows and were sent off by referee Archie Ferguson. The board decided during the week that a mistake has been made in ordering off Cadman but that Stanaway be "severely cautioned against further infringements".
Round 10 Ponsonby's narrow win over Maritime meant that they won the championship without the need for a playoff with Newton who were left 2 points behind them. Laurie Cadman (Ponsonby) was sent off for striking Cross late in the game with Cross also sent off. The board decided to suspend Cadman for 4 playing Saturday's while the case against Cross was dismissed. F Strickland, the Wellington representative back had moved to Auckland and debuted on the wing for Ponsonby.
Roope Rooster knockout competition Round 1