The 1919 season of the Auckland Rugby League was its 11th. It was the first season post World War I and unsurprisingly it saw a resurgence in playing numbers with 56 teams across the six grades. North Shore Albions who had previously dropped out of the senior competition again fielded a senior side. As did Otahuhu, who had dropped out during the 1917 season. Ponsonby United won their third consecutive first grade title, while Newton Rangers won the Roope Rooster trophy.
The season was also summarised by the league as well. Forty-nine teams were entered across all grades. Sunnyside won the second grade, Manukau won the third grade, City won the fourth and fifty grades, while Ponsonby won the sixth grade. It was stated that the standard of play in the senior club competition was not as good as it would have been due to the fact that 19 of the best club players from Auckland were away for a large part of the season representing New Zealand in Australia.
Club news Club teams by grade participation Team1st Grade2nd Grade3rd Grade4th Grade5th Grade6th GradeTotalPonsonby United1110216City Rovers1101115Otahuhu Rovers1111105Maritime (*includes 4th, 5th, & 6th Telegraph Messengers)1101115North Shore Albions1100114Manukau Rovers0011114Richmond Rovers0001113Newton Rangers1002003Northcote & Birkenhead Ramblers0011103Sunnyside0101002Grafton Athletic1001002Marist Old Boys1000001Māngere Rangers0100001Total874109644
Marist Old Boys enter first grade A new club was formed, namely Marist Old Boys. They were composed of old boys of the Marist Brothers’ schools. They had initially included many members of the Railways rugby side of 1917 who fell out with the Auckland Rugby Union and in 1918 played under the umbrella of the Grafton Athletic club. While they would go on to wear the famous green of Marist in this initial year they took the field in blue jerseys. The senior club season commenced on 3 May.
Eden Ramblers club folds and Point Chevalier is founded At the Auckland Rugby League meeting on 30 April it was announced that the Eden Ramblers club had been disbanded. They had formed in 1911 and played in the senior competition from 1911 to 1913 before becoming a lower grade club until this season. Curiously though 3 weeks earlier on April 5 however it was reported that a "new club that has just been affiliated is the Eden Ramblers, boys from Avondale and Point Chevalier". The new team however was not to become known as the Eden Ramblers but in fact were named Point Chevalier. Point Chevalier however did not field any teams in the 1919 season and it wasn't until the 1920 season that they were officially registered with the league.
Charitable efforts and league funds During the war most of the revenue gained by Auckland Rugby League was donated to the war efforts meaning they could not make much progress financially towards developing the game and facilities. In 1919 they once again raised 75 pounds to distribute to local charities nominated by the mayor. They also put on a match at the end of the season to raise money for the St. John Ambulance Brigade. Due to the large crowds at some of the matches, including the match with Australia it was anticipated that the league would gain over 1,000 pounds to establish a fund for obtaining a playing ground. This would of course be Carlaw Park.
Scrum rules At the end of the season J.B. Cooke stated in a meeting that next season the ball would be rolled into scrums and forwards would have to keep their feet on the ground while the halfback was putting the ball in. These changes were to “brighten the game”.
Representative season The Auckland representative team was only able to play one inter provincial fixture against Hawkes Bay after matches with Canterbury and Wellington were unable to be scheduled due to the busy New Zealand representative schedule. Likewise Ponsonby were unable to schedule a defense of the Thacker Shield for the same reason. An Auckland Junior team was however able to make a trip out to Napier to play Hawkes Bay and they were victorious by 12 points to 5. Auckland played a match in front of an enormous crowd at the Auckland Domain against the touring Australian side but did not fair any better than the New Zealand national side, going down by 32 points to 8.
Myers Cup (1st Grade championship) Otahuhu's first grade team were to only last one round into the season before pulling out. Grafton also struggled to field a team when they lost players to the New Zealand team which was touring Australia. In round 6 rather than default they were provided with players from the City and Newton clubs however they too did not survive to the end of the competition. Ponsonby United won the championship for the third consecutive season.
Statistics Including the knockout games there were 34 first grade games played with 182 tries, 68 conversions, 30 penalties, 3 drop goals, and 3 goals from a mark. The average number of points per game was 22.2, an increase of .7 from the previous season. There were 5.35 tries per game, compared to 4.31 the previous season. With 68 conversions from 182 attempts the successful percentage was only 37.4, a significant drop from 1918 when it was 47.1.
Myers Cup standings TeamPldWDLFAPtsPonsonby United97111105015Newton Rangers96031326812Maritime85211238812City Rovers8503966710North Shore Albions1041595949Grafton Athletic610536752Marist Old Boys8008221480Otahuhu Rovers10013280 Myers Cup results Round 1 Round 1 saw the senior rugby league debut of Frank Delgrosso. He had played for Ponsonby rugby seniors in 1918 at the age of 18 but switched codes at the start of the season. Delgrosso would go on to become a New Zealand rugby league international in 1921 and play for New Zealand 42 times. He also played for the North Island 3 times and played 23 matches for Auckland including several as captain. Delgrosso also captained Ponsonby and played a remarkable 184 games for them from 1919 to 1934. At the end of his career he also began coaching their senior side and continued coaching into the 1940s. In 1934 he also coached both the Taranaki and Auckland sides in representative matches. He was later inducted into the Auckland rugby league hall of fame.
Round 2 Otahuhu wrote to the league during the week that they had insufficient players to continue in the senior competition. However with a number of players returning from the front they would likely be able to enter a team in the Roope Rooster knockout competition later in the season.
Round 3
Round 4 There was confusion with the Round 4 draw with the newspapers listing the match between North Shore and Maritime when in fact it was Newton who were supposed to be the opponent. As a result, Newton players did not arrive at the ground. Eventually Newton found enough substitutes but they still began the game 2–3 players short. In spite of this they still managed to win by 14 points to 9. Also the City team took the field with 6 juniors while Grafton had 2 juniors and played a man short. The chief issue was with the New Zealand team touring Australia at the time meaning many key players were absent from their club teams. The Marist club was having trouble assembling a full thirteen players in its inaugural season in senior grade and their captain, Con McDevitt requested a postponement of their match with Ponsonby at the mid week ARL meeting and the request was granted. A number of their players moved to the Marist Rugby Union side around this time. R Osborne of the Grafton side badly sprained and ankle and was taken from the field for their side.
Round 5 In the match at Devonport the Marist team was led from the field by their captain, Con McDevitt with the score at 9–0 to North Shore in protest at a refereeing decision. After hearing the report of referee, Mr Cleal, and a statement from McDevitt, it was decided to suspend McDevitt for 12 months after it was he who had told the referee that he would be taking his team from the field in protest after the awarding of North Shore's third try and proceeded to do so. Cleal had said that the match to that point had been a "disgrace". McDevitt appealed to the New Zealand Rugby League however a few weeks later however the ARL decided as a Peace Day gesture to lift the ban.
Round 6 Grafton were not able to field a full team and were reinforced by players from Newton who had a bye. This was done so that they would not be forced to drop out of the competition. They were missing test players Karl Ifwersen and Dougie McGregor. Marist continued their difficult season with a heavy defeat and took the field with only 11 players.
Round 7 Nelson Bass debuted for Newton. He was selected for New Zealand in the same year and played 7 matches for them from 1919 to 1921. He would ultimately play 20 games for Newton before transferring to Marist in 1922 where he played 24 games over 2 seasons and then moved once more to City Rovers where he played 44 games over 4 seasons before suffering a career ending knee injury. Bass also played 21 games for Auckland and 2 for Auckland Province.
Round 8
Round 9 The Auckland Star reported that the matches at Victoria Park saw the largest crowds for club games ever on that ground.
Round 10 Round 10 featured two rarities. The Newton v North Shore match was played as a curtain-raiser to the Ponsonby v Maritime match on Auckland Domain 1. When matches were normally played at the same venue they all were played at the same time of 3pm on adjacent fields. In the 3rd match due to be played on the Domain the referee, Frank Thompson failed to turn up and after waiting for 40 minutes the decision was made to abandon the game. It was later revealed that he had been called away on an urgent business matter and had tried to contact the league but been unable to. The Auckland Rugby League accepted his explanation. The round was also significant for another reason. Craddock Dufty debuted for Newton and kicked 2 conversions. The previous Saturday he had played for Thames rugby representatives against Auckland and switched codes midweek. He was to go on to represent New Zealand for many years along with touring with the New Zealand Maori side and was a prodigious point scorer.
Round 4 postponed match
Roope Rooster knockout competition The round 1 match between Ponsonby United and Newton Rangers was abandoned towards the end with Newton leading by 12 points to 10 after Ponsonby supporters encroached on the field in protest against the referee and refused to move back. Marist Old Boys recorded their first competitive win in their history with a round 1 win over North Shore Albions. The final was won by Newton Rangers after they defeated Maritime by 8 points to 5. Round 1