The 1923 season of the Auckland Rugby League was its 15th. The First Grade competition featured 7 teams with the Fire Brigade club who featured in it in 1922 not entering a team.

Club teams by grade participation Team1st Grade2nd Grade3rd Grade4th Grade5th Grade6th Grade A6th Grade BTotalCity Rovers11111117Marist Old Boys11111117Ponsonby United11110116Richmond Rovers10101216Devonport United11110105Newton Rangers11111005Athletic11010115Ellerslie United01110014Manukau Rovers00101114Parnell00110114Kingsland Rovers01110003Otahuhu Rovers01010103Ihumātao01100002Māngere Rangers01010002Northcote & Birkenhead Ramblers01001002Point Chevalier00101002Coromandel Old Boys00100001Victoria Cruising Club00100001Takapuna00001001Manukau Cruising Club00000011Total7121411810971

Auckland Rugby League news

First grade winners City Rovers won their 6th championship title and the 3rd in succession after defeating Athletic 8–7 in the final. With a round to play City was only 2 competition points ahead of Athletic so it was decided to play a final to decide the champions. The match was played on Carlaw Park in front of an enormous crowd of 11,500 with £325 received in gate takings. City were the second team to win three consecutive titles after Ponsonby United had won the competition in 1917, 1918, and 1919. It was to be 61 years until it happened again with Mt Albert winning the title from 1984 to 1986 before Northcote won 4 titles from 1991 to 1994, Glenora 3 titles from 1997 to 1999, and Pt Chevalier won 3 titles from 2013 to 2015.

Ponsonby won the Roope Rooster Knockout competition for the second straight year and their third time in the competition's history after defeating City Rovers 14–3 in the final.

Representative team The Auckland representative team played 5 matches for 4 wins and a 20–20 draw. The draw was arguably the most significant result as it was in a match for the Northern Union Challenge Cup against South Auckland. Auckland had lost the cup to the same opposition the previous season and as the match was drawn South Auckland retained it. The two teams met again at the end of the season at Carlaw Park which Auckland won convincingly however the cup was not being played for as it was only defended at the holders home ground.

Boating tragedy On April 1, 1923 Bill Walsh, the New Zealand and Ponsonby player was involved in a serious boating accident on the Tairua Bar which claimed the lives of 4 people. He was one of seven onboard the launch, Lorraine when it capsized shortly before 9pm on the Tairua Bar. The boat had attended a regatta at Whitianga when it was returning. There was a strong wind and heavy seas at the time. The deceased were William (Bill) Southernwood (a Ponsonby teammate), H Chappell, T Culhane, and N Robson all of Auckland. When the launch capsized Walsh and T Jenkins were trying to retrieve the dinghy when Walsh got his feet tangled in fishing line. Three breaking waves then struck them smashing the boat into "matchwood". One of the survivors, Silston Cory-Wright had managed to secure a benzine tin to hold on to in the water. Walsh was described as being "nearly done for" but was saved by Cory-Wright who had also cleared Walsh's feet of fishing line from which he had become entangled and reached him with the benzine tin. Cory-Wright then managed to put a life belt over Walsh's shoulders and kept him afloat until they could be pulled onboard. Both men were described as being "in a pretty bad way". Prime Minister William Massey telegraphed to Tairua his sincere sympathy from himself and his wife for the bereaved relatives. Walsh recovered sufficiently and was able to assume the position of club captain which he had been elected to for the 1923 season.

Manukau rugby league team Near the end of the season the Manukau and Māngere clubs sent a letter to the Auckland Rugby League which was read at the management committee meeting on 29 August. It stated that the two clubs had decided to amalgamate and would enter a team in the senior grade the following year provided permission was granted, which it was. The Manukau club is the Manukau club of today, though the Mangere club is not related to the modern day Mangere East who were not founded until 1963. The Manukau club were located in their early decades in the Onehunga area before moving much later to their current location at Moyle Park. The clubs did however remain separate and compete as separate entities the following year. Māngere were previously known as Māngere Rangers however and became known as Māngere United until they ceased to exist at the end of 1934. In the same 1923 season the Manukau Cruising Club decided to enter a team in the 6th B Grade. They played 9 games before withdrawing from the competition despite being relatively competitive. In one of their matches Roy Hardgrave and Ted Brimble played for them when their Manukau teams had a bye.

Monteith Shield (1st grade championship) The 1923 First Grade Championship was arguably the most keenly fought in the competition's history to this point with three teams in the hunt for the title up until the last two weeks. Marist Old Boys who were in a good position to win the title lost in the 12th and 13th rounds and bowed out of contention, leaving City Rovers and Athletics to contend. It was ultimately won by City Rovers who finished the season with a 10 win and 2 loss record, as did Athletic, with a final being required to determine the winner. City won by the narrowest of margins 8–7 to go back to back.

Monteith Shield standings TeamPldWDLFAPtsCity Rovers1311022287222Athletic1310031808720Marist Old Boys1290217010818Devonport United1260613514112Ponsonby United124081181798Newton Rangers122010851834Richmond Rovers121011932392

A final was played between City Rovers and Athletic after the round robin to decide the title with City winning 8 points to 7 in front of 11,500 spectators at Carlaw Park.

Monteith Shield fixtures The First Grade season was particularly close right until the end. In the final round the step was made to play both games on Carlaw Park number 1 field for the first time (usually one match was always played on the number 2 field at the same time). If Athletic had defeated City Rovers in the main match they would have won the championship for the first time however they lost to City which forced a final to be played the following week between the same two teams and City were again victorious to claim their 3rd straight championship.

Round 1 Round 1 saw the debut of centre Hec Brisbane for Marist against Richmond. Brisbane would go on to play 158 games for Marist from 1923 to 1934 scoring 71 tries, mostly in the centre position. He also played for Auckland 14 times from 1923 to 1933 and a remarkable 50 matches for New Zealand from 1924 to 1932. He was also a representative selector in the 1930s after he retired. Scrum half, Wilson Hall also debuted for Athletic after joining from the Ngaruawahia club. He would go on to transfer to Hornby in Canterbury before being signed by Hull F.C. in 1928. He later played for Castleford and Dewsbury, as well as representing New Zealand on the 1926-27 tour of England.

Round 2 Kettlewell, the Richmond five eighth fractured his left collarbone and was taken to hospital in their 37-8 loss to Athletic. For the winners Craddock Dufty scored 4 tries and kicked two conversions. Those two conversions were the only successful attempts from their 11 tries with Bert Avery, George Yardley, and Redmond Lonergan all scoring twice.

Round 3 The Carlaw Park matches drew a large crowd of over 8,000. Athletic had the misfortune to lose their winger Redmond Lonergan to an eye injury in the first minute of their match but nonetheless went on to win 16-15. Wilson Hall played a fine game at five eighth for Athletic and scored a try while captain Bert Avery and Ernie Herring also crossed for tries. Clarrie Polson scored a try for Newton which he converted, also converting both of their other tries. In Marist's 24-9 win over Ponsonby, Bill Stormont scored a try and kicked three penalties. While for Ponsonby Frank Delgrosso in his fifth season of rugby league kicked three goals. At the Auckland Domain Lord Jellicoe, the Governor General of New Zealand, was in attendance to see City beat Richmond 25-9. The Davidson brothers (Bill, Ben, and George) accounted for 17 of City's points. McDonald scored all of Richmond's with a try, conversion, and two penalties.

Round 4 The weekend of rugby league was marred by the tragic death of 15 year old Orville Fisher. He had played for the City B sixth grade teams in their game at Ellerslie and was traveling back to the Auckland station by train afterwards. As the train came past Carlaw Park he and some other boys were standing on the platform of the train which was crowded at the time. Fisher "climbed up the stanchions, and got right up on the roof of the carriage". The boys then "cheered the players on the ground" as the train went by and then they noticed that Fisher had fallen from the train. He had struck his head on one of the Parnell Bridge girders and been killed instantly. The accident was "noticed from Carlaw Park, and a crowd rushed over to the scene". The crowd at Carlaw Park had been a fairly small 3,000 as many sports fans had gone to the Ellerslie Racecourse for the races there.

Round 5 John Lang made his first appearance of the season for Marist and played at halfback, forcing Billy Ghent out on to the wing. Marist still went down 9-0 in wet, muddy conditions at Carlaw Park. Bill Walsh was also playing his first game of the year in the five eighths position for Ponsonby. They struggled against a strong City side losing 25-0 with Jack Keenan having moved from the five eighths out to the wing scoring one of their five tries. Keenan was a well known boxer who fought around New Zealand in the 1920s and had been the New Zealand light weight champion in 1920-21.

Round 6 During the week a rule was brought in whereby the player putting the ball into the scrum had to throw it from three paces away.

Round 7

Round 8 Ponsonby defaulted their match with Newton after they could only manage 8 players. Only 2,000 spectators came to see the other match which took place in "mud and slush".

Round 9 With weeks of wet weather the Carlaw Park fields were in a terrible condition so the Auckland Rugby League played all of their senior games at Victoria Park and the Auckland Domain.

Round 10 Richmond defaulted their match with City as they had a large number of players injured or ill.

Round 11 Kettlewell, a back in the Richmond team had to leave the field with a broken collarbone in their 19-10 loss to Devonport. He had earlier scored a try in the match. In the same game future New Zealand international Allan Seagar debuted and scored a try for Devonport. Bill Davidson also left the field injured in City's 35-3 win over Newton. He had scored a try and kicked two conversions while his brother George scored three tries and their other brother, Ben added another.

Round 12 City fullback Mike Flynn broke his ankle while playing and was taken to the hospital. Flynn was a boxer from Australia who used to travel to New Zealand to fight and also played rugby league for Maritime/Athletic from 1921 to 1922 when he also made seven appearances for Auckland, and then for City in 1923 and 1924.

Round 13

Round 14