1917 Auckland Rugby League season
They were Cecil Walker, Doug Dawson, T Marshall (Grafton Athletic), Charles Savory, Frank McWhirter (Ponsonby United), Graham Cook (Ponsonby United), N Vause, Victor McCollum, Alf Gault, T Lambert, E Tiernan, F Stubbs, W. G. Handle (Ponsonby United), B Hart, Frederick Gladding, A Powley, Chas Mann (North Shore Albions), William Moeki, G Jones, W Harris, Sam Magee, S Greer (City Rovers), Alan Miller, Charles Sinton, and Leslie O'Leary (Sunnyside).
The season was notable for the fact that Otahuhu was forced to drop out of the first grade competition after round 4 as it struggled to field senior players.
At the season end rather than a strong representative program which had been a feature of earlier years several charity and exhibition matches were played instead.
These included a match versus the victorious Auckland Rugby Union club champions Railway.
In 1916 the fence around Victoria Park had been removed by the council which made it very difficult to collect gate revenue.
After their Round 4 default to North Shore where only two Otahuhu players turned up they decided to amalgamate senior teams with Grafton.
The league decided to order both players to stand down until the matter was resolved and that the match should be replayed at a later date.
Ernie Asher converted a try from the sideline on full time to win the match for City over North Shore.
The Ponsonby team took the field wearing armbands after a club mate, Herbert Arthur Brewer, had been killed in action on June 7 in Belgium at the age of 25.
Grafton continued to struggle to put out a competitive team and played 3 men short against Newton.
The unknown try for Ponsonby in their win over North Shore was described in the New Zealand Herald match report as “a fierce combined rally resulted in the pack taking the ball over for a try”.
In the match between City and Ponsonby, Jim Clark who had been warned earlier was sent off for disputing an obstruction call against him by referee Archie Ferguson.
On 21 July Ponsonby played a match versus the Waterside Workers after both Otahuhu and Grafton had left the competition.
Ponsonby had been scheduled to play Grafton but after it became apparent that the later side could not field a team the alternative fixture was arranged.
Following the conclusion of the Roope Rooster competition on 25 August a benefit match was played between City Rovers and Newton Rangers at Victoria Park.
The final was played in greasy conditions with rain setting in around halftime with City leading 4-0 at the interval.
They extended their lead after another goal by Ernie Asher to six points before Ponsonby rallied to score a converted try to Thomas McClymont followed by two penalties to Cross and a further try to Matthew Maddison, who was on debut after recently arriving from Thames.
The following point scoring lists include both Senior Championship matches and the Roope Rooster competition.
Hemming, who was a Grafton senior player scored the lone try for the Waterside Workers team in their 14-3 loss.
On 8 September a combined match was played between Ponsonby-Shore and Newton-City with the proceeds devoted to a memorial to the late William Mackrell who had passed away on July 15 as a result of a paralytic seizure aged 35.
The match raised £25 for the fund which were contributions from spectators as no gate charge could be held due to the lack of fencing around Victoria Park.
[32] On 15 September a gala day was held with Rugby League and Football (“Association”) played to raise money for the RSA.
The match was played between Ponsonby United who had won the league championship and a combined team from the remainder of the clubs in the senior grade (City Rovers, Newton Rangers, and North Shore Albions).
Ernie Bailey, the veteran North Shore forward struggled across the line and Bill Davidson the young City star converted the try to give the combined team the win.
[37] The City club applied for permission to reinstate Maurice Wetherill as he had been suspended for the remainder of the season after misconduct in a recent 4th grade side.
The match was played to support Charles Dunning, Jack Arneil, J Neal, and Owen Gallot who had returned from the war and had been significantly incapacitated by injuries suffered while fighting in France.
Cross, the Ponsonby five eighth had to leave the field after colliding with his team mate Arthur Cadman and gashing his eye and breaking his nose.
[40] They played a further match against City Rovers which they lost by 18 points to 6 before moving to the Auckland Rugby League full-time in 1918.
They would eventually amalgamate with Grafton Athletic and in 1919 they would reform as the Marist Rugby League Old Boys club”.
Jimmy (Sonny) Hing who switched to Marist and had a long involvement in rugby league including with the Point Chevalier club also played in the matches.
