1930 Auckland Rugby League season

Ponsonby also won the Roope Rooster trophy for the sixth time after defeating Richmond Rovers by 15 points to 7 in the final.

A week later on 11 October Ponsonby played the champions of the South Auckland competition who were Ngaruawahia in the first match of its kind.

The Stallard Cup knockout competition for Senior B teams was won by Richmond who defeated Point Chevalier 21–11 in the final.

[3] Prior to the season opening games the Auckland Star ran a piece on the prospects of each A Grade team and the players it had acquired.

[4] As the season progressed much talk was made about the standard of the Senior A Grade and its inability to field enough sides of quality.

The decision was eventually made to reduce the number of A Grade sides to 6 and to do away with the Senior B competition altogether for the following season.

[8] On 29 October it was decided by the Auckland Rugby League to officially reduce the number of teams in the Senior A Grade to 6.

Craddock Dufty (Ellerslie) was ordered from the field for allegedly disputing a referees decision on a possible forward pass which led to the tying City Rovers try near the end of the match.

Governor General Lord Bledisloe attended the Carlaw Park matches and was photographed with Ben Davidson of City rovers before the kickoff.

George Rhodes, the chairman of the ARL management committee "smoothed things over" by saying that he could have his case considered on the upcoming Wednesday night, but he was still unable to play.

The match on the number two field started in wild fashion with Devonport kicking off and Allan Seagar caught the ball and sent it to Leslie O'Leary who scored within 16 seconds which must have been a league record though without official statistics.

Tragically Ed St George later moved to Sydney, Australia and in 1949 murdered his estranged wife (Daphne Sylvester Crawford) and then committed suicide.

Frank Delgrosso again left the field after injuring his knee while playing for Ponsonby who were missing Leonard Riley, Stanley Goodwin, and Pat Skelton already from the previous rounds injuries.

Although the score was perhaps somewhat misleading as Marist Old Boys played two men short for most of the game with George Batchelor and Norm Campbell going off injured in the first half.

Alfred Saxon, the 27 year old fullback for Devonport had his jaw broken in a collision and was taken by ambulance to Auckland Hospital where he spent the night, while near the end of the first half Horace Dixon was carried from the field with an injured leg.

Stanley Rule, the veteran Devonport forward was on the sidelines carrying a slight injury and was not stripped in playing uniform so he went on to the field in his ordinary clothing and approached the referee Vic Simpson.

Joe Hadley scored for City on fulltime and H J Paton skimmed the bar with his conversion to tie the game "amid great excitement".

It was reported during the following week that Doug McLeay the Ponsonby forward had had to undergo an operation in hospital as the result of an internal injury received in football which must have occurred in round 10 (the last time he played).

After returning from Australia, Craddock Dufty kicked a penalty on fulltime to help his Ellerslie side beat Richmond by a point.

Craddock Dufty, who had returned from the recent New Zealand tour to Australia refused to play in the fixture against the Auckland players citing an injured elbow.

He did not produce a doctors certificate and as a result Auckland Rugby League suspended him and he was unable to play for Ellerslie in their first round match.

It eventually turned out that the Auckland and New Zealand representative Frank Delgrosso who was captain at the time had failed to persuade him to leave the field and had also verbally abused the referee and thrown mud at him.

Delgrosso was suspended by the league for three years but on appeal and with an apology and expression of regret at a March 1931 meeting his suspension was reduced.

The hearing which saw his suspension did not take place until after the Provincial Club Championship on October 4 which meant Frank Delgrosso could play and he kicked four conversions in their 32-29 win.

Ponsonby had a severely weakened backline with Leonard Riley, Ivan Wilson, Pat Skelton, and A Schofield all missing but their replacements did well.

Parnell were referred to as the “magpies” on account of their black and white uniforms by the Auckland Star after their Round 9 match.

They were coached by James Francis who died at Auckland Hospital on November 24 aged just 33 leaving behind a wife (Violet) and two children.

The match was played on the new Cossill Park before a large crowd and the local team ran out comfortable winners.

At the end of the season Otahuhu hosted a benefit match for W. McManus who was a well-known ex-amateur runner and league player who had been ill for a long time in hospital.

In July several businesses approached the Auckland Rugby League regarding the possibility of playing a competition between them on Wednesday's.