Parnell Rugby League Football Club
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 4th grade side to play in their first match was: Richardson, Freeth, Frye, Hales, Keenan, Hodgson, Gallagher, Lawrence, Baggstron, Bines, Chitty, McLure, Pemberton, Lownes, Crocker, Shorter, Harding, and Gedye.
While the 6th grade side was: Hodgson, Simpson, Smith, Taylor, McKay, Peters, Johnston, Packman, Iverson, Green, Kelly, Molloy, Brown, Meehan, Fowler, and Bethell.
[10] On August 30 they held a Euchre and Dance evening at St. Benedict's Hall with their honorary secretary, Gordon Huia Seagar publishing the newspaper notice.
A set of caps had also been donated to be awarded to the winning side while Ivan Culpan, the ARL secretary explained “that the league wished to provide instruction every evening this week, so that the girls would make a good showing in their initial effort”.
[16] The Star newspaper had approached “several Christchurch medical men” and all of them had said that females should not be playing the contact sports as it “would prove prejudicial to their future health”.
James Carlaw, chairman of the league said “it had apparently been taken for granted that the ladies would play a match on Saturday as a curtain raiser to the men’s game.
That was unfortunate, because the true facts of the position were that some officers of the league had attended the meeting of lady enthusiasts in Parnell, and had given information.
Carlaw then said “it would be a terrible judgment upon the league if they granted the ladies’ teams permission to play, and then one of the girls was killed or seriously injured”.
[19] Days later, on July 20 the Auckland Rugby League officially put an end to any hopes of the ladies being able to play under their oversight.
[20] Also Mr. Archie Ferguson, president of the referees committee accompanied them and “explained the modifications of the game… he said tackling, charging, scrum work and playing the ball rules had been altered so as to prevent the rough and tumble of the game”.
[22] Over the remainder of the year they continued to meet and held euchre and dance evenings at St. Benedicts Hall, East Street, featuring Hawthorne's Orchestra.
[26] Following the meeting it was reported that many new players had been enrolled and they had initially hoped to field 5 teams and enter a side in the senior grade.
1925 saw a slight reduction in playing numbers with teams entered in the 3rd, 4th, and 5th grades however it was arguably their strongest year in terms of results to date.
There was relatively little coverage of specific details of the club other than an advertisement for all players to weigh in at Carlaw Park on April 19 and for a practice on the following Saturday.
They lost the knockout final to City Rovers by 16 points to 13 on October 3 which was played as a curtain raiser to the game between Auckland Province and Queensland.
The gym was a well known facility in the Parnell area with the Donovan family heavily involved in rugby league in its formative decades.
; vice presidents, Messrs. Meehan, Rushton, Heard, Peters, McHugh, Petrie, White, Waite, Miller, Muller, Varella, Hunter, Green, Jones, Davies, Holt; hon.
In Round 6 Parnell defaulted to Ellerslie with the club secretary saying "the fact that five men are on the injured list and that others have had to leave town to seek work in the country were the chief factors".
[41] Their side was named: Herbert, Brockliss, Southwell, Clark, Griffiths, Hooker (2), Robinson, Binns, Nelson, Lawrence, Faulkner (2), Payne, Patton, Wilson, Smith, Worms, Russell, Perry, Simpson, and White.
Their team which was named to play in their opening game on May 1 was Meehan, Loft, Leek, Walsh, Pearson, Tate, Simpson, Sloman, Herring, Clapham, Clough, Stewart, Collins, and Callender.
On October 7 the Auckland Star published a letter by Parnell secretary stating: “In reference to Mr. Frank Murphy's [headmaster of the school] letter on school boys playing league football, and on refusal to recognise same, I have to note the contents, and in reply I wish to state that I interviewed the master and he raised no objections, mentioning, however, that he would not be a party to consenting to the boys playing.
It featured two very strong sides in Ellerslie and Kingsland with Northcote & Birkenhead Ramblers also competitive, and 4 other clubs who struggled somewhat, though the majority of Parnell's losses were by extremely narrow margins.
The club unfortunately lost their ground due to the council creating an outlet road for eastern traffic which went through the property.
secretary, Mr. G. Smith; senior delegate to Auckland Rugby League, Mr. P. Barry; junior delegate, Mr. L. Heilburn; club captain, Mr. Ralph Brockliss; coach, Mr. W. Little; committee, Messrs. Wells, Turner, George Davies, Brockliss, Stan Clark, W. Little, Richard Sloman, McArthur, Ritchie, McLure, and Anderson.
[54] (Leo) Ralph Brockliss has previously played for Newton Rangers senior side earlier in the decade and was now aged 30.
As in previous years the annual meeting was at Donovan's Gymnasium in Parnell with Archibald Turner continuing in the position of honorary secretary.
The election of officers saw positions go to John A. Lee who was again patron; chairman, Mr. F. Hunter; secretary and treasurer, Archibald Turner; delegate to ARL, Mr. T. Wells; club captain, Richard Sloman; coach, Ralph Brockliss.
[65] The players to travel were McLaren, Richard Sloman, O’Donnell, Kerr-Stipney, Iverson, Perry, Alderton, Maher, Green, Ellis, Jones, Shortland, Bracegirdle, Reid, G. Munce, and Ragg, and were accompanied by Archibald Turner.
[71] After the start of the season former Parnell players Kerr and Munce had both debuted for the City senior grade side in the Fox Memorial Shield competition.
