Grass roots

[Beavers Headgear]

No Way
Thats when all our mates played for them. Standard was good back then and had some hard teams with plenty of talent
Eastern
Pap
Panthers

our tactic was give the ball to Bamford and watch him go haha, think he scored mid 50 tries one year and I was 2nd with 4

 

[Beavers Headgear]

Morrinsville never had a team, so closest I have is Kurri Kurri Bulldog!
Side note without hijacking post would things like Magic round, or say 25% of Warriors away games being playing around NZ in 2023-24 (so Aussie team has to take 1 home game to NZ in the next 2 years v Warriors) help with some grass roots?
NRL surely do not want the NZ talent pool to dry up to much.

it still grates me that in Christchurch in the last 20 years I have seen ‘home’ games from Sharks, Tigers, Panthers and Manly and the Warriors have stuff all presence at all other than sending a couple of wider squad members down for a junior morning every couple of years

the last game Manly played here in 2019, Manly arrived on the Tuesday and spent the week doing school visits etc. The Warriors arrived on Thursday afternoon for their Saturday game

 

[RHYTHM AND STEALTH]

our tactic was give the ball to Bamford and watch him go haha, think he scored mid 50 tries one year and I was 2nd with 4

Bambi was unreal

 

[Manu Vatuvei]

Have been a regular at Tat Roosters games the last 3-4 years. Team looking very strong this season and easily beat Otahuhu yesterday. I do worry for the state of club footy generally but the Roosters club is strong and has a good culture.

 

[RHYTHM AND STEALTH]

Have been a regular at Tat Roosters games the last 3-4 years. Team looking very strong this season and easily beat Otahuhu yesterday. I do worry for the state of club footy generally but the Roosters club is strong and has a good culture.

I read the results from yesterday. Some team lost 120-0
Whats the go there

 

[Beavers Headgear]

Papanui returned yesterday and lost 82-0 down here, and another team, the Celebration Lions, defaulted

 

[Diesel]

No there are firmly setup with the new facilities now, not sure what the plan is in regards to the Showgrounds but the way our useless council operates that’s probably 15 years away !!

Lancaster Park has just about returned to sporting fields with the Lancaster Park Woolston Cricket Club due to open their season their season there in October as the new tenants, not sure if winter sport will be played there but I imagine it will

I’d guarantee if it was the CRU, the council would have it sorted within two years

 

[Diesel]

Morrinsville never had a team, so closest I have is Kurri Kurri Bulldog!
Side note without hijacking post would things like Magic round, or say 25% of Warriors away games being playing around NZ in 2023-24 (so Aussie team has to take 1 home game to NZ in the next 2 years v Warriors) help with some grass roots?
NRL surely do not want the NZ talent pool to dry up to much.

Most of us got into league when it was visible and on TV2 in the 90’s, the Warriors obviously helped but haven’t been as successful. Surely more games in NZ will get more new fans and rekindle a fewer of the older fans lost. No doubt a Canterbury-based NRL team would help push the Warriors too

 

[Beavers Headgear]

Time for the 2 year bump, anyone been getting out and watching local footy ?

Canterbury comp was reduced from 8 teams to 6 last season, and that has certainly helped the strength and quality of the competition. This season we lost Kaiapoi but gained the Greymouth Greyhounds who entered into an agreement with the Papanui Tigers

15 game regular season concluded last week, with 5 teams in the hunt for finals. Eastern needed to win their final 4 games to make it and knocked the first 3 off, went down 18-4 fairly early on, then found a way back into the lead at 20-18 with 4 mins to go, then had their hearts broken by a 60m try in the final minute to end their season

Finals footy starts tomorrow

Linwood (1) v Hornby (2) to make the GF, Linwood looking for their 10th straight

Halswell (3) v Riccarton (4) in the elimination final

 

[Manu Vatuvei]

Te Atatu Roosters

I’ve been to most games this year. Roosters are strong this year, a bit unlucky that they’ll probably only qualify 3rd for the finals.

They played the Sky TV game on Wednesday night and unfortunately despite winning it was probably their worst game of the season (albeit resting a number of players).

Fine Vakautakakala is the best club player in Auckland.

 

[Blair]

Katoomba used to be a town that could sustain a local team but, with gentrification, it now can't. It's gone from the 'Katoomba Devils' to the 'Mountains Devils' and has, subsequently, lost a lot of interest for me.

The Blue Mountains is a big geographical place, the Devils have their base down near Penrith, which is a very different culture to up here.

I still wear old school Devils gear though, and get the odd car toot and nice comment on the street.

 

[Beavers Headgear]

Grand Final is all set in Canterbury

Last week too qualifier Linwood lost at home to Hornby 18-12, scoreless 2nd half with Linwood having a few disallowed, so Hornby straight into the GF. Across town Halswell beat Riccarton 14-8 to stay alive

Today Linwood shot out to 12-0 very early, but Halswell stood strong and ended up coming through 26-18 to send Linwood out on straight sets and missing their first grand final in 10 years

Grand Final next Sunday, 2 of the fiercest rivals facing off in a battle of the west, never any love lost in these games and I watched one last year with 7 sin bins. I expect Hornby to win it, but I thought the same about Linwood today but Halswell have plenty of ticker

 

[Beavers Headgear]

Big crowd today, interesting game too

Halftime Hornby 20 Halswell 0
Full time Hornby 20 Halswell 18

Game had everything, before kickoff one of the big lads standing on halfway telling his opposite to bring it and run it straight lol. Couple of intercept tries proved to be the difference in the end

 

[Blair]

Look at that beautiful sunny day with the Port Hills in the background. I know you've told us but is this ground near QEII?

Hornby have Penrith insignia, they must be connected?

 

[Beavers Headgear]

Look at that beautiful sunny day with the Port Hills in the background. I know you've told us but is this ground near QEII?

Hornby have Penrith insignia, they must be connected?

Na this is close to the new Showgrounds, just off Halswell Road not far from Wigram

Not sure if there is any offical link, I’m guessing Hornby would have been the Panthers before Penrith were around

 

[Penrose Warrior]

Shit, good crowd. Love Christchurch, what a city.

 

[Beavers Headgear]

Shit, good crowd. Love Christchurch, what a city.

That crowd was still missing people as well as they only had 2 lines for tickets so there was a big queue outside when the game started

They do a good job of it, 4 Grand finals on the day, and all week on the Facebook page Will Evan’s produces some great historical and present articles pumping it up

 

[Manu Vatuvei]

Big crowd today, interesting game too

Halftime Hornby 20 Halswell 0
Full time Hornby 20 Halswell 18

Game had everything, before kickoff one of the big lads standing on halfway telling his opposite to bring it and run it straight lol. Couple of intercept tries proved to be the difference in the end

View attachment 92316View attachment 92317

Wow....that crowd looks bigger than probably anything you'd see in Auckland club footy

 

[Manu Vatuvei]

I’ve been to most games this year. Roosters are strong this year, a bit unlucky that they’ll probably only qualify 3rd for the finals.

They played the Sky TV game on Wednesday night and unfortunately despite winning it was probably their worst game of the season (albeit resting a number of players).

Fine Vakautakakala is the best club player in Auckland.

So anyway - week 1 Fox finals went to plan with the top 4 all going through, setting up 1 v 4 and 2 v 3 grand final qualifiers last week.

Unfortunately for my beloved Roosters, the two top qualifiers (Richmond and Papakura) went through to next week's GF. Papakura beat Te Atatu 24-20, unfortunately I wasn't there as I had a weekend away for a mate's birthday that I really couldn't miss. Maybe the loss was karma for me being a bad supporter.

What I do know is that Te Atatu were missing their gun hooker and their halfback with injury and had their fullback playing hooker and their prop (the aforementioned Fine) deputising in the halves (!). And Fine himself was carrying an injury, and he and the usual halfback are the regular kickers, so the other prop (former NRL player Pat Vaivai) was goalkicking.

Given the narrow margin of defeat in those circumstances, it really feels like a case of what might have been.

 

[Manu Vatuvei]

Fine Vakautakakala is the best club player in Auckland.

Don't say I can't pick 'em.....Fine won Fox Memorial POTY at the ARL awards.