Saturday 18 June 2016

1998: Record Low Crowds

In what was the Warriors 4th season in the ARL, it was a year that presented them with not only their lowest finish in their short history but also saw crowds plummet, with an average attendance of under 9000 people.


Matt Ridge retained the Captaincy for the 2nd season in succession while Frank Endacott was retained as coach of the side for what would be his first, and final full season in the head coach position after taking over from Monie in early 1997.

1998 could be best described as a soul destroying season, with only the stuggling Cowboys, Adelaide Rams, Gold Coast, South Sydney and Western Suburbs finishing off the year in a worse position than us.

Playing 24 games, the Warriors only managed to string together 9 wins while going down on 15 occasions.  We finished the season on 18 points, scoring 417, conceding 518 leaving the team with a negative differential of -101.

Milestones for the year included Joe Vagana and Syd Eru notching up their 50th game for the club in Rd 5 and Rd 6 respectively. Nigel Vagana was the clubs leading try scorer, crossing the stripe on 13 occasions while Ridge was the leading point scorer, kicking 51 goals and helping himself to 2 tries for a grand total of 110 points for the year. Joe Vagana was awarded the Player of the Year Award.
Their worst result for the season was a 31-4 defeat at the hands of the Newcastle Knights, while their strongest performance was against the Dragons, coming away with the win 31-14 at Mt Smart Stadium in front of only 8,300 fans.

TeamPldWDLPFPAPDPts
1Brisbane colours.svg Brisbane241815688310+37837
2Newcastle colours.svg Newcastle241815562381+18137
3Melbourne colours.svg Melbourne241716546372+17435
4Parramatta colours.svg Parramatta241716468349+11935
5North Sydney colours.svg North Sydney241707663367+29634
6Eastern Suburbs colours.svg Sydney City241608680383+29732
7Canberra colours.svg Canberra241509564429+13530
8St. George colours.svg St. George2413110486490-427
9Canterbury colours.svg Canterbury2413011489411+7826
10Manly Sea Eagles colours.svg Manly2413011503473+3026
11Cronulla colours.svg Cronulla2412111438387+5125
12Illawarra colours.svg Illawarra2411112476539-6323
13Balmain colours.svg Balmain249114381463-8219
14Panthers colours.svg Penrith248214525580-5518
15Auckland colours.svg Auckland249015417518-10118
16North Queensland colours.svg North Queensland249015361556-19518
17Adelaide colours.svg Adelaide247017393615-22214
18South Sydney colours.svg South Sydney245019339560-22110
19Gold Coast244020289654-3658
20Western Suburbs colours.svg Western Suburbs244020371802-4318

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