The rugby league club graveyard: The 1997 clean-out (Part 4)

This the fourth article in the series where we’ll have a look at the 17 rugby league clubs that have come and gone in the last 113 years.

Who were they, what happened to them, who were their best players, what legacy did they leave behind, and what did they achieve?

With so many defunct teams to get through, we’ll work through them in the chronological order in which they departed the competition.

In Parts 1, 2 and 3 we looked at the six clubs that disappeared from view up to 1983.

Today we’ll look at the Western Reds, South Queensland Crushers and the Hunter Mariners, three clubs discarded in 1997 following the end of the Super League split.

Western Reds
The Western Reds entered the competition in 1995 and departed at the end of 1997.

The NSWRL were sniffing around Perth with expansion in mind for a couple of years before going all-in in 1995, and adding the Western Reds, the North Queensland Cowboys, the South Queensland Crushers and the Auckland Warriors to what then became a 20-team competition run by the ARL.

With considerable local interest in rugby league and a growing junior competition, the Reds hit the ground running in 1995, winning their first-round clash against St George in front of a crowd of nearly 25,000 fans, and going on to win all but three of their 11 home games during the season. Fortress Perth!

Things were totally different on the road though, and they won just three of their 11 away games, to finish just two wins outside the top eight in 11th place on the ladder.

(Photo by Getty Images)

1996 heralded the coming Super League (SL) split, and the Reds, along with four other SL-bound teams, refused to play in Round 1 and accordingly forfeited that game as the court cases continued.

SL proved to be a big distraction for the Reds and they won only six of the 21 games played, as well as drawing their Round 14 match against the Gold Coast.

They slipped down the ladder to finish in 16th position and average home ground crowds followed suit, dropping by around 35 per cent.

The Super League finally got off the ground in 1997 with a ten-team competition made up of the renamed Perth Reds, seven other clubs defecting from the ARL, and two newly formed clubs in the Adelaide Rams and the Hunter Mariners.

With all that Super League promised, few at Perth could have suspected that this was to be their final tilt at the big time.

The Reds got off to a reasonable start with six wins after the first 12 rounds, but faded badly over the final third of the 18-round competition, winning only one match and conceding over 200 points in that time, and ultimately finishing in eighth place.

The Reds were heavily in debt at the end of 1997 and were one of the first clubs to go when the ARL and Super League agreed to return to a single competition known as the NRL.

Still, nothing ventured, nothing gained, and many in WA still have an appetite to rejoin the competition.

Some handy players turned out for the Reds in their brief history, including Brad Mackay, Rodney Howe, Mark and Matt Geyer, Robbie Kearns and Julian O’Neill. Many of their players found a new home with the Melbourne Storm.

Some Reds fun facts:
• The club colours were red, black and yellow.
• Their home ground was the WACA.
• Utility forward Matt Fuller holds the record for most games played with 59.
• Outside back Chris Ryan holds the record for both most points for the club and most tries with 210 points and 21 tries respectively.

South Queensland Crushers
The South Queensland Crushers entered the competition in 1995 and departed at the end of 1997.

The best thing going for the Crushers when they joined the 1995 expansion push by the ARL was optimism, as they never looked secure enough to justify fans buying a five-year membership subscription, and their on-field performances ultimately mirrored what was happening off-field.

They did manage to enlist some well-known players in their inaugural season though – players like Trevor Gillmeister, Terry Cook, Mario Fenech, Mark Hohn and English Test halfback Mike Ford – but many of them were heading past their prime.

They finished the season in 16th place in a 20-team competition, winning six games and drawing their Round 7 clash with Illawarra.

Playing out of Lang Park, they did attract some great crowds though, averaging some 21,000 for the season, including 49,000 for their Round 4 clash against Brisbane at QE2, a game they lost 32-0.

(Photo by Albert Perez/Getty Images)

The following season was played in the shadow of the Super League threat, but the Crushers got active in the player market, picking up some handy players including Nigel Gaffey, Graham Mackay, Tony Hearn and Clint O’Brien.

But it was all to no avail unfortunately as they managed just three wins from 22 games to finish with the wooden spoon firmly in their grasp. The lack of success on the field saw average crowd numbers dip alarmingly, and they found themselves in financial trouble.

Fast forward to the 1997 season and Super League became a reality, with the Crushers staying loyal to the ARL along with 11 other clubs. They lost a number of players to the Super League clubs, including rising stars Travis Norton, Phillip Lee and Chris McKenna leaving them well down on talent.

They struggled on the field once again, winning just four games, and finished with their second wooden spoon.

The club’s fate was sealed once the new unified NRL competition was announced for 1998, as the ARL refused to continue propping the club up financially any further, and the Crushers were liquidated.

The best thing that can be said about the club was that they gave it a go, and debuted some fine young players. They also finished with a bang, defeating Western Suburbs 39-18 in their last ever match.

Some Crushers fun facts:
• Craig Teevan played most games for the club with 58.
• Fullback Clinton Schifcofske scored the most points with 108.
• Winger Jason Hudson scored the most tries with 11.
• Their colours were gold, blue and red.

Hunter Mariners
The Hunter Mariners entered the Super League competition in 1997 and departed at the end of that year.

The Mariners were formed to provide Super League with a Newcastle presence, and they struggled for acceptance from day one, as the Hunter Valley remained loyal to the Knights, who had represented Newcastle since 1988.

The Knights fiercely defended their territory and the formation of the new club resulted in court cases, union strikes and broken marriages.

When the Mariners finally got on the field in 1997 they won only one of their first six games and were hovering around the bottom of the SL table.

(Photo by Phil Walter/Getty Images)

They bounced back briefly to win four in a row from Round 11 to be sitting just outside the top five, but their momentum stalled. They lost their last four games, eventually finishing in sixth place on the ladder, just ahead of both Auckland and Perth on for and against.

When the ARL and SL patched up their differences at the end of 1997 with agreement to form the NRL from 1998, it was decided that Newcastle couldn’t support two teams, and the Mariners were axed in favour of the far more popular and successful Newcastle Knights.

A last-minute quasi-amalgamation with the Gold Coast Chargers was rejected and the Mariners were gone.

The Mariners used 29 players in the 18 competition games played in 1997, and now they were to be scattered to the four winds.

Some, like Brad Godden, Robbie McCormack and Willie Poching, headed overseas. Others found new homes in the NRL, including Robbie Ross, Paul Marquet, Scott Hill, Richard Swain and Brett Kimmorley, who became key recruits for the freshly minted Melbourne Storm.

Some Hunter Mariners fun facts:
• Five-eighth Scott Hill and front-rower Troy Stone share the record for most games played for the club with 18 each.
• Winger Nick Zisti holds both the try-scoring and point-scoring records with nine tries and 76 points respectively.
• They played nine away games in 1997 and lost every one of them.
• Their home ground was Topper Stadium, now known as the Gardens Greyhound and Sporting Complex.

Next, we’ll look at the Gold Coast and Adelaide, two clubs who left in 1998.