The 1918 Auckland Rugby League season was its 10th since its inception in 1909. It was again severely affected by the ongoing war with several hundred players serving overseas and 44 killed who were named in the annual report. North Shore Albions withdrew from the competition early in the season and on other occasions teams played short-handed. There was also a truncated representative program with only a trial match and one full Auckland representative match versus Canterbury, which was played at the Auckland Domain in front of 10,000 spectators. The senior grade featured six teams. Ponsonby United won their second consecutive title with an 8-win–1-loss record. Ponsonby then traveled to Christchurch to play Sydenham for the Thacker Shield and they won 11 points to 0. City Rovers won their second Roope Rooster title with a 6–3 win over Maritime following their first win in 1916. Senior games still regularly attracted strong crowds. The round 4 matches at Victoria Park drew an estimated crowd of 6,000. While 4,000 attended the round 5 matches, 5,000 the round 7 clash between City Rovers and Grafton Athletic at the same venue, and 6,000 witnessed the round 9 match between City Rovers and Ponsonby United. At the season end many one off matches were played between various teams. One of the more notable ones was a match between the Auckland Star staff and The New Zealand Herald staff. The game was won by the Auckland Star by 8 points to 4. These company type fixtures were to become a regular feature of Auckland Rugby League for decades to come.
Maritime, Mangere, and Big Store Football Clubs join the league
The Maritime club applied to join the Auckland Rugby League with the nomination of a senior team. This was accepted by the league. They finished the season with a 1 win, 7 loss record. The Mangere club applied for affiliation and the registration of 23 players at the Auckland Rugby League meeting on 17 April. This was granted by the league. They were to play in maroon and gold originally as requested but before the season started asked to wear blue instead. The Big Store Football Club nominated a team to play in the league which was accepted and their colours of blue and white were approved.
New League Rooms
At the conclusion of the season the league opened their own league rooms on Swanson Street. The rooms were used for the first time with the Auckland Rugby League executive meeting on 23 October. The rooms consisted of "a large billiard room and League office, and a room for clubs to hold their weekly meetings in". It was stated that players did not formerly meet "their fellow players during the summer time, but with this club now on a sound footing they will be able to meet each other and spend enjoyable evenings which should bring about a better feeling between the different teams".
Representative Match
Auckland played a representative match for the first time in a few seasons. They had taken a hiatus during the war years but they played a trial match between and A and B team before a match with Canterbury at the Auckland Domain. The match attracted an enormous crowd of 10,000 and Auckland won easily by 45 points to 9.
The season began with 2 preliminary rounds before the competitions began proper on 18 May. Around 5,000 spectators attended the first round matches at Victoria Park and Devonport Domain. North Shore Albions played the preliminary rounds, round 1, and defaulted their next two matches before withdrawing from the competition.
North Shore was struggling to field a team owing to the impact of the war on their playing numbers. They only managed 11 players for their match with Maritime who were also fielding a weakened forward pack.
North Shore defaulted their match with Grafton. Ponsonby achieved a milestone of sorts becoming the first club to reach 1,000 first grade points during their match with Newton. They began the game with 983 points all time and progressed to 1,004 by the end of the match. It had taken them 72 matches to reach the mark.
Round 1
Round 2
North Shore lost by default to Maritime. In the City v Grafton match the City player Mitchell was ordered off by referee Vause for disputing a decision. He wrote a letter of apology during the week and the league ordered him to appear on Saturday to receive a “severe citation”
Round 3
North Shore once again defaulted and the withdrew from the first grade competition leaving 5 teams.
Round 4
Round 5
Sheehan was ordered off for Maritime in their match with Ponsonby for striking Matthews.
Round 6
Round 7
Round 8
Round 9
Round 10
On 21 September a match was played between the Auckland Rugby League referees and officials of the league. The referees won by 14 points to 4 with it being refereed by Jim Rukutai.
Roope Rooster Knockout Competition
Round 1
Semi Final
Final
Top Try Scorers and Point Scorers
The following point scoring lists include both Senior Championship matches and the Roope Rooster competition. For the 5th time in 6 seasons Karl Ifwersen topped the point scoring lists with 66 points. This gave him 287 points from 6 seasons. While E McGregor of Ponsonby United topped the try scoring list with 10. Newton Rangers had 4 tries and 2 conversions unattributed while Ponsonby had 1 try unattributed which make the point lists for those teams slightly incomplete.
Richmond and the Post and Telegraph 4th grade teams traveled to Thames to play an exhibition match on 12 October. Post and Telegraph had been winners of the championship with Richmond the runners up.
Date
Score
Score
Venue
Exhibition Match
12 Oct
Post and Telegraph
12
Richmond
10
Thames
Representative Fixtures
On 7 September a trial match was held between two teams picked by the selectors at Victoria Park in order to select the Auckland representative team. The A team was Minogue, Bill Walsh, Thomas McClymont, Clarke, McGregor, Karl Ifwersen, Bailey, Ernie Herring, George Iles, Davidson, Jim Rukutai, Haddon, Francis, McGregor, Maddison, Cadman, Thomas, Keenan, Bill Williams, Pullen, Simpson, Avery, Cross, Sheehan, with Hanlin, Stallworthy, Clarke, and Keenan named in the reserves. The following weekend Auckland played Canterbury at the Auckland Domain and were victorious by 45 points to 9.
Trial Match
Auckland v Canterbury
The match saw 10,000 spectators attend and took in 300 pounds in gate takings.
Auckland Representative Matches Played and Scorers
Ernie Bailey had begun the season with North Shore but after they withdrew their senior team from the competition he transferred to the Grafton Athletic team.
