Te Atatu Roosters

Home Ground

The Roosters play at the council owned Jack Colvin Park located in Te Atatu Peninsula, next to the North Western Motorway. Junior teams play at Te Atatu Park, and at Gloria Park both also on the peninsula.

History

The club was founded in 1955 after the opening of the North-Western motorway led to suburban growth in the area. The first team was a 7-aside team formed to represent Te Atatu North and South. They wore Glenora jerseys and their first ever game was against Wesley at Fowlds Park. Their first training area was in a cow paddock on Edmonton Rd before later moving to Ramlea Park.

By 1961 they won their first schoolboy championship and were wearing Te Atatu colours. In 1960-61 Te Atatu Park was developed at Neil Avenue and in 1965 they fielded their first senior side (Senior B).

In the late 1960s work began on the current club rooms on Toru Avenue. It was built on Crown land arranged with Waitemata Mayor Jack Colvin after 3 club members were elected to the WCC Parks Committee. However, before the club rooms could be built the land needed to be prepared first. The land was in such poor condition that no other clubs had bothered applying for it, and life member Ken Pitman described the task of preparing it thus: "What a mess, over six acres of swamp, gorse and pine trees, five feet thick. Well we were all enthusiastic and silly enough to attempts the impossible. We chopped, scrounged, swore, drank and burned our way through the lot". The council also helped by putting a culvert under the motorway and realigned the creek which ran through the park. Eventually the playing fields were established and work could begin on the club rooms.

The club rooms took over 6 years to complete with the foundation stone being laid on December 17, 1962, and the official opening on April 19, 1969 by MP Martin Finlay. Just as the land was prepared solely by club members, so to was the clubroom built completely by members including Ken Pitman, Tom Hetherington, Ted Quedely, Eric Draper, Ernie Rainbow, Morrie Ramsey, Peter and Bis Pitman, Buddy Jones, Harry McWilliams, Jim Denyer, Gordon McCarten, Pat Fairweather, Don McMeekin, Murray Hill and Ian Pattulo.

By the 1970s Te Atatu were becoming more competitive on the field at senior level and completed wins over all of the top clubs over a period of time, including Ellerslie, Mt Albert, Glenora, Richmond and Ponsonby. At this time the club also began producing NZ international players; Dennis Williams who aged only 18 famously scored a brilliant individual try with his first touch of the ball in his debut test versus Great Britain, along with John Smith and John Wilson. In 1973 they won the Senior Comp and Phelan Shield. In the same year Te Atatu played the first ever Australian Aboriginal rugby league team in February, losing 13-17.

Around this time other branches of the club were formed at Ranui (which later led to the formation of the Waitemata Seagulls), and Massey. Teams playing at Moire Park in Massey were known as Te Atatu Massey. Also at this time the nickname 'Roosters' was adopted along with the Eastern Suburbs (now Sydney Roosters) style jersey. In 1976 the club turned 21 and celebrated with a ball at the Mandalay in the city.

In the 1980s the club finally began experiencing the success on the field they had sought after for many years. In 1986 they were runners up in the Fox Memorial to Mt Albert but weeks later were crowned the National Club Champions after defeating the same opposition. Then in 1988 they finally won the Fox Memorial Shield beating local rivals Glenora 23-16 in the final at Carlaw Park and a month later won the National Club title again, by beating Glenora at Eden Park as curtain-raiser to the Kiwis - Kangaroo World Cup final.

In 2005 the Roosters celebrated their 50th Jubilee and more recently on Queens Birthday weekend in 2015 celebrated their 60th Jubilee. The weekend featured a match with Glenora and was won by Te Atatu 38-28. In 2016 they won promotion back to the Fox Memorial division when they beat the Bay Roskill Vikings 31-22 at Mt Smart #2.

Titles

Te Atatu first won the coveted Fox Memorial Shield title, awarded to the Auckland club champions in 1988 with a 22-16 win over local rivals the Glenora Bears. They also went on to win the National Club Final against Glenora at Eden Park in the same year. The match was televised live as it was the curtain-raiser to the New Zealand - Australia Rugby League World Cup final which Australia went on to win 25-12 in front of 45,363 spectators. Te Atatu made the Fox Memorial grand final for the first time in 1986 where they went down heavily to the Mt Albert Lions by 31-4. A few weeks later they had revenge when they beat the Lions by 36-10 to claim their first National Club title at Carlaw Park. In 1990 they again made the Fox Memorial final but went down to a Tawera Nikau inspired Otahuhu Leopards. Then in 1993 they made the Fox Memorial final for the 4th time in their history (and last), where they lost to Northcote Tigers 29-10.

In 2007 Te Atatu won the Roope Rooster which became a title which winning teams defended on their home ground, similar to the Ranfurly Shield in New Zealand domestic rugby, although the Roope Rooster is played for within the Auckland competition only. Te Atatu defeated Mt Albert and defended it for 3 matches before losing it to the Richmond Bulldogs in the same season.

In 2015 Te Atatu won the Phelan Shield for winning the division 2 minor premiership. They made the final of the Sharman Cup which doubles as a promotion game to the Fox Memorial. They were defeated by the Richmond Bulldogs. In 2016 Te Atatu again won the Phelan Shield however this time when they progressed to the Sharman Cup they were victorious over the Bay Roskill Vikings 31-22 in the final.

Notable Past Players

The first Kiwi International from the Te Atatu Roosters was Dennis Williams. Since that time several others have followed with the majority of them coming from the late 1980s and early 1990s when the club experienced considerable success on the field. In the early 1990s brothers Henry and Robbie Paul both represented the Kiwi's though Robbie Paul moved to play professionally in England at a young age and due to the difficulty for players from England being able to return to New Zealand or Australia for tests he did not represent New Zealand many times. His brother Henry Paul also moved to play professionally in England and he later switched codes representing England in XV a side, and in Rugby Sevens. Curiously he was not the only Te Atatu Rooster to represent another country in Rugby Union. Shontayne Hape switched codes and was selected for the full English international side who he represented 13 times. More recently James O'Connor who was a Te Atatu Schoolboy was selected for the Wallabies, the Australia National Rugby Union Team.