2003 New Zealand Warriors season

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2003 New Zealand Warriors season
Ericsson Stadium
Avg. attendance16,842
Top scorers
TriesFrancis Meli (23)
GoalsStacey Jones (29)
PointsFrancis Meli (92)
← 
2002
2004
 →

The 2003 New Zealand Warriors season was the 9th in the club's history. They competed in the National Rugby League's 2003 Telstra Premiership and finished the regular season in 6th place. The Warriors then came within one game of the grand final, losing to eventual premiers the Penrith Panthers. The coach of the team was Daniel Anderson while Monty Betham was the club captain.

Milestones

  • The Warriors had the youngest squad out of all the 15 clubs in the 2003 NRL season.[1]
  • 23 March — Round 2: Monty Betham played in his 50th match for the club.
  • 6 April — Round 4: Francis Meli, Wairangi Koopu and Mark Tookey played in their 50th first grade games for the club.[2]
  • 22 June — Round 13: Motu Tony played in his 50th match for the club.
  • 12 July — Round 18:
    Ali Lauitiiti
    played in his 100th match for the club.
  • 10 August — Round 22: Richard Villasanti played in his 50th match for the club.
  • 6 September — Round 26:
    Awen Guttenbiel
    played in his 100th match for the club.

Jersey & Sponsors

The Warriors launched a new jersey design in 2003, finally removing completely the blue and white colours the owners had inherited when the purchased the company.[3]

Fixtures

See also: List of New Zealand Warriors results

The Warriors used

Ericsson Stadium
as their home ground in 2003, their only home ground since they entered the competition in 1995.

Pre-season

The Warriors played a pre-season trial match against the Penrith Panthers in Invercargill on 28 February. 15,000 fans attended the match, which was sold out.[4]

Regular season

Date Round Opponent Venue Result Score Tries Goals Attendance Report
16 March Round 1 Newcastle Knights Mount Smart Stadium, Auckland Loss 26-36 Hohaia (2), Carlaw, Fa'afili, Meli Jones (3) 16,291 [1]
23 March Round 2
Canterbury Bulldogs
 Mount Smart Stadium, Auckland Win 24-20 Hohaia (2), Fa'afili, Guttenbeil, Meli Marsh (2) 16,229 [2]
29 March Round 3
Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles
 Brookvale Oval, Sydney Win 20-16 Toopi (2), Fa'afili, Swann Marsh (2) 14,273 [3]
6 April Round 4 South Sydney Rabbitohs Mount Smart Stadium, Auckland Win 38-16 Fa'afili (2), Hohaia (2), Meli (2), Seuseu, Tony Marsh (2), Hohaia (1) 13,614 [4]
13 April Round 5 Brisbane Broncos ANZ Stadium, Brisbane Win 32-12 Meli (2), Faumuina, Marsh, Swann, Tuimavave Marsh (3), Tuimavave (1) 18,959 [5]
21 April Round 6 North Queensland Cowboys Mount Smart Stadium, Auckland Win 30-24 Fa'afili, Jones, Marsh, Meli, Tony, Toopi Marshs (3) 19,722 [6]
27 April Round 7 Penrith Panthers Mount Smart Stadium, Auckland Loss 14-28 Fa'afili, Koopu, Tony Jones (1) 15,732 [7]
2 May Round 8
Bulldogs
Westpac Stadium, Wellington
 Loss 12-18 Meli, Toopi Webb (2) 21,989 [8]
10 May Round 9 Parramatta Eels Mount Smart Stadium, Auckland Win 18-16 Meli (2), Marsh, Swann Webb (1) 15,397 [9]
Round 10 Bye
23 May Round 11 Canberra Raiders
Westpac Stadium, Wellington
 Loss 10-18 Fa'afili Webb (1) 13,130 [10]
31 May Round 12 Penrith Panthers
CUA Stadium, Sydney
 Loss 12-34 Betham, Tony Jones (2) 20,280 [11]
7 June Round 13 Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks Mount Smart Stadium, Auckland Win 23-6 Faumuina, Jones, Meli, Mellars Jones (3 & FG) 16,172 [12]
14 June Round 14 Parramatta Eels Parramatta Stadium, Sydney Loss 26-28 V.Anderson, Betham, Faumuina, Meli, Webb Jones (2), Webb (1) 8,076 [13]
22 June Round 15 Canberra Raiders Mount Smart Stadium, Auckland Win 26-18 Swann (2), Tony, Toopi, Villasanti Jones (3) 18,375 [14]
29 June Round 16 South Sydney Rabbitohs Sydney Football Stadium, Sydney Win 31-30 (a.e.t) Jones, Meli, Tony, Toopi, Webb Jones (5 & FG) 9,109 [15]
5 July Round 17 North Queensland Cowboys
Dairy Farmers Stadium, Townsville
 Loss 10-30 Swann (2) Jones (1) 16,028 [16]
12 July Round 18
Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles
 Mount Smart Stadium, Auckland Win 20-12
Latu, Webb
 Jones (4) 15,528 [17]
19 July Round 19 Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks Toyota Park, Sydney Win 31-24 Toopi (2), Murphy, Villasanti, Webb Jones (5 & FG) 13,565 [18]
Round 20 Bye
2 August Round 21 Melbourne Storm Mount Smart Stadium, Auckland Loss 12-14 V.Anderson, Toopi Hohaia (2) 15,207 [19]
10 August Round 22 St. George Illawarra Dragons
Oki Jubilee Stadium, Sydney
 Win 30-20 Carlaw, Hohaia, Lauiti'iti, Leuluai, Villasanti, Webb Hohaia (3) 12,595 [20]
15 August Round 23 Newcastle Knights
Newcastle
 Loss 20-36 Toopi (2), Meli, Villasanti Hohaia (2) 17,198 [21]
24 August Round 24 Brisbane Broncos Mount Smart Stadium, Auckland Win 22-14
Latu, Meli
 Webb (3) 19,439 [22]
31 August Round 25 Sydney Roosters Sydney Football Stadium, Sydney Win 26-24 Meli (2), Toopi, Villasanti Webb (5) 18,726 [23]
6 September Round 26 Wests Tigers Mount Smart Stadium, Auckland Win 32-16 Toopi (3), V.Anderson (2), Meli Webb (4) 20,392 [24]

Final Series

Date Round Opponent Venue Result Score Tries Goals Attendance Report
13 September Qualifying Final
Bulldogs
Showgrounds, Sydney
 Win 48 - 22 Meli (5), Webb (2), Faumuina, Tony Webb (5), Faumuina (1) 18,312 [25]
20 September Preliminary Final Canberra Raiders Sydney Football Stadium, Sydney Win 17 - 16 Fa'afili, Swann, Toopi Webb (2), Jones (FG) 31,616 [26]
28 September Preliminary Final Penrith Panthers
Telstra Stadium, Sydney
 Loss 20 - 28 Swann, Toopi, Villasanti, Webb Webb (2) 43,174 [27]

Ladder

2003 NRL season
Pos Team Pld W D L B PF PA PD Pts
1 Penrith Panthers (P) 24 18 0 6 2 659 527 +132 40
2 Sydney Roosters 24 17 0 7 2 680 445 +235 38
3 Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs 24 16 0 8 2 702 419 +283 36
4 Canberra Raiders 24 16 0 8 2 620 463 +157 36
5 Melbourne Storm 24 15 0 9 2 564 486 +78 34
6 New Zealand Warriors 24 15 0 9 2 545 510 +35 34
7 Newcastle Knights 24 14 0 10 2 632 635 -3 32
8 Brisbane Broncos 24 12 0 12 2 497 464 +33 28
9 Parramatta Eels 24 11 0 13 2 570 582 -12 26
10 St George Illawarra Dragons 24 11 0 13 2 548 593 -45 26
11 North Queensland Cowboys 24 10 0 14 2 606 629 -23 24
12 Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks 24 8 0 16 2 497 704 -207 20
13 Wests Tigers 24 7 0 17 2 470 598 -128 18
14
Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles
 24 7 0 17 2 557 791 -234 18
15 South Sydney Rabbitohs 24 3 0 21 2 457 758 -301 10

Squad

See also: List of New Zealand Warriors players

Twenty eight players were used by the Warriors in 2003, including five players who made their first grade debuts.

No. Name Nationality Position Warriors Debut App T G FG Pts
24 Stacey Jones New Zealand HB 23 April 1995 22 3 29 4 74
33 Awen Guttenbeil New Zealand / Tonga SR 14 April 1996 20 1 0 0 4
42 Logan Swann New Zealand SR 1 March 1997 23 9 0 0 36
50
Jerry Seu Seu
 New Zealand / Samoa PR 16 August 1997 24 1 0 0 4
55
Ali Lauitiiti
 New Zealand / Samoa SR 19 April 1998 12 1 0 0 4
61 Monty Betham New Zealand / Samoa HK / LK 8 March 1999 24 2 0 0 8
64 Wairangi Koopu New Zealand CE / SR 9 April 1999 25 1 0 0 4
65 Francis Meli New Zealand / Samoa WG 2 May 1999 27 23 0 0 92
66 Clinton Toopi New Zealand CE 2 May 1999 22 17 0 0 68
76 Mark Tookey Australia PR 6 February 2000 17 0 0 0 0
81 Henry Fa'afili New Zealand / Samoa WG 26 March 2000 24 10 0 0 40
87 Richard Villasanti Australia / Tonga PR 18 February 2001 16 6 0 0 24
90 Motu Tony New Zealand / Samoa UH 9 March 2001 18 7 0 0 28
92 Justin Murphy France WG 7 April 2001 8 1 0 0 4
93 Iafeta Paleaaesina New Zealand / Samoa PR 1 June 2001 24 0 0 0 0
95 John Carlaw Australia CE 24 March 2002 10 2 0 0 8
96 PJ Marsh Australia HB / HK 24 March 2002 11 3 12 0 36
97 Brent Webb New Zealand FB 1 April 2002 21 8 26 0 84
98 Sione Faumuina New Zealand CE / LK 1 April 2002 24 5 1 0 22
99 Lance Hohaia New Zealand UB 6 April 2002 16 7 8 0 44
100 Vinnie Anderson New Zealand / Tonga CE 7 July 2002 27 6 0 0 24
102 Evarn Tuimavave New Zealand PR 1 September 2002 9 1 1 0 6
103 Karl Temata Cook Islands PR / SR 6 September 2002 10 0 0 0 0
104
Mark Robinson
 New Zealand HK 2 May 2003 1 0 0 0 0
105 Thomas Leuluai New Zealand HB 2 May 2003 12 1 0 0 4
106 Vince Mellars New Zealand CE 7 June 2003 4 1 0 0 4
107
Tevita Latu
 New Zealand / Tonga HK 7 June 2003 7 2 0 0 8
108 Jerome Ropati New Zealand CE / FE 31 August 2003 1 0 0 0 0

Staff

Coaching Staff

Transfers

Gains

Player Previous Club Length Notes
Mark Robinson
 North Harbour Rugby Union

Losses

Player Club Notes
Jeremiah Pai Wests Tigers
Justin Morgan Toulouse Olympique
Kevin Campion North Queensland Cowboys
Shontayne Hape Bradford Bulls
David Myles North Queensland Cowboys
Ivan Cleary Retired

Other Teams

Players not required by the Warriors were released to play in the

Canterbury Bulls
.

Awards

Francis Meli won the Player of the Year award.[5]

References

  1. ^ John Coffey Warriors youngest in NRL The Press, 30 November 2002
  2. ^ Francis Meli will play his 50th NRL match for the Warriors Archived 24 July 2011 at the Wayback Machine Western Leader, 4 April 2003
  3. ^ John Coffey Warriors' new strip The Press, 29 November 2002
  4. ^ We're first - angry Roosters call for ad to be dropped Sydney Morning Herald, 28 February 2003
  5. ^ Vodafone Warriors RED BALL Awards warriors.co.nz, 16 September 2014

External links

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