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.

	Team	Pld	W	D	L	PF	PA	PD	Pts
1	Brisbane	24	18	1	5	688	310	+378	37
2	Newcastle	24	18	1	5	562	381	+181	37
3	Melbourne	24	17	1	6	546	372	+174	35
4	Parramatta	24	17	1	6	468	349	+119	35
5	North Sydney	24	17	0	7	663	367	+296	34
6	Sydney City	24	16	0	8	680	383	+297	32
7	Canberra	24	15	0	9	564	429	+135	30
8	St. George	24	13	1	10	486	490	-4	27
9	Canterbury	24	13	0	11	489	411	+78	26
10	Manly	24	13	0	11	503	473	+30	26
11	Cronulla	24	12	1	11	438	387	+51	25
12	Illawarra	24	11	1	12	476	539	-63	23
13	Balmain	24	9	1	14	381	463	-82	19
14	Penrith	24	8	2	14	525	580	-55	18
15	Auckland	24	9	0	15	417	518	-101	18
16	North Queensland	24	9	0	15	361	556	-195	18
17	Adelaide	24	7	0	17	393	615	-222	14
18	South Sydney	24	5	0	19	339	560	-221	10
19	Gold Coast	24	4	0	20	289	654	-365	8
20	Western Suburbs	24	4	0	20	371	802	-431	8

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