1997 Adelaide Rams season

Team information

Coach

Kerrod Walters

Stadium

1998 >

The 1997 Adelaide Rams season was the Adelaide Rams' debut season as a rugby league club. They competed in the Super League's Telstra Cup and World Club Championship.

The club had appointed St. George Dragons international back rower Rod Reddy to be their inaugural coach, along with two-time NSWRL premiership-winning Hooker Kerrod Walters from the Brisbane Broncos to be the first captain of the team. Most of the junior players were drawn from the SARL's lower grade competitions in the region.^[1]

First match

The club played its first premiership match against the North Queensland Cowboys on 1 March 1997 and, after leading 16–4 at half time, eventually lost 24–16.

No.	Position	Player
3	FB	Michael Maguire
22	WG	Wayne Simonds
25	CE	Solomon Kiri
4	CE	Elias Paiyo
44	WG	Joe Tamani
33	FE	Kurt Wrigley
7	HB	Stuart Topper
11	PR	Andrew Hick
27	HK	Kerrod Walters (c)

No.	Position	Player
10	PR	Marty McKenzie
13	SR	Dave Boughton
12	SR	Brett Galea
8	LK	Cameron Blair
36	RE	Kevin Campion
6	RE	Chris Quinn
9	RE	Steve Stone
17	RE	Bruce Mamando
CO	CO	Rod Reddy

Results

Their first home match, against the Hunter Mariners, was also the Rams' first win, and drew their record home attendance of 27,435 to the Adelaide Oval, one of only two home wins for the season. The Rams also won four away games with their first being in Round 4 against the Auckland Warriors at the Ericsson Stadium in Auckland, New Zealand, but their overall record of 6 wins, 11 losses and 1 draw placed them second last on the Super League premiership ladder, one win ahead of North Queensland.^[1]

The Rams first home game attendance of 27,435 was the 4th highest attendance of the entire 1997 season, behind only the Grand Final at the ANZ Stadium in Brisbane (58,912), the opening game of the season in Brisbane (42,361) and a Round 6 match at the Dairy Farmers Stadium in Townsville (30,122).

Adelaide Rams 1997 Super League season results^[2]
Round	Home	Scoreline	Away	Date	Venue	Crowd
1	North Queensland Cowboys	24 - 16	Adelaide Rams	1 March	Dairy Farmers Stadium	17,738
2	Brisbane Broncos	28 - 12	Adelaide Rams	9 March	ANZ Stadium	16,279
3	Adelaide Rams	10 - 8	Hunter Mariners	14 March	Adelaide Oval	27,435
4	Auckland Warriors	12 - 16	Adelaide Rams	21 March	Ericsson Stadium	13,000
5	Adelaide Rams	16 - 18	Perth Reds	27 March	Adelaide Oval	16,294
6	Canterbury Bulldogs	34 - 22	Adelaide Rams	6 April	Belmore Sports Ground	7,234
7	Adelaide Rams	10 - 20	Brisbane Broncos	13 April	Adelaide Oval	17,633
8	Cronulla Sharks	18 - 29	Adelaide Rams	19 April	Shark Park	10,112
9	Penrith Panthers	16 - 22	Adelaide Rams	27 April	Penrith Football Stadium	5,815
10	Adelaide Rams	14 - 14	North Queensland Cowboys	2 May	Adelaide Oval	15,970
11	Adelaide Rams	22 - 42	Canterbury Bulldogs	23 May	Adelaide Oval	15,022
12	Adelaide Rams	18 - 34	Canberra Raiders	1 June	Adelaide Oval	13,894
13	Perth Reds	4 - 28	Adelaide Rams	29 June	W.A.C.A	7,204
14	Hunter Mariners	10 - 2	Adelaide Rams	5 July	Topper Stadium	2,345
15	Adelaide Rams	8 - 18	Auckland Warriors	11 July	Adelaide Oval	13,278
16	Adelaide Rams	6 - 28	Cronulla Sharks	8 August	Adelaide Oval	7,231
17	Canberra Raiders	58 - 16	Adelaide Rams	17 August	Canberra Stadium	7,960
18	Adelaide Rams	36 - 16	Penrith Panthers	22 August	Adelaide Oval	11,211

Telstra Cup

	Team	Pld	W	D	L	PF	PA	PD	Pts
1	Brisbane	18	14	1	3	481	283	+198	29
2	Cronulla-Sutherland	18	12	0	6	403	230	+173	24
3	Canberra	18	11	0	7	436	337	+99	22
4	Canterbury	18	10	0	8	453	447	+6	20
5	Penrith	18	9	0	9	431	462	-31	18
6	Hunter	18	7	0	11	350	363	-13	14
7	Auckland	18	7	0	11	332	406	-74	14
8	Perth	18	7	0	11	321	456	-135	14
9	Adelaide Rams	18	6	1	11	303	402	-99	13
10	North Queensland	18	5	2	11	328	452	-124	12

Ladder progression

Numbers highlighted in green indicate that the team finished the round inside the top 5.
Numbers highlighted in blue indicates the team finished first on the ladder in that round.
Numbers highlighted in red indicates the team finished in last place on the ladder in that round

	Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18
1	Brisbane	2	4	6	8	10	12	14	14	16	18	19	19	19	21	23	25	27	29
2	Cronulla-Sutherland	2	4	6	6	6	8	8	8	10	10	12	14	16	16	18	20	22	24
3	Canberra	0	0	0	0	2	2	4	6	8	10	12	14	14	16	16	18	20	22
4	Canterbury	2	2	4	4	4	6	8	10	10	12	14	14	16	16	18	20	20	20
5	Penrith	2	4	6	8	8	10	10	12	12	12	12	14	16	16	16	16	18	18
6	Hunter	0	0	0	2	2	2	4	6	6	6	8	10	12	14	14	14	14	14
7	Auckland	0	2	2	2	4	6	6	6	6	6	6	6	6	8	10	10	12	14
8	Perth	0	2	2	4	6	6	8	8	8	10	10	12	12	12	12	14	14	14
9	Adelaide	0	0	2	4	4	4	4	6	8	9	9	9	11	11	11	11	11	13
10	North Queensland	2	2	2	2	4	4	4	4	6	7	8	8	8	10	12	12	12	12

World Club Championship

The Rams were placed in Australasia Pool B along with the Hunter Mariners, North Queensland Cowboys and Perth Reds and would be matched up against teams from Europe Pool B including the Leeds Rhinos, Oldham Bears and Salford City Reds. The competition would see the Rams play three games at home and three in England.^[1]^[3]

The Rams won their three home games rather easily, but only managed to win one of their games in England leaving them in third place in their pool. As only one team from Australasia Pool B would go on to the Quarter finals, this meant that the Adelaide Rams did not advance past the group stage of the tournament.

Adelaide Rams 1997 World Club Championship results^[4]
Round	Home	Scoreline	Away	Date	Venue	Crowd
1	Adelaide Rams	50 - 16	Salford City Reds	8 June	Adelaide Oval	11,009
2	Adelaide Rams	34 - 8	Leeds Rhinos	13 June	Adelaide Oval	14,360
3	Adelaide Rams	42 - 14	Oldham Bears	20 June	Adelaide Oval	13,852
4	Leeds Rhinos	22 - 14	Adelaide Rams	18 July	Headingley	11,269
5	Oldham Bears	2 - 18	Adelaide Rams	25 July	Boundary Park	3,513
6	Salford City Reds	14 - 12	Adelaide Rams	6 April	The Willows	6,995

Pool B

Club	Played	Won	Lost	For	Against	Diff.	Points
Hunter Mariners	6	6	0	226	50	176	12
North Queensland Cowboys	6	5	1	228	92	136	10
Adelaide Rams	6	4	2	170	68	102	8
Perth Reds	6	4	2	148	104	44	8

Players

See also: List of Adelaide Rams players

Excluding World Club Challenge matches, Goal kicking utility back Kurt Wrigley was the Rams top point scorer for the season with 81 points from 5 tries, 30 goals and 1 field goal. Wrigley and fullback Rod Maybon were the teams top try scorers with 5 each.

No.	Name	Pos.	Debut	App	T	G	FG	Pts
1	Maguire, MichaelMichael Maguire	FB/WG	1 March 1997	7	1	0	0	4
2	Simonds, WayneWayne Simonds	WG	1 March 1997	15†	6	0	0	24
3	Kiri, SolomonSolomon Kiri	CE	1 March 1997	13†	5	0	0	20
4	Paiyo, EliasElias Paiyo	CE	1 March 1997	6	0	0	0	0
5	Tamani, JoeJoe Tamani	WG	1 March 1997	15	4	0	0	16
6	Wrigley, KurtKurt Wrigley	FE/CE	1 March 1997	18†	6	36	1	97
7	Topper, StuartStuart Topper	HB	1 March 1997	6	1	0	0	4
8	Hick, AndrewAndrew Hick	PR	1 March 1997	17†	1	0	0	4
9	Walters, KerrodKerrod Walters	HK	1 March 1997	19	4	0	0	16
10	McKenzie, MartyMarty McKenzie	PR	1 March 1997	5	1	0	0	4
11	Boughton, DaveDave Boughton	SR	1 March 1997	16	1	0	0	4
12	Galea, BrettBrett Galea	SR	1 March 1997	14†	3	0	0	12
13	Blair, CameronCameron Blair	LK	1 March 1997	18	4	0	0	16
14	Campion, KevinKevin Campion	PR/SR	1 March 1997	15	1	0	0	4
15	Quinn, ChrisChris Quinn	CE/FB	1 March 1997	19†	4	0	0	16
16	Stone, SteveSteve Stone	HB	1 March 1997	17†	8	0	0	32
17	Mamando, BruceBruce Mamando	SR	1 March 1997	16	5	0	0	20
18	Maybon, RodRod Maybon	FB	9 March 1997	16†	9	0	0	36
19	Pierce, AndrewAndrew Pierce	SR	9 March 1997	13	1	0	0	4
20	Schifilliti, DeanDean Schifilliti	FE/HB	9 March 1997	17†	1	0	0	4
21	Corvo, MarkMark Corvo	PR	14 March 1997	18	0	0	0	0
22	Williamson, LukeLuke Williamson	CE/FE	21 March 1997	15†	5	49	0	118
23	Cann, AlanAlan Cann	PR	27 March 1997	13	0	0	0	0
24	Grimley, DannyDanny Grimley	CE	19 April 1997	8†	2	0	0	8
25	Donnelly, JasonJason Donnelly	WG	27 April 1997	7	0	0	0	0
26	Kidwell, DavidDavid Kidwell	CE	17 August 1997	2	0	0	0	0
27	Peek, AdamAdam Peek	PR	22 August 1997	1	0	0	0	0

†Full team list not available for WCC matches against Oldham on 20 June 1997 or 25 July 1997, or against Leeds on 18 July 1997 or Salford on 3 August 1997 but this player scored in one or more of these matches and so is awarded an appearance for that match.

References

1 2 3 Whiticker, Alan & Collis, Ian (2004). The History of Rugby League Clubs. New Holland Publishers (Australia) Pty Ltd. ISBN 1-74110-075-5.
↑ "Rugby League Tables / All Games / Adelaide". Retrieved 2009-04-20.
↑ Fagan, Sean. "Rugby League History – RL1908.com – Adelaide Rams". RL1908. Archived from the original on 10 April 2008. Retrieved 2008-04-15.
↑ 1997 World Club Championship at Rugby League Project

Adelaide Rams

Est. 1997 in Adelaide, South Australia

The club

Home grounds

League

Past	Super League National Rugby League

Seasons (2)

1996
1997
1998
1999

Other
competitions

Current	N/A

Past	World Club Challenge

Affiliations

South Australian Rugby League

1997 in rugby league

« 1996

1998 »

Super League International Board

British Rugby League

Competitions	Super League Division One Division Two Challenge Cup

SL Teams	Bradford Bulls Castleford Tigers Halifax Blue Sox Leeds Rhinos London Broncos Oldham Bears Paris Saint-Germain Salford Reds Sheffield Eagles St Helens Warrington Wolves Wigan Warriors

Australian Rugby League

Competitions	State of Origin ARL season

By club	Balmain Tigers Illawarra Steelers Gold Coast Chargers Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles Newcastle Knights North Sydney Bears Parramatta Eels Sydney Roosters St. George Dragons South Queensland Crushers South Sydney Rabbitohs Western Suburbs Magpies

Super League Australia

Competitions	Tri-series Super League

By club	Adelaide Rams Auckland Warriors Brisbane Broncos Canterbury Bulldogs Canberra Raiders Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks Hunter Mariners North Queensland Cowboys Penrith Panthers Perth Reds

Other Domestic competitions

New Zealand

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 9/15/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.