By LINDSAY KNIGHT
A stickler for historical accuracy might suggest that in celebrating its centenary on Easter weekend in 2008 the Marist Brothers Old Boys Rugby Football club has been too late by four years. Because from 1904 a forerunner to the club, Sacred Heart Old Boys, as a result of the efforts of the college sports, Brother Virgilius, had been in existence. This team competed with other old boys sides like Auckland Grammar and Kings College, plus Auckland University, in their own competition.
But with the Auckland union’s abolition of its district scheme, in which players had to belong to the clubs in which they resided, the old boys sides became eligible for affiliation. Hence, the decision for Sacred Heart Old Boys to be wound up to be replaced by the Marist club, whose first annual meeting was held on April 24, 1908.
Marist’s two teams at first played in the Auckland second and third grades respectively. But in 1910, after some debate because one group believed that against powerhouse clubs like City and Ponsonby the players might be on a hiding to nothing, the club entered the senior ranks. On May 14, 1910, the club’s premier team made its debut, beating University 6-5.
Pessimism about Marist’s fate in the senior competition soon proved to be unfounded. Strong recruiting meant that by 1912 Marist had a formidable side which was good enough to win the Auckland senior championship, winning eight of 10 matches. By 1913 Marist had its first All Blacks: AJ (“Doolan”) Downing, recently transferred from Hawke’s Bay, was chosen from the club for the tour of North America that year. He was followed soon after by Jim (“Buster” Barrett, who played a test match against Australia the same year. In 1914 Marist had no fewer than four players in the All Black side which toured Australia, Downing and Barrett being joined by five eighths Jock McKenzie, who had transferred from Wellington, and Jack O’Brien, a fullback who was a club foundation member.
In 1915 Marist was again the Auckland seniors, though club rugby at this time was drastically affected by World War I. Marist itself also battled to field teams in this period of crisis, even if it helped with City to form the “Railway” team, which won a somewhat truncated competition in 1917.
The end of World War I, in which many club members including Downing lost their lives, saw Marist begin its revival and by 1923, under the captaincy of a fine representative centre Reg Malloy, Marist won, for the first time, the Gallaher Shield. That illustrious trophy had been introduced in 1922 in memory of the famous captain of the 1905 All Blacks, Dave Gallaher, another casualty of the war.
Marist celebrated its silver jubilee in 1933, appropriately, by again winning the Gallaher Shield, though this success was qualified by the fact the championship was shared with Ponsonby and University. Marist was again champions in 1939 and during this decade and in the late 1920s produced a number of fine players, including the Hadley brothers, Swin and Bill, both All Black hookers, Swin on the 1928 tour of South Africa and Bill on the 1935 tour of Britain.
As had the 1914-18 conflict, the outbreak of World War II in 1939 was to drastically affect the club. However, despite the difficulties and shortage of players, a senior team was maintained and some outstanding players, some still in their teens, were introduced including Bob Sorenson, a talented back who played for both Auckland and the North Island.
Sorenson and others developed in the 1930s, like the powerful forward Morrie McHugh, were outstanding products of the hard work and devotion to Saturday morning schoolboy grades, particularly from the Marist brothers staffing the two original nurseries, Vermont Street and Sacred Heart. A focus on junior grades and schoolboys has been something which has always stood Marist and the game as a whole in good stead.
The years immediately after World War II were to be especially significant for Marist. Some excellent teams were fielded and in each of the 1947 and 1950 seasons the Gallaher Shield was won. Two splendid forwards, both of whom gave the club stalwart service, Pat Crowley and McHugh, were All Blacks together, notably on the 1949 tour of South Africa, and, in Crowley’s case, having a starring role in the 1950 series win over the touring British Isles.
But the most monumental feat in the 1940s was in the establishment of a headquarters, in John Street in Ponsonby. The lack of a permanent home had been for many years a cause of discontent among club members. Particularly galling was the inadequate training facilities and the difficulties from having to share a shed in Virginia Avenue in Newton. Several attempts to gain its own facilities were made from almost the club’s inception, but all ended in failure.
The breakthrough did not come until the annual meeting of March 14, 1946, when through the efforts largely of the Rev. Dr F H Terry, Bishop Liston’s representative on the club committee, a decision was taken to build sheds in John Street. The bishop, the club patron, agreed to assist the financing and after sheds of pre-fabricated steel and corrugated iron, which had been used in Auckland during the war by the United States Navy, had been acquired building commenced, largely with volunteer labour, at John St. On April 17, 1949, while the club was hosting the North Island Spillane Cup tournament, Bishop Liston officially opened and blessed the club’s headquarters and training sheds.
The opening of the John Street headquarters, and the Gallaher Shield success the following year, suggested that Marist was on the verge of another golden age. That view was reinforced in 1952 when two great club men, Keith Davis, a fine halfback and Jack Skeen, a conscientious forward, made their All Black debuts together, against the Wallabies at Athletic Park. Davis was to go on the British Isles tour of 1953-54 and continue as an All Black until 1958. By which time another superb player, midfield back Terry Lineen, first capped as an All Black in 1957, had emerged. In the early 1960s other All Blacks had been produced by the club, Steve Nesbit, Des Connor, the transplanted Wallaby, and Paul Little.
During the 1950s and for much of the 60s Marist had been able to field backlines which had either Davis or Connor at halfback and Nesbit, Lineen and Little in the backline. Yet it was also to be a long period of frustration and disappointment. Because from 1950 until 1989 Marist did not once win the Gallaher Shield and, indeed, for a while in the early 1970s was either relegated to second division or else was preoccupied in avoiding relegation.
The 60s and early 70s coincided with another major upheaval for the club. This was the decision, taken largely through the efforts of Joe Brenan, then the club president, to relocate from John Street to a property, which would be soon known as Liston Park, in Michael’s Avenue, Ellerslie. Again it was a move made only after considerable debate and soul searching. And again, when the decision was made, the impressive club-house and facilities now in place came about through a huge amount of volunteer labour. Leaders in these projects were Richard O’Sullivan and Reuben O’Neill.
Though the 70s didn’t produce too much playing success they were the platform for what would be the peaks of the 80s and 90s. That Marist would have exceptional teams again was first flagged in the early 1980s and the outstanding under 19 and under 21 teams coached by Eric Kohlhase. One who emerged from these sides was the mighty wing John Kirwan, whose selection as an 18-year old third grader for Auckland in 1983 is now the stuff of legends. He was joined by other champion players in the Brooke brothers, Bernie McCahill, Terry Wright and Greg Cooper. Many of these players would be involved in the Gallaher Shield success, at long last, in 1989 and also in 1991, 1994 and 1996. Other club members, too, would join them through the 1990s and into the 2000s as All Blacks: Pat Lam, Shane Howarth, Steve Devine, Saimone Taumoepeau and Isaia Toeava. In recent times, too, Marist has been in the forefront of promoting women’s rugby and many Black Ferns have come from the club.
But in the last decade or so, as with everyone else in rugby, Marist has had to readjust to professionalism and increasingly top players have been denied the chance to play at club level. These and other challenges will continue to loom. Marist, though, appears to have the will, the spirit and the people to prevail. And, above all, it has the benefit of a marvellous heritage.