Defunct Australian rugby league club, based in Newcastle, NSW
Hunter Mariners
Club information
Full name
Hunter Mariners Rugby League Football Club
Founded
28 April 1995; 29 years ago (28 April 1995)
Exited
1997; 27 years ago (1997)
Former details
Ground(s)
Topper Stadium (11,000[1])
Coach
Graham Murray
Captain
Neil Piccinelli
Competition
Super League
1997
6th of 10
Records
Premierships
0
Runners-up
0
Minor premierships
0
Wooden spoons
0
The Hunter Mariners were an Australian professional rugby league club based in the Hunter Region's largest city, Newcastle. Hunter was formed in mid-1995 and was later disbanded at the end of 1997. The club was formed because of the Super League war, which was the rivalry between the traditional Australian Rugby League competition and the new media driven Super League competition. The team competed in the inaugural and only Super League season in 1997, as well as that year's World Club Challenge.
The Mariners faced much adversity in the Newcastle region because of the Australian Rugby League's Newcastle Knights team being already well established in the region.[2] The club played its home games at Topper Stadium and missed out on the finals of the 1997 Super League season, but made the grand final of the World Club Challenge. The team was overshadowed by the Newcastle Knights who won the ARL competition and were admitted into the 1998 re-united competition.
The Mariners were disbanded after being left out of the new competition because they believed that the Hunter region could not support two entities. Six of the Mariners first grade squad would relocate to Super League's new frontier team to debut in the NRL, the Melbourne Storm.
^"The Gardens". Australian Stadiums. Retrieved 23 March 2008.
^Fagen, Sean. "Rugby League History – Hunter Mariners". Archived from the original on 24 February 2008. Retrieved 13 June 2008.
The HunterMariners were an Australian professional rugby league club based in the Hunter Region's largest city, Newcastle. Hunter was formed in mid-1995...
on both sides of the war were shut down. News decided to close the HunterMariners and the financially ruined Western/Perth Reds, who were $10million...
New Zealand): the dominant Brisbane Broncos club and the ill-fated HunterMariners. The Australasian and European teams were each divided into two pools...
the records set by the HunterMariners in their one and only season in the 1997 Super League competition. The HunterMariners only played in one season...
the Super League competition (the 9th team was the Newcastle based HunterMariners). In early March 1996, the ARL were successful in gaining a federal...
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from 1991 until 2000. It was also the home ground of the short-lived HunterMariners rugby league team, who participated in the only season of the Super...
League club the HunterMariners who were also based out of Newcastle midway through the 1997 split season. Throughout 1997 the Mariners managed to make...
sides of the war were shut down. Super League decided to close the HunterMariners and the financially ruined Perth Reds, who were $10 million in debt...
high school. Gidley's current partner is Brooke McNamara. He was a HunterMariners junior. Having won the 2001 NRL Premiership, the Knights traveled to...
during the 1990s. He played for the Newcastle Knights in 1995, the HunterMariners 97, the Adelaide Rams in 1998 and finally the Sydney City Roosters...
League war. Smith then left North Queensland mid-season to join the HunterMariners. However, Smith only featured in two games for the club, including...
of the World, and at club level for Mount Albert, Manly-Warringah, HunterMariners and the Auckland Warriors, and in England for Wigan (Heritage № 838)...
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