The 1916 Auckland Rugby League season was the 8th year of the organisation. All grades were dramatically affected by players enlisting in the war efforts. Prior to the commencement of the season it was stated in the management committee meeting that 487 players in the Auckland district alone had committed to the war effort. Teams were filled with older players and juniors. The Otahuhu senior team as was noted at their committee meeting featured “only three men eligible for military service..., and these were all registered and waiting to be called up. Of the remainder, six were married men with families, two were permanent force men, and four were under military age”. Despite this attendances were still good, with the mid season match between City Rovers and Grafton Athletic at Victoria Park attracting 3,000 spectators. While the Round 7 fixtures at Victoria Park drew the same number of spectators and 4,000 attending the round 8 matches. All the gate takings were donated to the Children's Hospital Ward Equipment Fund. The final round saw over 4,000 attend Victoria Park where City Rovers won the title with a 14 points to 10 win over Grafton Athletic. City also went on to win the end of season knockout Roope Rooster competition. Owing to the effects of the war on playing strength and out of respect for the tremendous war effort there were no representative matches played in 1916, though City Rovers did play the Lower Waikato in two exhibition fixtures, and Richmond Rovers and Thames Old Boys traveled to Thames to play a match at the season end.
End of season report
At the end of the 1916 season a report was made on the season and it was presented to the Auckland Rugby League annual meeting in May 1917. It stated that the playing ranks had been severely depleted over the past season as over 600 players had joined the ranks of the military to fight in the first world war. There were 42 teams in total to compete across six grades. Fourteen clubs were affiliated to the Auckland Rugby League with over 800 players in total. The Mangere, Remuera, and Northcote clubs withdrew from the competition due to so many of their players going to war. Significantly they secured the option of the Chinamen's gardens just off Stanley Street and this was to later be turned into Carlaw Park. It was suggested that the newly-formed Garrison Artillery Club enter a first grade team however as there were already 6 teams competing there was a fear that it would weaken the existing teams. Otahuhu asked for Auckland Rugby League to request a special Saturday afternoon “train to be run to bring players, spectators and the general public to Otahuhu or Saturday afternoons” during the season.
Thirty matches were played during the season with the 20 being played at Victoria Park. The Devonport Domain hosted the 5 North Shore Albions home matches, while Otahuhu hosted 5 matches.
Newton had trouble fielding a full team for their match with Ponsonby and ultimately played with 11, with the 28 to 3 defeat being unsurprising.
Round 5
Round 6
The point scoring phenomenon Karl Ifwersen was missing for Grafton and possibly as a result Newton pulled off a massive upset when they defeated Grafton by 8 points to 3. Newton had conceded 73 points and scored just 11 over their previous two matches.
Round 7
Round 8
Round 9
Otahuhu despite playing at home were two men short for their match with Newton and went down 8 points to 4.
There were 3,000 spectators in attendance at the Round 1 matches at Victoria Park. There were 3,000 in attendance again for the semi final between City Rovers and Ponsonby United, again played at Victoria Park in muddy conditions. As the result was a draw it meant that the teams and Auckland Rugby League had to decide on how to proceed with the competition. The eventual decision was for Ponsonby to advance to the final and City Rovers to play Newton in a second semi final. City defeated Newton and then in the final they defeated Ponsonby United in front of almost 5,000 spectators.
Round 1
Semi-finals
Final
Top point and try scorers
The following point scoring lists include both Senior Championship matches and the Roope Rooster competition. Karl Ifwersen was the top point scorer for the third consecutive year with 58 points. He also topped the try scoring list with 8.
The week after the final was played City Rovers travelled to Ngaruawahia to play Lower Waikato. City won by 13 points to 9. A week later Richmond and Thames Old Boys traveled to Thames to play a match. It was won by Thames Old Boys by 11 to 5. The last match of the season was played on 9 September when City Rovers played against Lower Waikato at Victoria Park. City Rovers won by 19 points to 8. This brought the Auckland Rugby League season to a close. The curtain-raiser was a match between the Referees Association and Auckland rugby league players and was won by the referees by 10 points to 5.
Representative fixtures
There were no representative fixtures played in 1916 owing to the effects of the war on senior playing numbers.
