 | |
| Club information | |
|---|---|
| Full name | Hunter Mariners Rugby League Football Club |
| Founded | 28 April 1995 |
| Exited | 1997 |
| Former details | |
| Ground(s) |
|
| 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.