Warriors v Broncos: A big rugby league party is crashing Hawke’s Bay’s home of rugby

Warriors star Shaun Johnson signs a shoe for delighted fan Trevor Walsh-Lloyd after training at McLean Park ahead of Saturday night's NRL match against the Brisbane Broncos. Photo / Paul Taylor

About 1000 excitable school children were at McLean Park in Napier as the One New Zealand Warriors trained ahead of the sold-out NRL match against glamour Australian side the Brisbane Broncos.

It’s a historic occasion for McLean Park, which is the spiritual home of rugby league in Hawke’s Bay.

In late 1910, the year the Hawke’s Bay District Rugby League was established, Napier Borough Council allocated to the sport (then known as Northern Union) parkland that had been donated by the estate of P S McLean, president of the Hawke’s Bay Caledonian Society.

But McLean Park, which became league’s charge ground, was prone to flooding and there were disputes over how much the league would pay for a ground from it was getting little use without council improvements.

Since 1920, when Great Britain played North Island at rugby league on the park, the stadium’s use has been dominated by rugby union.

There is not thought to have been any league at McLean Park in more than 50 years until 1989, when Hawke’s Bay club finals were played on the ground. That prompted the staging there of the first match of Great Britain’s tour the next year.

Saturday will see a record league crowd at the ground of more than 15,000.

The previous record was in 2015 when the Melbourne Storm decided to play on the road so as not to clash with other big events happening in Melbourne.

Some of the history was in the air on Friday as Napier City Council events manager Kevin Murphy observed that, from a weather point of view, “we couldn’t have got better”. He mused that, had the ground had greater capacity, an even bigger crowd would be at the park.

More recent history was more important for Warriors coaching team member and Kiwis league icon Stacey Jones, filling in media duties for head coach Andrew Webster, who was still in Auckland where his wife was having a baby.

Speaking as the full squad began an hour of signing autographs along the boundary fence, Jones recognised the game had endured lean years in outposts such as Hawke’s Bay but the club, its community team and the players hoped it would grow from all the children attending the session.

The children included 150 who had walked together from Napier Intermediate School on Friday morning.

“I know the players are very excited to be here,” Jones said. The weather appeared to be “perfect” after the gloom of Cyclone Gabrielle and the Warriors could feel “the buzz” in town. “It’s going to be spectacular.”

The Warriors flew in on Thursday afternoon and went to a pōwhiri at Waipatu, the home marae of team captain Tohu Harris.

After the training session, the Warriors were free of commitments until match night, but it seems unlikely that Harris might sneak out to watch old and struggling (rugby) club Tamatea at nearby Windsor Park on early Saturday afternoon.

Murphy, who said he had been trying for five years to get the Warriors to Napier, said ticket sales for the sold-out game showed about 5000 had been sold outside Hawke’s Bay.

He was surprised by the diversity of interest in the NRL, but said providing extra seating would have been impractical, with inquiries for possible future events indicating installation of temporary seating could cost about $75 a seat.

The TAB has the Warriors as firm favourites, at $1.42 to win. The Broncos, missing five players ahead of next week’s first State of Origin game, are paying $2.80.

But the Broncos are near the top of the table, with the Warriors ninth. Of the 29 games the Warriors have played in New Zealand away from their home base at Mt Smart (now Go Media Stadium), they’ve won just eight.

That’s a bit of history.