Rugby League: 'A good kicking' promises coach

By Peter Jessup

The Auckland Warriors will name their stars for 1999 at the club's annual end-of-season ball at the Downtown Convention Centre tonight, an unfortunate distraction from their last game.

The away assignment against Wests might look easy given the hidings Tommy Raudonikis' team have suffered in recent weeks.

But the Magpies were foundation members of the Sydney league competition in 1908, the match is the last they will ever play, and so they will not be rolling over in front of a big crowd of long-term, long-suffering supporters who do not like Auckland.

Captain Steve Georgalis said they were desperate to send Raudonikis out on a winning note and to give their fans something to smile about. Raudonikis predicted his side should give Auckland "a good kicking."

The coach holds the record for the most games for Wests, 201, and played 20 tests as a halfback. He is something of an institution in the fibro suburbs that sprawl inland from the coast.

He had a good start to his coaching career, taking Wests close to the playoffs in 1995 and making them in 1996. But his record stands at an lacklustre 39 wins from 103 games and only three of those have come this season (Balmain beaten 18-12 at home, Souths 20-18 away and Penrith 7-6 at home) with what is an ordinary looking squad.

Wests will wheel out as many of their 41 internationals as they can find on Sunday and local rock band The Enormous Horns will beat the crowd along. The club is expecting to double its 1999 average of 8453 for the match-up with the enemy.

There was much support for the merger with Balmain to form the Western Tigers merger, said club spokesman Andrew Moore, not least because Balmain were seen as being similarly shafted by the culling process that is taking the NRL competition from 17 to 14 teams.

"At least we'll still be called Wests. We'll still carry the colours and there'll still be games at Campbelltown even if it is down from 12 to six," Moore said.

Wests were to name their team overnight. Their pack will be de-powered without prop John Skandalis, who is out with a broken bone in a foot, and second-rower Matt Spence, who is in hospital with pneumonia.

Warriors coach Mark Graham had little reason to change the side who hammered Newcastle 42-0. Tony Tuimavave is unavailable after a bereavement in the family sent him to Samoa and Tony Tatupu takes his starting spot while Awen Guttenbeil makes his long-awaited return from injury on the bench.

Top prospects at the awards tonight have to be lock-turned-second-rower Logan Swann and half Stacey Jones, two of three players to have completed all 23 games in 1999, non-stop prop Terry Hermansson, and Australian transplants Jason Death, Robert Mears and John Simon.

None of the last three has played all season, a broken jaw interrupting impressive efforts from Death, while Mears and Simon started mid-year, but the impact of each has been remarkable. Wing Odell Manuel has to be a sitter for the rookie-of-the-year title.

Wests' record for the season shows 269 points for and 884 against, 49 tries for and 153 against. The Warriors have 478 points for and 484 against, 81 tries for and 84 against.

Auckland Warriors: Matthew Ridge, Odell Manuel, Peter Lewis, Nigel Vagana, Lee Oudenryn, John Simon (c), Stacey Jones, Joe Vagana, Robert Mears, Terry Hermansson, Tony Tatupu, Logan Swann, Jason Death; interchange Cliff Beverley, Ali Lauitiiti, Jerry Seu Seu, Awen Guttenbeil, Francis Meli 18th man.

Western Suburbs Magpies (likely): Brett Hodgson, Adam Donovan, Kevin McGuinness, Justin Brooker, David Buko, Shane Perry, Steve Georgalis (c), Harvey Howard, Ciriaco Mescia, Dayle Bonner, Tate Moseley, Lincoln Raudonikis, Scott Coxon; interchange Matthew Fuller, Shayne McMenemy, Adam Bristow, Dane Dorahy.