West Coast Rugby League

History

The West Coast Rugby League was formed on 3 June 1915, after Canterbury and West Coast played each other earlier in the day.

On the 14 June Kohinoor left the West Coast Rugby Union and two days later, on the 16th, they started the senior club competition with Blackball and Hokitika. The Grey club was added on 6 July.

The West Coast Rugby League went into recess at the end of the year, until being revived in 1919 by J.D. Wingham. Blackball, Kohinoor and Runanga competed in the 1919 competition.

Since then rugby league has traditionally been the most successful team sport in the West Coast. However, since the 1990s the West Coast has usually participated in Second Division or South Island competitions and in particular the West Coast missed out on having a team in either the Lion Red Cup or Bartercard Cup, the two main New Zealand Rugby League competitions of the 1990s and 2000s.

In 2018, the region's premier club competition was cancelled due to a lack of player numbers. The region's sole remaining senior rugby league team, the Greymouth Greyhounds, began competing in the Canterbury Rugby League competition in 2023.

Grand Final Winners

These are the Grand Final winners from 1979 to 2012.

Notable juniors competed in the NRL

Cobden-Kohinoor

• Slade Griffin (Melbourne Storm)

Marist

• Brent Stuart (Western Suburbs Magpies and Canberra Raiders)

Waro-Rakau

• Quentin Pongia (Canberra Raiders)

Suburbs

• Griffin Neame (North Queensland Cowboys)

References

References

1. Coffey, John. ''Canterbury XIII'', Christchurch, 1987
2. Smith, Tony. (27 November 2010). "Sport can help West Coasters heal the pain". [[The Press]].
3. (14 June 2018). "The West Coast - a great NZ rugby league nursery - forced to cancel its premier grade".
4. (24 November 2023). "Greymouth Greyhounds join Canterbury rugby league premiership to end top grade exile".