In past years, the Waikato Rugby League season, as with most provincial unions, usually consisted of a club home-and-away round-robin local competition, followed by playoffs and a September grand final, then provincial representative footy.
NZ Kiwi tours to other continents would usually be undertaken during October and November, or sometimes into December and January when touring the northern hemisphere to play Great Britain and France during the northern winter.
National U15 Schoolboy tournaments and a Junior Kiwi team were the only age-grade footy on offer. The Aotearoa NZ Māori Labour Weekend tournament became a regular event from 1993. So why am I telling you all this?
Well, the year 1996 had become a logjam of rugby league in Aotearoa. The normal club season began in April. The Lion Red Cup began in March.
The Pacific Championship, featuring seven teams from Western Samoa, Fiji, Tonga, PNG, the Cook Islands, Western Australia and NZ Māori, ran through June and July. Julian David and Jacob Marsters were selected for the Cook Islands team. Ben Ransfield, Tukere Barlow and Tama Hohaia, with Jody Brewer on standby, were selected for NZ Māori. Aaron Tucker was selected for the NZ Residents.
An NZRL version of State of Origin, the North Zone v South Zone competition, was instigated. An NZ Universities team featuring Cougars Nathan York, Tony Waikato and Darryl Fisher played in a Student World Cup at Warrington in the UK.
A Lion Red Cup XIII featuring Tama Hohaia, Tukere Barlow and trainer Willie Ford played Great Britain and PNG.
An NZ Super League-funded U16 Kiwi team, with Dallas Moana, Te Whakahawea Rapana, Adam Baker, Wairangi Koopu and team manager Rex Hohaia, toured Australia for two weeks in September, playing against Canberra, Cronulla and Penrith.
Greg Cameron and David Noda were named in the NZ U18 team after a Super League-funded tournament at Hopuhopu, where 50 scholarships were awarded.
The Auckland Warriors played 22 rounds in the Australian Rugby League Optus Cup and the NZ Kiwis whitewashed the ‘Poms’ 3-0 at home, with the Junior Kiwis playing curtain-raisers to five Tests, including PNG.
Finally, Graham Norton coached the NZ Nines at a tournament in Fiji. Aaron Tucker played for the USA.
Whew! I’m exhausted just writing all that!
Consequently, the LRC took a midwinter break, but the ‘pointy’ end of the season was beginning to heat up for the Cougars.
With the Super League war still raging across the Tasman, a number of their top referees were being shipped to NZ to keep their ‘awareness’ on song.
Once normal transmission resumed, our Round 21 clash against Waitakere City at their home ground became the ‘guinea pig’ for sports betting. While betting per se has been around since Adam and Eve were jockeys, betting on LRC games was a new phenomenon and seeing the boys’ names in the TAB with odds attached was quite a ‘highlight’.
Making the top five for the third straight season was an achievement in itself, but the aim was to go one better than last season’s finish, 80 minutes short of a grand final.
The BOP Stags had improved out of sight, from wooden spooners in 1994 and 1995 to fifth spot in 1996 under head coach Lawrence Brydon, and were our opposition in the first week.
However, a 35-18 win at Rotorua International Stadium put us up against our old nemesis, North Harbour, in the second-week elimination final. But those tūpuna at Davies Park were on our side this time around.
Good friend Cameron Bell was at the helm of the Counties Manukau Heroes and Carlaw Park was the holy grail to them lads from the ‘Hood’. They weren’t going to let no Pussycats from south of the Bombays steal their thunder!
A 22-6 thumping put us into Mad Monday mode again, 80 minutes short of a grand final for the second year running. Damn!
Neither were the ‘bogans’ from out West going to take the gold medal from the vastly experienced Coach Bell, and Counties beat Waitakere 34-22 in the 1996 Lion Red Cup grand final.
The 1996 Waikato Cougars Player of the Year was Tama Hohaia. Best Forward was Tukere Barlow, Best Back was Darryl Beazley, Sportsman of the Year was Ben Ransfield and Most Improved was Darryl Fisher.
Little did we know, but time was running out for the kaupapa that became known as the Lion Red Cup.
The competition started with a hiss and a roar in 1994 and was superseded only by the Warriors’ entry into the Winfield Cup in 1995.
It was another enjoyable season of top-flight rugby league, but the competition ended after the 1996 season because it ran at a significant financial loss for the New Zealand Rugby League, despite being popular and providing a good platform for players during the tumultuous Super League era.
Although it succeeded in raising the profile of domestic rugby league, its high costs led to its discontinuation, paving the way for the Sky Challenge Cup in 1997 and later competitions such as the Bartercard Cup.
Other events outside LRC footy, but closely related to the 1996 season, included a Queen’s Birthday knighthood bestowed on Robert Mahuta, 24 April 1939 to 1 February 2001.
Sir Robert, or Bubs as we all knew him, was hugely instrumental in the Tainui Trust Board becoming a major, but silent, sponsor in 1995 and 1996.
My grandfather, Wetere Paki, 19 February 1899 to 21 April 1996, passed away peacefully in his 98th year.
Grandad was the VIP guest who handed the match ball to Waikato Country Fare Bakeries Cougars captain Tukere Barlow on Sunday, 20 March 1994, at Davies Park in Huntly to kick off the Lion Red Cup.
Wetere was one of the many volunteers who readied Davies Park back in 1937. My mum once told me a story about riding her bike from Te Ōhākī Marae, across the bridge to Davies Park, to give Grandad his lunch.
Taniwharau president and Cougars supporter Rori Nathan, 28 April 1939 to 8 June 1996, passed away at Trust Bank Park in Hamilton while watching his beloved Taniwharau play the Hamilton City Tigers in the curtain-raiser to a Cougars v North Harbour game, with a beer in his hand!
One of the old-school players from the 1970s, it was often said that if you knew Rori well, you were in trouble, because you were going to have a good time with plenty of amber fluid in close proximity.
Koroneihana weekend is a highlight of the Waikato-Tainui calendar and the weekend of May 25 and 26 was special for two reasons.
Firstly, 411 rangatahi had gathered to receive scholarships and educational grants to assist in their quest for greater knowledge.
Secondly, for the first time in its short history, a Lion Red Cup competition game was held during the celebrations.
The curtain-raisers were the Cuzzy Bros v the Cuzzy Bros and, of course, the Cuzzy Bros won. Haha.
The main game result was Cougars 22, Counties Manukau 14.
Researched by Rex Hohaia | 16 December 2025
