Jersey Info
- Jersey Name
- 1996 Warriors Home/Away Jersey
- Year/s Jersey Active
-
- 1996
- Jersey Type
-
- First Grade Home
- First Grade Away
- Jersey Debut
- 31st March 1996 vs Illawarra Steelers Round 1
- Jersey Supplier
- Lenco
- Left Breast Sponsor
- Auckland Warriors
- Right Breast Sponsor
- ARL
- Main Jersey Sponsor
- DB Bitter
- Sleeve Sponsor
- No sponsor
- Upper Back Sponsor
- DB Bitter
- Front Collar Sponsor
- Lenco
- Rarity
- Fairly Common
1996 Warriors Home/Away Jersey
Jersey Name 1996 Warriors Home/Away Jersey
Year/s Jersey Active 1996
Jersey Type First Grade Home/First Grade Away
Jersey Debut 31st March 1996 vs Illawarra Steelers
Jersey Supplier Lenco
Left Breast Sponsor Auckland Warriors
Right Breast Sponsor ARL
Main Jersey Sponsor DB Bitter
Sleeve Sponsor No sponsor
Upper Back Sponsor DB Bitter
Front Collar Sponsor Lenco
Rarity Fairly Common
For the Warriors 2nd season Lenco would become the official supplier.
The Warriors were meant to have been playing in the Super League and have their jerseys produced by Nike but a court injunction by the ARL ruled the Super League competition illegal. Warriors then had to find a short term supplier and Lenco would come to the rescue. The Super League season was meant to commence on March 1. The court ruling was February 23 and the ARL season started on March 23 so the club had under a month to scramble to get a supplier.
The key difference between the 1995 and 1996 jerseys was the official supplier being Lenco, the new OPTUS badge over the right breast, Ansett no longer featuring on the sleeve and the DB Bitter logo had a black drop box shadow.
To date there is no evidence that an away jersey was ever produced for the 1996 season. This would be the only season in the Warriors history that only one jersey was used for both home and away games.
OFFICIAL REPLICA JERSEY
Lenco
Replica jerseys with the Optus badge made it to market late due to the court ruling discussed above. Also the fact that it was basically the same jersey as the original 1995, which sold in huge volumes, with a slightly different badge meant that the public didn't buy many. Because of this the jersey is nowhere near as common as the 1995 jersey. They are still common enough that it's not too hard to find.
The official Lenco jerseys would be the only 1996 jersey with the dropbox shadow. Every other variation I have seen uses the standard 1995 DB Bitter logo.
The Lenco jersey retailed for $120.
REPLICA VARIATIONS
Up until 1999 the ARL/NRL owned the manufacturing rights to teams jerseys and would sell licences to producers.
CCC Canterbury Clothing
Strangely despite missing out on the 1996 official supplier contract would still produce a home jersey.
The only difference to the 1995 version was the CCC logo was located just under the collar and was blue.
The CCC jersey is not all that common and can be hard to get. You see only one or two a year come up for sale.
Sport M
Made in Australia of 100% polyester. The logos were all heat pressed while the chevrons and bands on the sleeve were sublimated.
Peerless
Made in New Zealand of 100% polyester though the collar was cotton making it prone to colour fade. Everything on the jersey was sublimated.
Goodfellows
The Goodfellows variant is the only ones I am aware of that had the separate OPTUS and 'yes' badges like the player issue jerseys. They also produced a version that had the single badge.
Made in Australia of thin stretchy 100% polyester material with sublimated chevrons, bands on the sleeve and sponsors logos. Goodfollows jerseys are the only ones I am aware of that still had the Ansett sleeve sponsor.
Classic
Have no real information on this jersey as I have never owned one. The picture below is only the second one I have seen.
Players jerseys for most of the season had three separate badges for the ARL, Optus and Yes. More research needs to be done into which games these were worn.
Match day pictures also show the players wearing a jersey with the single ARL badge just like the official replica.
Numbers had a drop shadow box on it. I am yet to see a single match jersey that does not have this same font of numbers.
Jerseys with a high number such as the #22 example in the pictures would almost certainly be used by the Reserve Grade with numbers for that team going into the high 30's (possible higher?). Reserve Grade numbers started at #18 for the fullback.
The Reserve Grade made the Grand Final in 1996. Jerseys that were worn in that Grand Final had the following embroidery on the left breast under the Warriors logo:
*1996 QUANTAS FINAL SERIES
RESERVE GRADE GRAND FINAL
Only example I have ever seen resides in the Mad Butcher collection in the East Stand of Mt Smart.
All players jerseys from this year are extremely rare with the numbers very susceptible to peeling and flaking. I only know about a handful of jerseys in private collections.
TO READ OR MAKE A COMMENT ON THE DISCUSSION THREAD FOR THE 1993-1996 JERSEYS PLEASE CLICK ON THE LINK BELOW.
General - 1993-1996 Warriors Jerseys
Did the Warriors ever wear the NSWRL patch on their Jersey? According to Wikipedia the Warriors were never part of that league. I have seen images of both the NSWRL patch and the ARL patch on the 1995 jersey. Which one is correct? I've only seen photographs from games with the ARL...
