1998 Adelaide Rams season

The 1998 Adelaide Rams season was the Adelaide Rams' second and final season as a rugby league club. They competed in the first season of the National Rugby League.

The club was again coached by Rod Reddy and captained by Kerrod Walters. However, after the Rams lost nine of their first ten games, coach Reddy and the entire coaching staff were sacked by the Rams' administration. Reddy was replaced by former Perth Reds coach Dean Lance.

Results

In June after numerous financial disagreements with the South Australian Cricket Association (SACA) who at the time owned the Adelaide Oval, the club changed home grounds to the smaller, 16,000 capacity Hindmarsh Stadium, a soccer specific venue which was better suited to a rugby league field than the Adelaide Oval was. The Rams celebrated the move with a record 52 - 0 win over the Balmain Tigers.^[1]

The club went on to win six of their last fourteen games after the arrival of Dean Lance's, enough to avoid the wooden spoon awarded to the team finishing lowest on the competition ladder. Their overall results were comparable to those of their first season, coming fourth last in the 20–team competition. Appo broke several team records in his 14 games with the Rams.

The Adelaide Rams last home game in the penultimate round of the season saw a 36-0 thrashing at the hands of the finals bound North Sydney Bears in front of 7,035 fans on 15 August 1998.^[2]

Throughout the 1998 season, the Rams attempted to build a stronger supporter base in order to avoid removal from the competition in 1999 or 2000. However, with the teams lack of on-field success, plus the success of other Adelaide-based sports teams who won national championships in 1997 and/or 1998 including the Adelaide Crows (AFL), Adelaide 36ers (NBL) and Adelaide Thunderbirds (netball), saw average home attendances dropped by more than half (51.3%) from the previous years 15,330 to just 7,472 over the course of the season.^[3][4]

Ladder

	Team	Pld	W	D	L	PF	PA	PD	Pts
1	Brisbane (P)	24	18	1	5	688	310	+378	37
2	Newcastle	24	18	1	5	562	381	+181	37
3	Melbourne	24	17	1	6	546	372	+174	35
4	Parramatta	24	17	1	6	468	349	+119	35
5	North Sydney	24	17	0	7	663	367	+296	34
6	Sydney City	24	16	0	8	680	383	+297	32
7	Canberra	24	15	0	9	564	429	+135	30
8	St. George	24	13	1	10	486	490	-4	27
9	Canterbury	24	13	0	11	489	411	+78	26
10	Manly-Warringah	24	13	0	11	503	473	+30	26
11	Cronulla-Sutherland	24	12	1	11	438	387	+51	25
12	Illawarra	24	11	1	12	476	539	-63	23
13	Balmain	24	9	1	14	381	463	-82	19
14	Penrith	24	8	2	14	525	580	-55	18
15	Auckland	24	9	0	15	417	518	-101	18
16	North Queensland	24	9	0	15	361	556	-195	18
17	Adelaide Rams	24	7	0	17	393	615	-222	14
18	South Sydney	24	5	0	19	339	560	-221	10
19	Gold Coast	24	4	0	20	289	654	-365	8
20	Western Suburbs	24	4	0	20	371	802	-431	8

Ladder progression

• Numbers highlighted in green indicate that the team finished the round inside the top 10.
• Numbers highlighted in blue indicates the team finished first on the ladder in that round.
• Numbers highlighted in red indicates the team finished in last place on the ladder in that round

	Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	21	22	23	24
1	Brisbane Broncos	2	4	6	8	10	10	12	14	14	14	16	16	16	18	20	22	24	26	28	29	31	33	35	37
2	Newcastle Knights	2	4	6	8	10	10	12	12	14	16	18	20	22	24	24	26	27	29	31	31	31	33	35	37
3	Melbourne Storm	2	4	6	8	8	10	12	14	14	16	17	19	21	23	25	25	25	27	27	29	31	33	33	35
4	Parramatta Eels	2	4	4	6	8	8	8	10	12	14	16	18	20	22	24	24	24	26	28	28	30	32	34	35
5	North Sydney Bears	0	2	4	4	6	8	8	10	12	12	14	14	16	18	18	20	22	22	24	26	28	30	32	34
6	Sydney City Roosters	2	2	2	4	6	8	10	12	14	16	16	16	18	20	20	22	24	24	26	26	26	28	30	32
7	Canberra Raiders	0	0	2	2	4	4	6	8	10	12	12	14	16	16	18	18	20	20	22	24	26	28	30	30
8	St. George Dragons	2	2	2	4	6	8	10	12	14	16	18	20	20	22	22	22	22	24	24	26	26	26	26	27
9	Canterbury Bulldogs	2	2	2	2	2	4	6	8	10	10	10	12	12	12	14	14	16	18	18	18	20	22	24	26
10	Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles	0	2	2	2	2	4	6	6	6	6	8	8	8	8	10	12	14	14	16	18	20	22	24	26
11	Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks	0	2	2	2	4	4	6	8	10	10	12	14	14	14	16	18	18	18	19	21	23	23	23	25
12	Illawarra Steelers	0	2	2	2	2	4	6	6	8	8	9	11	13	13	15	17	19	19	19	19	21	21	23	23
13	Balmain Tigers	2	2	4	6	8	10	10	10	10	10	12	12	12	14	16	16	16	18	18	19	19	19	19	19
14	Penrith Panthers	0	2	2	4	4	4	4	6	6	8	8	8	8	8	8	8	9	11	12	14	14	14	16	18
15	Auckland Warriors	0	0	2	2	4	4	4	4	4	6	8	8	10	10	12	14	14	14	16	16	18	18	18	18
16	North Queensland Cowboys	2	4	6	8	8	10	10	10	10	10	10	12	14	14	14	14	16	16	18	18	18	18	18	18
17	Adelaide Rams	0	0	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	4	4	6	6	6	8	10	12	12	14	14	14	14	14
18	South Sydney Rabbitohs	2	2	2	2	2	4	4	4	4	4	4	4	4	4	4	6	6	6	6	8	8	10	10	10
19	Gold Coast Chargers	0	0	0	0	2	2	2	2	4	4	4	4	4	6	6	6	6	8	8	8	8	8	8	8
20	Western Suburbs Magpies	0	0	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	4	4	6	6	8	8	8	8	8	8	8	8	8	8	8

Players

The demise of three clubs from the Super League and ARL (Western Reds and Hunter Mariners (SL), and South Queensland Crushers (ARL)) saw some player re-shuffling, and brought Noel Goldthorpe, Tony Iro and Matt Daylight to the Adelaide club.^[6]

References