About the Author

John Coffey is a long-time sports journalist and self confessed 'rugby league buff'. He worked for the Christchurch Press for 44 years after joining as a cadet reporter in 1963. He covered the first of more than 100 rugby league test matches at 17 and was the only New Zealand journalist on tour with the 1971 Grand Slam Kiwis in Britain and France. John has covered America's Cup yachting, international boxing and various sports at Commonwealth and New Zealand Games. Bernie Wood MNZM was on the Board of the Wellington Rugby League for twenty-four years, severing that link in 1992 to become Deputy Chair of the NZRL where he remained a director for ten years. For twenty years, he was rugby league correspondent for the Dominion and the Sunday Star-Times. From 1977 to 2002 he edited and published 25 NZRL Annuals. In 2008, Bernie received Life Membership of the NZRL.