1997 New Zealand Warriors Home Jersey
Predominantly blue with more white worked into the traditional strip, green trim around the neck and a red collar, built on Nike's shared Super League template used across all ten clubs in different colours. Carried the Nike swoosh and DB Bitter front sponsorship on field; the unsponsored retail 'cleanskin' version is catalogued separately.
★ Worn in the Warriors' one season in the breakaway Super League competition; DB Bitter's final era before Vodafone took over in 1999.
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The 1997 season
The Warriors played in the breakaway Super League competition, the only season the club has spent outside the ARL/NRL. The first-grade side was coached by John Monie, then Frank Endacott. Wahpedia catalogues 4 distinct 1997 Warriors designs in total, 3 of them first-grade match jerseys, all listed on the 1997 season page.
Maker and sponsor
Nike made the Warriors' on-field jerseys from 1997 to 1999, so this design belongs to the Nike era of the club's kit. The front-of-jersey sponsor in 1997 was DB Bitter.
Collector's notes
As the season's primary strip it was produced in the largest numbers, so it is the easiest 1997 jersey to find and the usual starting point for a season-by-season collection. To check a 1997 home jersey, compare the neck and hem labels with the maker for that season (Nike), make sure the sponsor set matches 1997 rather than a neighbouring year, and compare stitching, collar and sponsor placement against the photo above. Replicas are usually a looser cut in a lighter fabric than player-issue jerseys, which also carry a number and, in most eras, a tighter athletic fit. Data confidence for this entry is high and the primary source is en.wikipedia.org.
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