A record nine teams competed in the First Grade competition in 1924 with the addition of the
Māngere United and
Ellerslie senior teams. Mangere had their colours registered as green and black. It was initially decided that after the first round the bottom three teams would drop out of the competition for the second round. At the end of the first round these teams were
Māngere United, and
Ellerslie. However, this was later rescinded and all teams remained in the competition until the end of the season.
Monteith Shield standings Monteith Shield fixtures Round 1 is holding the ball.
Round 2 Jim O'Brien debuted for Marist. He had previously played for the
New Zealand national rugby team in 3 matches in 1922. Baden Foss went off with an injury to his nose and a cut eye and was replaced by Jim Stormont, with his brother
Bill Stormont moving into Foss's position in the backline.
Jim Rukutai made his first appearance in a jersey for two years when he played for Mangere, who he was coaching. He had only played a handful of times since 1919 and was aged about 45. Despite his age he played well, scoring two of their three tries.
Round 3 In the match at Devonport Domain between Devonport and City,
Ben Davidson the City centre three quarter, was knocked unconscious and had to be taken to hospital. It was reported days later that his condition was not reported as serious. City had a bye the following weekend and he returned to play in Round 5.
Neville St George and
Alf Townsend were ordered off in the same match. They were the two hookers and there had been issues with the scrum with referee Les Bull having enough and giving them their marching orders.
Stan Webb and
Bert Laing both made their first appearances of the year for Devonport.
Charles Gregory debuted for Marist at fullback and played a good game, converting both of their tries. He had played 12 games for Auckland rugby union team in 1922 and 1923 before switching codes, though he had played some rugby league before that. Gregory would go on to play over 80 games for Marist becoming one of their all time leading scorers and represented
New Zealand on 40 occasions.
Round 4 Two matches were postponed in Round 4 as the league decided that they wanted the #1 field in the best possible condition for the exhibition match between
City Rovers and Marist Old Boys of
Christchurch. The weather had been particularly poor in the lead up with the previous weekend seeing all football in
Auckland cancelled. These postponed matches were unique in that they were eventually played 10 days later on a Tuesday morning at 9.30am. This would surely be one of the only times a senior match had been played on a working weekday morning in the competitions history.{{cite news
Round 5 George Gardiner debuted for Marist. He had played rugby union for the Māori Pioneer Battalion side in 1918-19 and for the Bay of Plenty rugby team. In rugby league he went on to represent Auckland 4 times and New Zealand 21 times on their 1926 tour of England. In the early 1930s he moved to Australia to emabark on a professional wrestling career. After the outbreak of World War 2 he enlisted but was killed fighting in
Libya.
Round 4 postponed matches The postponed games were played on the Tuesday morning of King's Birthday and given the 9:30am start time and other attractions drew a decent crowd of 2,000.
Round 6 The match played at Ellerslie Reserve between Richmond and Ellerslie was the first senior match played there since 1912.
Round 7 Referee Bill Murray was refereeing his 50th first grade match in the clash between Devonport and Mangere at the Devonport Domain. He became only the second referee to achieve this feat after Archie Ferguson 2 years earlier. There was controversy in the match between
City Rovers and
Richmond as the City team fielded
Lou Brown who had not been granted clearance by either
Auckland Rugby League or
New Zealand Rugby League.
Brown had previously played for
Newton and had been released to play for
Wigan in
England. After returning he wanted to turn out for the
City club but
Newton claimed that he had been released on the grounds that he would return to play for them alone. Brown was later suspended for 3 matches before rejoining the
Newton team for their match against
Marist.{{cite news
Round 8 The match between Māngere and Ellerslie was the first ever rugby league match played at present day Ferguson Park in
Onehunga.
Round 9 City defaulted their match against Mangere United in protest at the decision to not allow Lou Brown to register for the club after returning from
England.
Round 10 In the Athletic match with Richmond, Graham was ordered off for Athletic as was McMillan for Richmond. Richmond had lost William Whittington to a fractured right leg early in the second half and with the score 25–0 with 6 minutes to go they asked for the game to end and their opponents and the referee obliged. Aside from the score there was no individual scoring reported from the Ellerslie v Mangere game from the Ellerslie Reserve.
Round 11 The round 11 was perhaps the only year in all of Auckland Rugby League from 1909 to 1945 where every single senior team lineup was published in the match day reports. Twin brothers
Lou Ernest Brown and Roy (Ernest) Brown played together in the City senior side for the first time. Lou typically played on the wing with Ernest at fullback over the following 2 seasons.
Round 12 Round 13 Round 14 Craddock Dufty converted 6 of Athletic's 8 tries on his way to the leading scorer title for the year.
Round 15 The win by City over Devonport was a competition milestone as it was City's 100th win in First Grade. They were the first club to achieve this milestone and did so in their 15th season and 149th game.
Round 16 Near full-time in the match between Marist and Devonport, Kiwi international
Bill Stormont was ordered off. In the Newton match with Ponsonby a very unusual incident took place. L Williams for the Newton team was dribbling the ball down field and when he kicked ahead to chase, the ball went over the cross bar. He ran through to 'score the try' but the referee awarded a drop goal rather than a try. M Paul for Mangere scored on the stroke of full time in the corner to hand them the win 20-19 over Athletic. Richmond defaulted their first ever 1st grade match after a number of the players were reportedly injured or suffering from influenza.
Round 17 It is unlikely that the Māngere v Ponsonby match took place as the Auckland representative team was playing a match against the South Auckland team in Hamilton at the same time. Many of the selected players chose to stay and play for their Auckland club teams in important matches. The team that did end up playing in the representative match featured seven players from the Ponsonby and Māngere teams and there were no reports of a match between the two sides in any newspaper. A table published at the end of the season also only credited Māngere with 14 matches, not 15 which is what they would have played had the match taken place.
Final Jack Kirwan debuted for Marist in the final. It was slightly controversial that a team in a significant match had signed and registered players midweek to play though not unprecedented. Many teams would debut prospective players later in the season and in particular they would trial (disgruntled) rugby players. Kirwan would go on to represent New Zealand and later serve on the Marist committee for many years. He scored a try in their narrow in, with Charles Gregory kicking 4 goals. For the losers
Bert Laing scored a try and kicked 2 goals. Jack Kirwan's grandson
John Kirwan played for the All Blacks in the 1980s and 90s. == Roope Rooster knockout competition ==