The Central Spears started in Canberra in 2012 but the name and the legacy of the team goes back much further and can be traced back to the city of Hamilton, New Zealand some 2,000-odd kilometres away.
In the summer of 1998, the Hamilton based Waikato Spears made an entrance into the New Zealand American Football Association (NZAFA) Competition. They competed for five years in the NZAFA Competition winning four championships (one year they were runners-up), followed by two years in the Gridiron New Zealand Competition.