Blue Tongue crowd a sign that NRL should expand

 
Steve Kaless Roar Guru

By , 27 Jul 2010 Steve Kaless is a Roar Guru

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Sunday offered three debates, but only one was answered resoundingly. There was, of course, the debate between two party leaders, which lacked any clear winner, and there was the debate over whether Robbie Farah dived against the Sea-Eagles. But the one debate that was ended in the most conclusive fashion was: is the Central Coast was ready for an NRL team?

Hell yeah.

In debates, it’s often useful to provide a few figures to give your argument that little bit of academic rigour to separate it from the rest of the noise, which is based on the “people I speak to” school of thought.

I’ll offer one: 20,059.

Not since Round 1 of the 2000 NRL season have so many people squeezed themselves into Blue Tongue Stadium, not for the Rugby World Cups, not for the A-League, and not for the countless other NRL matches which have looked to pick up a quick cheque from the people of the Coast and a quick beer at Club Troppo.

Just why so many fans chose to flock to this game when so many others have failed to capture the public imagination is a little bit of a mystery. But one worth investigating, especially seeing the club which took the game to Gosford could be justifiably seen as public enemy number one as they’ve spent a not inconsiderate amount of time bemoaning the part of their history which forced them to play there.

Most importantly, it was a quality fixture on a Sunday afternoon.

Many matches at Gosford seem to be the 5.30 Saturday fixture, as a club looks to cut their losses against opponents with smaller travelling fan numbers (Sharks, Storm, Warriors) or cash in on the Knights travelling fans.

So that is probably the first starting point for any future games. Make it a good one.

Fans who had travelled up from Sydney and were turned away at the gate must have thought they’d entered a parallel universe. I normally find fans have a big enough beef if they have to queue, let alone if they can’t get in.

There are obviously other compelling reasons to expand the game to the likes of Perth and Central Queensland. But as long as they can show the correct level of financial support, then you are a hard marker if you claim the Central Coast Bears have any other criteria that they need to fulfill.

But not only did the fans turn up, they were entertained with a game from the code’s top shelf.

Did Robbie Farah dive? I don’t know.

Far be it from me to judge whether a bloke is soft or not, as I take in the match from a very safe distance. Also, when we have just gone through the whole Paul Briggs farce, it’s hard not to be sceptical when the team doctors are wheeled out to talk about how crook a bloke was at halftime and teammates talk about how tough a bloke is.

At least the bookies weren’t offering a market on whether Steve Matai would knock anyone out.

The fact that I viewed the match from my lounge room also left me unable to answer the other key question in the wash up: Just how hard would it have been to get into Club Troppo and a buy a few schooners?

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