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There are some things in rugby league that I just don’t get. One of them is the attraction of playing games at the SCG. That the place has a history is used to silence dissent and to question it is akin to spitting in a Digger’s beer on ANZAC day.
Well, Henson Park has history, and I don’t see NRL teams forming an orderly queue to play out there. Sure we used to play heaps of games at the SCG, but that was almost exclusively before we had decent grounds to use instead.
I’ve spent plenty of time watching rugby league from the cheapest seats available and those at the SCG are some of the worst around to watch rugby league.
That more people would attend a match at the SCG instead of rolling up to the SFS is for me for one of the great mysteries of our time.
I can appreciate that the Roosters battle to get decent crowds but find it simply staggering that they will improve things by moving their game against the St George Dragons to a worse venue to watch the match.
You are miles from the action and ground level seats are far too low. Okay, the members stand has a certain charm, but if you are in it, you stare at the Brewongle Stand, which is hardly an architect’s dream.
The history argument is also pretty overdone.
Yes, yes, the two teams have played each other, but that is what tends to happen when both have been playing in the same competition since 1921 (which, of course, omits the fact that one club is now a new entity and has only been in existence since 1999).
If we want to get fair dinkum about these historic fixtures, let’s make the players play with leather balls and wear cotton jerseys, knee length shorts and ankle high boots.
Games such as the one on Sunday shouldn’t need such naff promotions.
Sure enough, we’ll have shots of fans as Phil Gould waxes lyrical about Sunday afternoon footy and the SCG, but the game should have enough attraction without relying on Gould’s ramblings.
Two of the best teams in the competition going at it with the chance of a minor premiership dangled in front of them. Surely an easy sell.
All the subplots are there: the Dragons suffering annual late season jitters, while the Roosters play this season’s role of the bad boys come good.
Wayne Bennett carries the clipboard into his 600th game, a tremendous achievement for the man who is probably the greatest ever rugby league coach.
Still despite his milestone, Bennett has challenges: how to return the Dragons to form, and in particular, how to “fire up” Mark Gasnier and blend him into a team which seems to have clocked off since he clocked back on.
It will be a great game and I’m looking forward to it. I just wish it was at a better ground.
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