A Monday night with nothing better to do. A friend with tickets he won from a sponsor. What the hell, why not?
And so it was off to ANZ Stadium to take in some rugby league action, with South Sydney taking on Cronulla.
The massive Olympic stadium had the retractable seats in, straight lines along the sidelines close to the action. But the ends remain elliptical, some distance from the in-goals.
The top levels were closed off, with giant banners spelling “Rabbitohs”; each letter covering a bay of seating.
The crowd was sprinkled around the lower bowl.
Both sides had won their opening round games. Souths had enjoyed a strong win against the Roosters in the season opener.
Meanwhile, the Sharks, a club under siege as investigations into supplement usage in 2011 continue, had won plenty of respect in their gritty opening round win against Gold Coast.
With a 7pm kick-off on a weeknight, the crowd was filing into the stadium at the last minute as the ground announcer raced through his reading of Cronulla’s team list and hyped up his naming of the Souths team.
Hooker Isaac Luke in particular was a favourite of both the announcer and the crowd.
Unlike most other NRL clubs, the Rabbitohs don’t have cheer girls, and the focus was on the players as they entered the arena.
The Rabbitohs were the hottest of favourites, and it didn’t’ take long to see why.
Just a few minutes passed before they threw the ball wide for Andrew Everingham to dive over in the corner. A sensational conversion by Adam Reynolds from the sideline gave the Rabbitohs a 6-0 lead.
The Rabbitohs continued to attack and a second try looked inevitable. The Sharks weren’t doing themselves any favours, giving away a string of penalties and kicking out on the full after a fifth tackle.
The try had to come, and it did; with Dylan Farrell chasing down a kick to score under the posts. A 12-0 lead in even time, it could have been a blowout.
But against the run of play, the Sharks fought back, with Michael Gordon finding room to move against some lax defence to score; then converting his own try to cut the Souths lead in half.
There was a small pocket of Cronulla fans in the south-eastern corner, who came to life when Gordon scored; a pocket of fans that looked to have swelled compared to the sparse numbers at kick-off.
Maybe 7pm was too early for Sharks fans to make it out of the Shire.
But the rest of the crowd was strongly pro-Souths; and were far from impressed with the referee’s measurement of ten metres.
“Get ‘em onside” was the persistent roar when the Rabbitohs were in possession.
But the roar of the crowd and the possession flow were decreasing as the game went on. Gordon’s try galvanised the Sharks.
The Sharks pressed the Rabbitohs’ line for much of the remainder of the first half, but were unable to conjure up another score.
And the pressure was eased on the stroke of half time, as the Rabbitohs were awarded a penalty. Reynolds elected to take the two points on offer and kicked truly, to give the Rabbitohs a 14-6 lead at half time.
The crowd of 14,128 was quite respectable, especially for a Monday night, but was less than 20% of the capacity of the cavernous ANZ Stadium.
Despite the ample room to move, the atmosphere wasn’t bad.
Much of the credit for that goes to The Burrow, the Souths cheer squad, standing at the north-eastern corner.
The oval-ball codes don’t generally have the singing culture that soccer has. But The Burrow comes closest.
Led by an enthusiastic capo, who was frequently getting up and swivelling round to spur the crowd into voice; the echoing acoustics of the stadium saw the crowd noise reverberate. The repertoire of The Burrow bore a striking similarity to that of Perth Glory’s Shed.
And when The Burrow was quiet, the ground announcer was on hand to rev the crowd up, with a call of “Let’s go Rabbitohs”.
For nearly half an hour in the second half, the scorers weren’t troubled; as the ball travelled from end to end but with neither side looking like scoring.
Cronulla had a good chance after Todd Carney kicked a 40-20, but nothing came of it.
But just when the game looked to be drifting, the individual play of the day brought it back to life.
Cult hero Beau Ryan, in his first season with the Sharks after controversially crossing from the Wests Tigers during the off-season, forced a turnover before running the length of the field to score.
With Gordon’s conversion, the score was back to 14-12.
The Sharks had a chance to snatch the game, and kept attacking; but could get no closer. And a strong set by the Rabbitohs finished with them forcing a drop-out.
The Sharks must have been tempted to go short, but didn’t. And in the ensuing set, Reynolds crossed the line and planted the ball.
For a fleeting moment, the Rabbitohs fans celebrated, but there was a clear obstruction, and the try was disallowed.
But time was running out, and the Sharks had a minute to get the ball down the other end to score the winner. They couldn’t and the Rabbitohs had hung on.
For Souths, the emotion was more one of relief than jubilation. For the embattled Sharks, there was no disgrace in this narrow and gallant defeat. And for the Monday night crowd, it had been an entertaining contest.
And the music of Souths’ team song played “Glory glory to South Sydney”.
A traditional song with adapted verses that make the song hard to date the time of its origin.
I’m sure that Newtown were gone before Gold Coast Seagulls were admitted. And when was Mount Pritchard ever in the top division?
For Souths, their undefeated opening two rounds sees them well placed on the ladder. A top-four finish last season was their best for well over two decades.
Can they go further this year? Time will tell.
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