There is a pulse! Time to return league to its heartland

On Saturday night, the Canberra Raiders hosted the Newcastle Knights at their traditional homeland, Seiffert Oval in Queanbeyan.

The game was far from memorable, nor will it have much of a say on the battle for the premiership, but it was pure joy watching the prototype modern players battling in a stadium that time forgot.

Seiffert is the archetypal venue of yesteryear.

Set around one of Queanbeyan’s industrial hubs, the stadium shines brightly as a bastion of yesteryear’s grounds.

There is the ‘main’ grandstand, the hill facing the westerly sunset, and a range of obvious imperfections that would have many in this mollycoddled age laughing at the lack of comforts.

But to sit or stand on a hill and watch elite footy players is something else.

To see the Knights stay out at halftime for the coach’s address showcases one of the beauties of watching country footy, irrespective of the code.

Yes, the ground still needs a bit more work, but it has come a long way from five years ago.

The advocacy of Queanbyean mayor Tim Overall should be applauded.

The venue’s seating, scoreboards and other facades have been the beneficiaries of Federal, State and local government funding over the last couple of years. Local tenants the Queanbeyan Blues have also chipped in to fund seating improvements.

When I turn on the league now on TV, it saddens me to see matches played at Homebush, where there are at most 20,000 people in an 80,000-seat cavern.

I’m not the league fan I used to be, but having followed Parramatta as a young tacker to the likes of Kogarah, Leichhardt, Belmore and Brookvale Ovals, I still maintain these cauldrons are league is at its best.

In 1989, the Raiders hosted the Broncos in their final year at Seiffert Oval before transitioning to Bruce Stadium, and over 18,000 attended the match.

It was an emotional year for the club, as the Raiders brought home their maiden premiership in arguably the greatest grand final ever, against the Balmain Tigers. It was certainly rugby league at its peak.

Many foundation fans of the Raiders never forgave John McIntyre for the move, and have not attended a match out at Canberra Stadium since.

While Canberra is the Raiders’ current heartbeat, Queanbeyan is its soul. It would be fantastic to see the Raiders host one or two annual games for premiership points in the years ahead at their spiritual home.

I am not suggesting we up and move everyone back to suburbia, but clubs should be given the opportunity to stay connected to their roots a couple of times a year.

Back to the weekend’s action.

The match wasn’t much chop, with the Knights running riot in a 44-0 drubbing over an injury-depleted Raiders side. From the outset the Knights’ line-speed and work from dummy half destroyed the Raiders defence around the rucks.

But it didn’t matter – around 7000 fans voted firmly for the concept to continue.