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Leichhardt council to allow AFL to be played at Birchgrove Oval

Messages
21,867
AFL raid on the cradle of league
June 21, 2012

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Steeped in league history ... Birchgrove Oval. Photo: Dallas Kilponen

AFL has invaded western Sydney and pinched two of the NRL's best players. Now, the unthinkable; Aussie rules is set to be played on sacred rugby league soil, Birchgrove Oval.
If it wasn't bad enough that Australian football posts are being erected more and more across western Sydney, the ARL Commission will now only be able to watch as the rival code is played at the birthplace of rugby league in Australia.
The proposal by Leichhardt Council to allow Australian football to be played at the historic oval was attacked by Wests Tigers chairman David Trodden, who said: ''Nothing that Leichhardt Council does would surprise me any more.''
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Historic … a plaque marking the 1908 match. Photo: Dallas Kilponen

While rugby league will remain at Birchgrove Oval, coexisting with the rival code during winter, league officials fear one day, with the money local AFL officials could offer for maintenance of the ground, they might eventually be forced out for good.
''It's the first ground used for rugby league,'' said Tony Bignold, head coach of the Balmain PCYC league club, which trains and plays on the oval. ''I'm sure there are plenty of other ovals they could use. I don't know why they've got to come here.''
Birchgrove Oval was the first ground to host a premiership rugby league match in Australia, in 1908. In 2008, the NRL launched its centenary season from the venue.
While top-level league has not been played at the ground for decades, many will find the sight of Australian football posts at the birthplace of rugby league offensive, especially at a time when the AFL is muscling in on rugby league elsewhere. NRL clubs in western Sydney are locked in a battle with the AFL's latest franchise, GWS Giants.
The Herald has obtained a copy of a report into sporting grounds in the Leichhardt district, which recommends that council ''relocate Balmain & District FC current (soccer) activities from Birchgrove Oval at the conclusion of the 2012 winter sporting season and permit NSW/ACT AFL and the Balmain Dockers to promote a new sporting activity (within the local government area) at Birchgrove Oval which will facilitate junior AFL competition within the LGA''.
Leichhardt Council, which will discuss the proposal on Tuesday, acknowledged the ground's affinity with rugby league but also maintained Australian football had links
to the oval. ''Leichhardt Council recognises the important historical and cultural ties that rugby league has to Birchgrove Oval and the significance of Birchgrove Park as the birthplace of rugby league in Australia,'' a council spokesman said.
''AFL also has historical links to Birchgrove Park, and played there from 1903 to 1926.''
Trodden described that claim as ''absolutely comical''.
''They must be reading different history books,'' Trodden said. ''Birchgrove Oval, more than any other oval in Sydney, is inextricably linked to rugby league.
''It's nothing to do with AFL. Nobody that's still living can remember AFL being played there. To use that as a basis of a decision is absolutely comical.''
The council spokesman, though, maintained that league would remain at the ground, where Balmain District Junior Rugby League plays it matches on Sundays.
''There are no plans to relocate rugby league from or decrease their presence at Birchgrove Oval,'' the spokesman said.
Former Balmain great Ben Elias said he found the plan ''offensive''.
''I've been playing there since I was seven years of age [with Holy Cross] and I've never seen an AFL game in my life [at the ground],'' he said.
Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/rugby-league/...e-of-league-20120620-20olf.html#ixzz1yLNolQ7B

This is bloody outrageous.

The site is historicaly important to our game , there are hundreds of other ovals those bottom feeders could use.

Another nail in the idea that the afl just wants to co-exist. Its a f*cking war , time to stand up and treat it like one.

If you live in the Leichhardt council region you should make your feelings known.
 
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WireMan

Bench
Messages
4,479
Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/rugby-league/...e-of-league-20120620-20olf.html#ixzz1yLNolQ7B

This is bloody outrageous.

The site is historicaly important to our game , there are hundreds of other ovals those bottom feeders could use.

Another nail in the idea that the afl just wants to co-exist. Its a f*cking war , time to stand up and treat it like one.

If you live in the Leichhardt council region you should make your feelings known.

Its so important the plaque cannot even be maintained properly...

Another cry at the nasty AFL.

So what? Does it stop being an historic rugby league ground?
 

juro

Bench
Messages
3,790
I remember last year people being up in arms about a local park being designated as only to be used for AFL. I don't see why Birchgrove Oval should be any different. These grounds should be available to any sport!
 
Messages
21,867
In general I'm happy for any ground to be used for any sport.

However there are thousands of grounds in Sydney , which is why it should be very easy to leave this particular ground alone.
 

Ziggy the God

First Grade
Messages
5,240
It doesn't surprise me, as it is my Council, and they have to be the most inept bunch in NSW.

I will contact them to have a say, but to be perfectly frank, they wouldn't give a toss unless I turned up with a few Rooster sandwich bags.
 
Messages
545
Leichhardt Council is the most inept council in Sydney. I have lived most of my 40 years in Balmain and have never seen or heard of AFL on Birchgrove Oval.

Firstly the Council waste hundreds of thousand dollars opposing the Balmain Leagues Club Development because of a minority residential action group (less than a thousand memebers, I believe). That is a waste of local tax payers money. The development will go ahead, it will probably be reduced slightly in height (I think it will be 20 and 24 storeys) but will still be a lot larger than the 11 storey project that the former mayor rejected as part of a planning pannel, a person that says he supported the return of Balmain Leagues to its rightful home.

Can we petition the NSW State Government to put a administrator in charge of Leichhardt Council and get rid of the inept council we curently have.
 

cleary89

Coach
Messages
16,456
Balmain play at a pretty decent ground already. Some artistic designed club house, fits in well with all the mansions down on the water.
 
Messages
42,632
Based on the support for GWS, they may be about to move there...

Just up the road from where all the players live.

I could be onto something here...

Nothing story.

There's been Rugby League posts on the MCG.
 

Lockyer4President!

First Grade
Messages
7,975
I assume the Vic councils will gladly put up football posts in historic afl ovals as a sign that they aren't so insular down there.

I'm sure they'd be willing to make some of them rugby league only as well...
 
Messages
857
Its so important the plaque cannot even be maintained properly...

Another cry at the nasty AFL.

So what? Does it stop being an historic rugby league ground?

Indeed...... Same people who had a cry over the footy shows light hearted AFL skit.

I can just imagine them going red with rage everytime they see a banner promoting AFL :lol:
 
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Pistol_Pete

Juniors
Messages
930
What an absolute farce that some singlet wearing Victorian spastics who play some mongrelised hybrid of a medieval game of all in for village idiots played by the Irish, Victorians and some chromosome deficient Tasmanians can muscle in on a great oval.

I am fuming about this as I play for the soccer club mentioned in the article. We don't have hurling in the lga either, let's give them Callan and king George for that.

Only these basket weaving mongoloid spastics on council would move the districts largest sporting team out so some exiled victorian geniuss can play villageball.
 

Dresden Dan

Juniors
Messages
2,366
The Herald has obtained a copy of a report into sporting grounds in the Leichhardt district, which recommends that council ''relocate Balmain & District FC current (soccer) activities from Birchgrove Oval at the conclusion of the 2012 winter sporting season and permit NSW/ACT AFL and the Balmain Dockers to promote a new sporting activity (within the local government area) at Birchgrove Oval which will facilitate junior AFL competition within the LGA''.
Sounds like the soccer club & teams are getting bounced out to make way for AFL posts to get put up without any AFL club or players. Why would the Council suddenly decide that their role was to introduce a new sport and to relocate another club & sport to help it?

Gives them nice photo ops with AFL posts in front of the Harbor Bridge though. Isn't that what Roy Masters was on about how there are AFL posts going up all over the place but no teams. The posts are just a form of free advertising & doing a Neil Armstrong flag plant for AFL.
 
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Dresden Dan

Juniors
Messages
2,366
I think the story should have local debate in that Council area but is it really a big deal for the entire league code? The Swans put up posts on the SCG & then league moved anyway. League gave up the SCG to AFL so why care about a suburban park?
 

Loudstrat

Coach
Messages
15,224
I'm pissed off for the soccer club - I reckon the AFL is against them as much as they are League, because soccer is the big junior sport in the west.

That said, if this is a war, in reality AFL is attacking us with the same power ratio as someone trying to invade Nazi Germany with a cocker spaniel and two angry finches!

Face it, the AFL has finally woken up to the formula. Start off with a game at Birchgrove, then wait a century until it catches on.

The best reaction? Turn up in big numbers wearing Tigers jerseys, and laugh loudly.
 
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