Amateurs

[Suitman]

I seriously, for the life of me, cannot understand why the NRL ever put themselves in a position where they will gladly turn away thousands and thousands of fans for semi final football.

Don't get me wrong here. As the current legislation states, for example, St George/Illawarra are fully and completely entitled to a home semi this weekend. They are also entitled to make the choice whether to move it or not. I don't blame them for not wanting to.

I just cannot believe that the NRL ever decided that clubs would have that say. Why should clubs have that say when all revenue goes to the NRL? Shouldn't the NRL have the discretionary say in their own income?

It has been said by St George this week that they owe it to their sponsors and fans. Well, the sponsors and fans never signed up to anything expecting an extra match this year. Not part of any promise if they can correctly recall.

My view has nothing to do with money and income derived from any venue changes.
It is more the fact that I cannot believe any sporting organisation would ever take the choice of turning away 30 000 fans (or more) if they had a choice.
The NRL have a choice. They chose to turn fans away.

They are amateurs.

Suity

 

[Ron Jeremy]

 

[Angry_eel]

No offense Suit but this is the first i've seen you complain of this. I believe that alot of people and not just you are saying this because now the shoe is on the other foot.

How come we didn't say this in 2005? When Manly played us at home. We could have taken that to ANZ and plenty more Manly fans would have come.

tbh, I like the first week home semi. Possibly because my first game at Parra was the 2005 final against Manly. I can never forget that atmosphere. To be honest, i've never seen that atmosphere again at Parra. I say good on St George.

PS yes the media involvement too.

 

[Suitman]

No offense Suit but this is the first i've seen you complain of this. I believe that alot of people and not just you are saying this because now the shoe is on the other foot.

How come we didn't say this in 2005? When Manly played us at home. We could have taken that to ANZ and plenty more Manly fans would have come.

tbh, I like the first week home semi. Possibly because my first game at Parra was the 2005 final against Manly. I can never forget that atmosphere. To be honest, i've never seen that atmosphere again at Parra. I say good on St George.

PS yes the media involvement too.

No offense taken.

If Parra had come first this year and Saint's 8th, and they were on a roll.......I'd be saying the same thing.
The game is different now. Even different to what it was in 2005.
The game has to be a servant to the people, not the other way around.
Ask Gallop if he's happy that over 30 000 fans will be turned away from next weeks game? I know what his answer will be.
I'll bet the situation changes next year.

It is just ludicrous.

Ask Andrew Demetriou if he would allow a Carlton vs Collingwood semi final be allowed to be played in a stadium that holds little more than 17 000.
He'd f**king laugh at the suggestion.

Suity

 

[Angry_eel]

No offense taken.

If Parra had come first this year and Saint's 8th, and they were on a roll.......I'd be saying the same thing.
The game is different now. Even different to what it was in 2005.
The game has to be a servant to the people, not the other way around.
Ask Gallop if he's happy that over 30 000 fans will be turned away from next weeks game? I know what his answer will be.
I'll bet the situation changes next year.

It is just ludicrous.

Ask Andrew Demetriou if he would allow a Carlton vs Collingwood semi final be allowed to be played in a stadium that holds little more than 17 000.
He'd f**king laugh at the suggestion.

Suity

There is a problem with that comparison Suity. AFL knows it will get 80,000 at MCG. We don't. We can't even sell out our Grand Final for ffs. AFL sells it in advance no matter if both teams are more than 2000kms away from Melbourne.

It sounds good now because we're having a good period but Imagine if it wasn't us in the final. Imagine if it was Canberra. Would they even quarter fill ANZ or SFS. I don't think so. Infact, Imagine if it was Manly, Panthers or Sharks.

Clubs get first week prereference thats the way its been for since this format started.

 

[sportive cupid]

Wait a minute Angry.Am I hearing you right?
Are you saying that AFL has the capacity to muster 4 times the crowds that NRL does? I thought that it was the common wisdom here that NRL was the real deal and if you brought them the product then people would come.

One of the things that we have all been trying to convince ourselves of is that NRL is a nationally competitive product. Insisting that small local parks are the most appropriate ground to play a major (in the sense of most attractive match up)semi final implies a belief that either :
a) fan bases are still very much linked to a geographical area. or
b)that there aren't really all that many people interested in NRL anyway.
or maybe a bit of both.

If you believe (a) then we are in trouble.
if you believe (b)....well then...

more to the point.If the NRL believed any of this ,well....

 

[strider]

why is this a comparison of NRL vs AFL .... who gives a f**k what AFL do ... AFL teams don't even have proper home grounds - no need for any comparisons

I agree with Suit .... I think they need to adapt the regional final thing for round 1, just like round 2 of the finals - the higher ranked team gets it in their region .... big games should be at big stadiums - ANZ (and 2nd option SFS) in sydney

and this opinion is nothing to do with parra being 8th this year ... even if we had been 1st I believe we should play it at ANZ ..... its NOT JUST ABOUT PARRA FANS - its about more St George fans too

 

[fish eel]

I dont necessarily agree allowing Saints to play at Kogarah means the NRL are amatuers, but what is amatuerish is the whole will they wont should they move the game circus that the NRL will probably go through. Makes 'em look like they dont know what to do.

 

[Gronk]

I don't blame StG. If we are contenders, the real deal, we need to beat all commers. Bring it on.

If the location of prelim finals needs to be looked at, you don't start doing it now.

 

[strider]

I dont necessarily agree allowing Saints to play at Kogarah means the NRL are amatuers, but what is amatuerish is the whole will they wont should they move the game circus that the NRL will probably go through. Makes 'em look like they dont know what to do.

they don't :lol:

 

[Hollywood Jesus]

If Manly had have ended up playing Melbourne at Brookvale, should they move that?

No? Why not, because it's against a non-Sydney team that won't draw?

So the team that gets 1st loses their home ground advantage while the team that comes 4th gets to keep it simply because the team that came 1st drew against another Sydney team? Something they had no choice in?

That's not fair.

 

[sportive cupid]

I don't blame StG. If we are contenders, the real deal, we need to beat all commers. Bring it on.

If the location of prelim finals needs to be looked at, you don't start doing it now.

I agree.It shouldn't be left up to one of the clubs to decide.It is just another example of the knee jerk reaction of this mob.

 

[strider]

If Manly had have ended up playing Melbourne at Brookvale, should they move that?

No? Why not, because it's against a non-Sydney team that won't draw?

So the team that gets 1st loses their home ground advantage while the team that comes 4th gets to keep it simply because the team that came 1st drew against another Sydney team? Something they had no choice in?

That's not fair.

i think people need to get the whole "home ground advantage" thing out of their heads .... I believe in the "regional" approach, but it should stop there - the finals games in sydney should be played at ANZ or SFS

 

[Belly in Brisvegas]

My 2 cents....

Finals - Lang Park or SFS
GF - ANZ or Lang Park

 

[_goParra]

My 2 cents....

Finals - Lang Park or SFS
GF - ANZ only ever

Fixed ;-)

 

[planeteels]

Teams who make the finals shouldn't have to rely on Home Ground advantage to get them over the line!!! Nor should they be rewarded as such.

Finals are a totally new competition and should be played at the Flagship Venues that are capable of allowing the NRL the biggest opportunity to exploit the large crowds that such games draw.

I agree totally with Suity.

 

[Fee]

As much as I love Parra stadium, I hope they change the ruling next year for finals, so the finals are played at either ANZ or SFS. The atmosphere with a big crowd is always great. So I agree with Suity.

 

[Parra Guru]

Saints have an un-flattering record at the bigger grounds. They should be entitled to their home ground advantage IMO. They finished 1st.

It's up to the NRL to change it, they can't just keep hoping for the clubs who play at the major venues to get top 4 spots.

 

[TheRam]

Suity is right. The NRL are amateurs. Bring on the Independent Commission. Games should be played wherever they will attract the largest crowd. Tough if there is no home crowd advantage. The game is bigger then any one team said home crowd advantage. :roll:

 

[TheParraboy]

This home semi should be played at Win Stadium Wollongong FFS , or Dalton Park at worst