Flashback - 1996

[beagle]

Wasn't that 2000 game in 1997 the one that was moved from Brookvale due to the state of the ground to South Curl Curl Oval or some other tiny ground?

It was still played at Brookvale Oval. The crowd was 2,506 and it finished 26 all

 

[anjado]

Irrespective of SL and how crap the teams were going, still can't believe a Parra- Penrith derby match got under 4k!

Last game of the season neither team had anything to play for, It absolutely pissed down all day and it was being shown on channel 9 i remember i was going to go but ended up not going, Same as the Souths game pissed down for days was shown on channel 9.

People stayed home to watch it,
Penrith also lost Fittler,Freeman,Alexander,Mackay,Sing,Gillmeister,Van der voort and Phil Gould in the previous two seasons. the club had joined super league many people were disillusioned in the area and the crowds struggled basically until late 1998.

 

[*Paul*]

The official yearbook of the ARL for that year by David Middleton states the crowd for that match as 2,753.

I might change it to that, as 1500 - which would've come from the RLW - does appear as an estimate.

 

[Parra]

SL had no impact in a sub standard competition in 96.

You've got to be kidding. Plenty of people 'got their weekends back' that year. The SL garbage had escalated and the entire sport had a bad taste about it.

When you consider the damage done it is amazing that the sport has come back to where it has. League is resilient.

 

[S.S.T.I.D]

I can't believe that we barely averaged 5K that year. That is unbelievable. Some of those figures defy belief.

 

[AngryAnnandale]

In a way the super league war woke up alot of fans.

Im blown away by the stats. Most teams attendance apart from bris/canberra were diabolical.

Even the early 90s and late 80s were rubbish. People go on about this time as if league was unstoppable.

Im a massive tigers fan and we had one of the best teams we will ever see during this period and we had less people attending than under shifty sheens and his one final appearance every five years!

Cronulla's average this year would have been above average.

 

[b&wdynamite]

I actually worked for the catering company that did the chargers games and ended up doing most of the season in the members bar. Whilst I don't specifically remember the game against Penrith, the crowds figures were a known source of entertainment amongst the members, to the point that a couple of members always had a bet at the bar before each match on how many thousand they would be overstated.

Anyone who went to Carrara in the 90's (and even today) knows it is impossible to give an even half accurate count given the number of holes in the fence, the fact that it is an oval stuck in the middle of a sheep station paddock and that one border is a river (although I cant believe that someone would resort to swimming the nerang river to watch the chargers play!)

Some other great memories of the chargers era:

- When they were sponsored by Toys R Us the group of animals at the time used to walk around the perimeter hi-fiving the kids. One night though the giraffe leaned over a little too far and had his head pulled off by some of the 'older' kids. Nearly resulted in a mass all-in between a pack of mascots and a bunch of 10 year olds to get the head back.

- How ridiculously skinny Captain Charger was in real life. His 'change room' was the dry store for the members bar and I remember him being this really skinny guy who turned up with 2 garbage bags of padding to put on for each game - ahhh the things you do for money!

- Perhaps the best one - not sure if it was 96 or 97 but in a match against Parra there was somebody half famous being driven around in a golf cart to wave at the crowd. At some stage they stopped to say hello or sign an autograph. At this point a guy jumped the fence, stole the cart and proceeded to begin the best Benny Hill tribute chase with the police and security guards. The match stopped as the guy and his chasers crossed the field and then he drove to the back fence, jumped over and took off in the direction of the river. On a saturday night at Carrara it is almost impossible to see anything after the lights at the back of the ground so I can only assume he got away and probably doubled back to rejoin his mates. funniest thing I ever saw there!

Note - I am not sure if this was during first or reserve grade that the benny hill incident happened - it was a long time ago.........

 

[zombie jesus]

 

[canberra_raiders2k2]

I actually worked for the catering company that did the chargers games and ended up doing most of the season in the members bar. Whilst I don't specifically remember the game against Penrith, the crowds figures were a known source of entertainment amongst the members, to the point that a couple of members always had a bet at the bar before each match on how many thousand they would be overstated.

Anyone who went to Carrara in the 90's (and even today) knows it is impossible to give an even half accurate count given the number of holes in the fence, the fact that it is an oval stuck in the middle of a sheep station paddock and that one border is a river (although I cant believe that someone would resort to swimming the nerang river to watch the chargers play!)

Some other great memories of the chargers era:

- When they were sponsored by Toys R Us the group of animals at the time used to walk around the perimeter hi-fiving the kids. One night though the giraffe leaned over a little too far and had his head pulled off by some of the 'older' kids. Nearly resulted in a mass all-in between a pack of mascots and a bunch of 10 year olds to get the head back.

- How ridiculously skinny Captain Charger was in real life. His 'change room' was the dry store for the members bar and I remember him being this really skinny guy who turned up with 2 garbage bags of padding to put on for each game - ahhh the things you do for money!

- Perhaps the best one - not sure if it was 96 or 97 but in a match against Parra there was somebody half famous being driven around in a golf cart to wave at the crowd. At some stage they stopped to say hello or sign an autograph. At this point a guy jumped the fence, stole the cart and proceeded to begin the best Benny Hill tribute chase with the police and security guards. The match stopped as the guy and his chasers crossed the field and then he drove to the back fence, jumped over and took off in the direction of the river. On a saturday night at Carrara it is almost impossible to see anything after the lights at the back of the ground so I can only assume he got away and probably doubled back to rejoin his mates. funniest thing I ever saw there!

Note - I am not sure if this was during first or reserve grade that the benny hill incident happened - it was a long time ago.........

That there is by far the funniest thing ive heard in a long time.

 

[axl rose]

Far right $500,000 a year Scott Fulton was the x factor

 

[Azkatro]

I might change it to that, as 1500 - which would've come from the RLW - does appear as an estimate.

Definitely an estimate - I just retrieved the Sunday Mail match report from 16/06/1996 by Steve Ricketts, which quotes:

It was yet another wet night for the Chargers, whose fans failed to show up to lend their support for one of the success stories of the league season. Admittedly there is little cover at Carrara, but the Chargers officials must wonder what they have to do to draw a decent crowd. No crowd figure was given lasts night, but it must have been barely 1000.

So 2,753 sounds like a bit of a stretch ...

 

[MightyBronco]

flashback to 96 ... man those purple dots are still giving me hell.

red dragons for me.....

 

[BDH]

You've got to be kidding. Plenty of people 'got their weekends back' that year. The SL garbage had escalated and the entire sport had a bad taste about it.

When you consider the damage done it is amazing that the sport has come back to where it has. League is resilient.

Does "people got their weekends back" mean fans? I'm assuming it does, and I ask how that has anything to do with the ON FIELD sub standard performances?

The reason the performances were so poor, was because we had 20 teams, which was about 5 too many.

 

[Parra]

Does "people got their weekends back" mean fans? I'm assuming it does, and I ask how that has anything to do with the ON FIELD sub standard performances?

The reason the performances were so poor, was because we had 20 teams, which was about 5 too many.

This post is about poor attendances, not poor footy.

20 teams was fine - they just had a few turncoats who screwed it for everyone. One day league will get back to where it was.

 

[BDH]

20 teams was fine?

Ok.

 

[Parra]

20 teams was fine?

Ok.

You act like a complete smartarse. But you offer nothing at all.



The NSWRL competition was so strong that the biggest media company in the world pulled out all the stops to control it. This rugby league competition was so important that to launch a pay tv network in Australia without it was a guaranteed failure.

The richest men in the country, and the most powerful media organisations fought, in their own words, a war over the competition.

Yes. It was fine.

 

[BDH]

Mate, I'm not arguing that NSWRL, as a professional sporting League, wasn't strong.

I am arguing that the standard of the NSWRL, as a whole, was strong across 20 clubs. 20 clubs was (and still is) far too many clubs to have a skilled RL competition.

A simple look at the table from 96 (and even more so in 95) proves this point. The gap between the successful clubs and the unsuccessful clubs was more like a chasm.

Therefore, I stand by my point that 20 clubs was about 5 too many.

 

[Hindyscrack]

- Perhaps the best one - not sure if it was 96 or 97 but in a match against Parra there was somebody half famous being driven around in a golf cart to wave at the crowd. At some stage they stopped to say hello or sign an autograph. At this point a guy jumped the fence, stole the cart and proceeded to begin the best Benny Hill tribute chase with the police and security guards. The match stopped as the guy and his chasers crossed the field and then he drove to the back fence, jumped over and took off in the direction of the river. On a saturday night at Carrara it is almost impossible to see anything after the lights at the back of the ground so I can only assume he got away and probably doubled back to rejoin his mates. funniest thing I ever saw there!

Note - I am not sure if this was during first or reserve grade that the benny hill incident happened - it was a long time ago.........

I was at that game... Very sure it was 97 and it was during the first grade game. If you recall I beleive it was a Chargers attendance record that game? Maybe 15k? Great night!

 

[Parra]

20 clubs was fine. In the early 90's league was growing. The clubs were ready to fill squads with rugby players if they needed to. But then Superleague came along and gave rugby the breathing space it needed to see the threat and then do something about it. Rugby turned pro during an off season and all of a sudden league had a professional competitor where it had none before.

The old '5 or 6' too many teams argument was all to do with a TV schedule, and nothing at all to do with sport.

 

[Hindyscrack]

- Perhaps the best one - not sure if it was 96 or 97 but in a match against Parra there was somebody half famous being driven around in a golf cart to wave at the crowd. At some stage they stopped to say hello or sign an autograph. At this point a guy jumped the fence, stole the cart and proceeded to begin the best Benny Hill tribute chase with the police and security guards. The match stopped as the guy and his chasers crossed the field and then he drove to the back fence, jumped over and took off in the direction of the river. On a saturday night at Carrara it is almost impossible to see anything after the lights at the back of the ground so I can only assume he got away and probably doubled back to rejoin his mates. funniest thing I ever saw there!

Note - I am not sure if this was during first or reserve grade that the benny hill incident happened - it was a long time ago.........

I was at that game... Very sure it was 97 and it was during the first grade game. If you recall I beleive it was a Chargers attendance record (a the time) Maybe 14k?

The guy that drove the cart had plenty of time behind the wheel.