- 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.........
:lol::lol::lol:
Undoubtedly one of the funniest things I've ever heard of at a RL match. Even if it was the most boring RL match ever, I'd still pay to see it if I knew in advance that incident would happen
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!
No....way....
Seriously, I envy you.
http://afltables.com/rl/seas/1997.html#21
If what you said above is correct, I'm pretty sure it is this match from Rd 21 between Gold Coast and Manly, which Gold Coast won 25-10 (does that sound right to you?) infront of 15,872. Given there were only two matches on Saturday, Ch9 televised the afternoon match and the Chargers match was at night, I'm 99.9% sure Optus televised it and therefore there'd have to be tv coverage of it lurking around someone on the internet or in the archives of Optus.
It's times like this where I wish Vossy's Boots N All was still on tv. Boots N All - and the Sunday Roast (before Voss got canned from it in 2012) - were always compulsory viewing on many Sundays during my time in high school and uni. I'd love how Vossy and Gus allowed ppl to write in and request to see archival footage of certain moments from old RL matches. With Boots N All, this was in the days before YouTube, and therefore finding and watching video content of RL matches pre-2001 on the internet was virtually impossible (as Telstra's NRL website only had match highlights and replays from games back to 2001, and even then a lot of footage of NRL matches during 2001-06 was taken down from YouTube during David Gallop's tenure as CEO. Dunno why that was done). I'd definitely be writing to request that particular incident at the Chargers match if it was a televised match.
OT (and on-topic at the same time, as the initial thread was about 1996 and I just talked about Boots N All): I still remember that last round match between Western Suburbs and Illawarra at Campbelltown on Saturday arvo (back when Ch9 televised Saturday arvo footy during 1996/97). It was played in atrocious conditions, and strong gale force winds. Magpies had to win to be in contention for a finals spot, pending on the result of the Sharks/Knights match later that night (which I remember was also played in atrocious conditions, with heavy puddles all over the playing surface Shark Park). Magpies made finals after winning and the Knights (who then had to win their game to edge the Magpies out of 8th spot) lost 22-0.
I still remember a kickoff that Rod Wishart (IIRC) did into the strong gale, which then curved back really sharply, bounced around the Magpies 40m line (i.e. went the minimum distance of 10m) heading towards the half-way line and finally possession of the ball was taken close to Illawarra's 40m line. I know I've seen some NFL matches played in heavy gale force winds in places like Chicago, but that Magpies/Steelers match is still one of the windiest, if not THE windiest conditions I ever remember seeing at a RL match. I haven't seen that incident since someone requested it on Boots N All.
That would've been a Round 22 match where Penrith won 24-16, sending out John Cartwright a winner. Basically both sides missed the top 8, The Eels hadn't made the finals for 10 years and Penrith hadn't made them for 5, probably why there was such little interest.
I remember seeing that match replayed on Fox Sports "Chooseday Night Football" as the viewers choice when I was on holiday in Melbourne in 2011. Although I didn't see that Penrith/Parra match at the time, I do remember there was very inclement weather in Sydney and the Hunter (where I lived) that weekend with heavy rain, strong winds and daytime temperatures around 12-14 degrees (excluding windchill). Both games that I made reference to which occurred the next day - Magpies/Steelers and Sharks/Knights - were heavily affected by weather. No surprise that all games in Sydney that round got sub-7k crowds.
