Kogarah Oval Masterplan.

[Cheesie-the-Pirate]

In the latest Red V Members Magazine Issue 17 July 2006 a plan of the Master Plan for future development of Kogarah Jubilee Oval was provided.

As we remember, the NSW government has promised 7 million dollars towards future development at Carlton.

Dragons.com.au described the Master Plan in this way:

The NSW Government funding will go towards further development over the next two years, including:

Construction of a new two-tiered extension to the seating north of the existing grandstand, with provision for day-hire corporate facilities;

Construction of a new two-tiered extension to the southern terrace, expanding capacity from a few hundred seats to approximately 2,000;

Improvements to spectator access to the main grandstand, making way for future expansion;

The creation of a building facing Park Street to house football offices, a function room and upgraded dressing rooms; and

Upgrade work on the southern hill with the construction of a single tiered grandstand with seating for up to 1,000 patrons, and provision for new commercial rooms.

Looking good.

 

[macavity]

bulldoze it and move to the gong FT, its wherre most of your players are from anyway. or maybe u could share swamp park. imagine the units they could build there@!

/end stir

 

[Father Ted]

bulldoze it and move to the gong FT, its wherre most of your players are from anyway. or maybe u could share swamp park. imagine the units they could build there@!

/end stir

I bet you pass for a clever guy up there in drugcastle . Where ( wherre ) do you get your players from , Rehab ?

 

[Willow]

Not a bad look. It sure has come a long way since the 'concete cancer' myth.

 

[Father Ted]

Not a bad look. It sure has come a long way since the 'concete cancer' myth.

Who was the CEO that called OKI a dud ? Actually it's starting to remind me a little of Brookvale in setup only better of course .

 

[Follow Me Up To Carlton]

If you go to the media archive section of the R2K website you can read statement after statement from club officials writing off Kogarah and belittling those who where campaigning for a return.

The amazing thing is that most of the reasons given by Doust, Lockwood et al against a return to Kogarah have in recent times been directly contradicted by themselves.

Concrete cancer is the most memorable creation by them but the biggest and most serious falsehood would have to be the notion that Kogarah was economically unviable, not enough corporate boxes ect. Offcourse we've since found out that Jubilee sh*ts all over the SFS and WIN when it comes to dosh collected by the club from match days.

http://www.r2k.info/press/index.html

 

[Willow]

IMO, it was a question of will.

There was plenty of discussions at the time. It was interesting going through all the arguments against Kogarah and finding inconsistencies at almost every turn.

R2K made the inroads offcourse. The club found the will and one by one, the hurdles disappeared.

 

[Follow Me Up To Carlton]

Without doubt it was always an issue of will.

The question is what changed their minds? I'm sure they didn't just decide one day that Kogarah was brand worthy on a mere whim.

The Robert Stone factor has been suggested as the reason for the abandoning of the boards dogmatic anti-Jubilee stance. We'll never know what discussions went on behind closed doors.

Looking at the facts available to us we do know that the decision seemed to coincide with A) the re-admission of Souths which meant another tenant at the SFS as well as the being stake into the heart of the so-called criteria and B) R2K running for elections. Suddenly the cosy existence of the grey haired clique was under serious threat and it seemed very much in their self-interest to remove the fuel from that fire.

 

[God-King Dean]

bulldoze it and move to the gong FT, its wherre most of your players are from anyway. or maybe u could share swamp park. imagine the units they could build there@!

/end stir

St George Illawarra 22















Newcastle 16

 

[Willow]

Without doubt it was always an issue of will.

The question is what changed their minds? I'm sure they didn't just decide one day that Kogarah was brand worthy on a mere whim.

The Robert Stone factor has been suggested as the reason for the abandoning of the boards dogmatic anti-Jubilee stance. We'll never know what discussions went on behind closed doors.

Looking at the facts available to us we do know that the decision seemed to coincide with A) the re-admission of Souths which meant another tenant at the SFS as well as the being stake into the heart of the so-called criteria and B) R2K running for elections. Suddenly the cosy existence of the grey haired clique was under serious threat and it seemed very much in their self-interest to remove the fuel from that fire.

Robert Stone always loved Kogarah Jubilee, there's no doubt about that. But he also knew getting it back on the agenda required a pragmatic approach to overcome the hurdles set by those holding the purse strings. Money was the issue - this was one thing that came out of the Information Night arranged by R2K at the Kogarah RSL in 2002.

Robert Stone came in and faced a fairly hostile audience and handled himself well, he didnt agree with everyone but he played with a straight bat.

There's something about that night here: http://www.showroom.com.au/dragons/sportrlnews/rlnews271.html
It was a turning point as it got fans, the club, and government all in the one room - for some reason in the article I incorrectly wrote there were no representatives from the St George Clubs - offcourse Stoney was there and as it turned out Peter Doust was up the back watching as well.

In any case the meeting was pivotal and it was to lead to numerous more turns of the wheel. Its a credit to Lachlan McLean and the rest of R2K that they pulled it off.

At the time, we were still in the wake of the 'NRL criteria' for home grounds. Stone went on an overseas trip and saw how the suburban grounds were doing in the UK. He returned more keen than ever to get Kogarah back on the drawing board. He was actually a little excited and was saying things that R2K had already said, ie about the importance of history, tradition etc. He was a lot like that already but he was also seeing an opportunity where tradition and passion could lead to bums on seats, thereby overcoming the issues of it being econmically viable and appeasing the pragmatists.

I met with him a week or two before the Kogarah RSL meeting and he actually seemed confident of getting back to Jubilee. Some of things he said differed from what he said during the public meeting. I wondered about this and considered that he knew the politics had to be played out. Given the results, I can only assume that Stone always intended on seeing Kogarah go through to a positive conclusion.

The other critical thing was R2K making a run for the Club board. They didnt get elected but they shook the place up. This must have had a bearing on the club's decision on Kogarah as well.

Meanwhile, the NRL had softened its stance on home grounds... ie they became more realistic. It looked like the state government was getting on board. It became apparent that we had to match the government grant (dollar for dollar I vaguely recall). By then R2K was unstoppable. The Council got behind it. Money was raised and the club threw in the shortfall.

Its history now that anti-Kogarah antagonists (certain govt and club personnel) had done a 180 and become supporters of the return to Kogarah. That's politics for you.

My memory of it may be tested in parts and I'm just providing a recollection of it all. I'm sure there are others who can add more to this.

 

[Father Ted]

Lachlan and I were discussing the possibility of suggesting to the club that they name the grand stand after Stoney , another great friend of the group was Mr R Kite a former intl winger with the club who attended every public function we held and was a fantastic inspiration until his tragic death from cancer in calvary hospital . True St.George men they will be sadly missed .

 

[LeagueXIII]

If Saints cherish the history of their ground what about the history of the club, they should be striving to make their next premiership their 16th. Collingwood, Man Utd etc wouldn't sell out their histories and a club as great as St.George shouldn't do so either, it's a tragedy. They have the ground, the money, the supporters, now get your history back, I for one don't want to see history books claim they ended as a stand alone club in 1998, if Cronulla, Penrith etc can stand alone so should the mighty St.George.
They will still get juniors from Wollongong.

 

[Willow]

If Saints cherish the history of their ground what about the history of the club, they should be striving to make their next premiership their 16th. Collingwood, Man Utd etc wouldn't sell out their histories and a club as great as St.George shouldn't do so either, it's a tragedy. They have the ground, the money, the supporters, now get your history back, I for one don't want to see history books claim they ended as a stand alone club in 1998, if Cronulla, Penrith etc can stand alone so should the mighty St.George.
They will still get juniors from Wollongong.

Its a well known battle which is being fought. The Club wants the next premiership be number 16, but the NRL is stuck on the issue.

There's no point arguing with some staticians about it, they hate footnotes. Its much easier for them to simply start again. Unfortunately the NRL has taken the statician's line. IMO, this should be something that the Club can determine for themselves. Its not the NRL's place (or any other club for that matter) to tell us what our history is.

Its especially frustrating when the NRL often uses the history to suit their own ends. All the NRL premiership records are based on the NSWRL and ARL records dating back to 1908. And yet, they are attempting to block the Dragons from recognising their first grade NSWRL and ARL history.

One sticking point seems to be how to deal with player's records. For example, how do you reconcile Brad Mackay's record when he played for the St George Dragons, the Illawarra Steelers and then the St George Illawarra Dragons? Well again, its just a matter of footnotes and is quite easy:
Brad Mackay
St George Dragons: 1987-94, 117 games. 22t, 13g (114pts).
Illawarra Steelers: 1996-1998, 56 games. 8t, 5g (42pts).
St George Illawarra Dragons: 1999, 24 games. 3t, 4g (20 pts).
TOTAL: 1987-1999, 197 games. 33t, 22g (176pts).

The other week on the Footy Show, there was a discussion about Steve Menzies and whether or not his record with the Northern Eagles (Manly and North Sydney) should count towards his Manly records. The panel was unanimous in answering yes. Paul Vautin, who was on the Manly board, even went as far to say that Manly owned most of the Northern Eagles joint venture anyway. The same applies to Saints who own most of the JV and like Manly, the NRL franchise reverts back to St George should the JV ever come to an end.

And power to Illawarra who have a grand history of fine players who have come from the South Coast. Nevertheless, many Steelers fans will be first to admit that having not won any NSWRL/ARL/NRL premierships isn't much to write home about. I know some Steelers supporters were quite disappointed to learn that that the NRL stats had the history restarting from 1999. They thought they were getting the Dragons, playing in Wollongong, and with that a team which had 15 premierships beside their name.

But at the end of the day, the trolls, bean counters and pencil pushers aren't that important. As far as I'm concerned, we have won 15 premierships and the next one is number 16.

 

[Father Ted]

bulldoze it and move to the gong FT, its wherre most of your players are from anyway. or maybe u could share swamp park. imagine the units they could build there@!

/end stir

Is your first name Phil ?

 

[LeagueXIII]

Willow from your opinion the club is St.George, so why not end the charade and just take over officially, reclaim your tradition and history and be done with it, just as Manly did.
In the last 40 years Cronulla have had just as many players from Wollongong as St.George, it's a myth that it is just St.George, the only difference being that Saints had big name players like Langlands, Young and Morris.

 

[Willow]

I recall you engaged in a similar thread in the NRL forum. Thanks for your opinion but you're getting a little off the rails there.

 

[LeagueXIII]

The topic should be discussed, if tradition is so important to St.George. What is wrong with the club regaining it's history. Let's not let myths and agendas make us forget the great history of this club.
After all, if we listened to the people "making the decisions" in the beginning we wouldn't have got Kogarah back and it certainly wouldn't be developed into the great facility it is going to be. A little bit of hard work instead of the easy option.

 

[Willow]

The topic does get discussed. It certainly grabs a fair bit of attention during my weekly routine. If you wish to go on then please, knock yourself out. But I suspect there is more than what you're letting on. No offence but it does get a little tedious when people start putting words into the old gob or decide to not read what's been written.

I think there's enough room for the Illawarra in the history and I understand the club wants the next premiership to be number 16. The Football Club Journal and other club publications have said as much. The NRL is the stumbling block.

I appreciate your opinion that its best to end the JV, but that's not going to happen in the foreseeable future. So we have to look at the options available in the here-and-now when maintaining the post-1907 historical accounts.

Kogarah is the discussion at hand and you're right that was never an easy option. A lot of hard yakka went on to get us back there.

 

[gorilla]

Is your first name Phil ?

:lol:
ooo-aah, you are naughty .......

 

[Father Ted]

:lol:
ooo-aah, you are naughty .......

More relieved that someone finally got the joke . Saves me from doing the whole Welease Woger scene from the life of Brian .