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Mt Smart

Messages
11,151
Know exactly what you mean, have been to many of the flash modern stadiums around the place, but the hill at Brookvale is still about as good a place as I’ve watched footy from, and the same with the hill at Leichhardt actually. People say “you can’t be on a grassy, muddy hill in winter” blah blah blah but I’d happily take that over the bucket seats

Brookvale is terrible.

Went there in 2008 for a monday night game, Warriors v Manly
2 train and a bus to get there
we lost 52-6
cockroaches crawling over us on the hill
taxi and train home
3 hours sleep then up for work the next morning
Terrible
 

Blair

Coach
Messages
10,086
I went to Athletic Park a few times but unfortunately never watched a game from the top of the Millard Stand.
My first footy stadium was the Showgrounds Oval in PN. It was basically a speedway track with a grandstand for farmers, MRFU Officials and some local businesspeople.

But change nothing! The memories! As kids you could sit on the playing field, or even lie flat on this old tin communications shed up on the east side.

No team visited there and expected to beat Mighty Manawatu.
 

Penrose Warrior

First Grade
Messages
8,602
And agree on Auckland being an embarrassment stadia-wise. It really needs to be totally rationalised and consolidated with at least one of the stadiums sold off to fund the building of a new one but no way you’ll ever get Rugby, League, Cricket, Speedway, Trotting, racing, ratepayers and council to all agree on anything.
It's just ridiculous that the biggest city in the country has such shit stadia. Their CBD area is slowly improving (it used to be a dirty mess you'd never willingly visit) and a stadium down there would vastly improve the experience. But as we know, bureaucracy is where it goes to die.
 

Penrose Warrior

First Grade
Messages
8,602
Know exactly what you mean, have been to many of the flash modern stadiums around the place, but the hill at Brookvale is still about as good a place as I’ve watched footy from, and the same with the hill at Leichhardt actually. People say “you can’t be on a grassy, muddy hill in winter” blah blah blah but I’d happily take that over the bucket seats
Yeah, and with kids the grassed areas are so much more manageable. They can move around, especially if it isn't a full house, and have much more fun. I've taken my kids to a couple of seated stadiums and God bless them I love them, but it's so stressful when they need to go to the toilet, need more food, get bored, start kicking chairs in front of them etc. I get why stadiums go to the reliability of seating but there's still absolutely a place for grass embankment. In cricket they are the pinnacle, even the old concrete 'pew' type seats on the Eden Park terraces were better. But you know, 'advancement' and all that
 

Beavers Headgear

First Grade
Messages
8,648
Brookvale is terrible.

Went there in 2008 for a monday night game, Warriors v Manly
2 train and a bus to get there
we lost 52-6
cockroaches crawling over us on the hill
taxi and train home
3 hours sleep then up for work the next morning
Terrible
Haha I remember that night well !! 0-2 to start the year and B Stewart had a blinder

the public transport to the Northern Beaches is hopeless, always have to take the ferry option
 

SpaceMonkey

Immortal
Messages
37,545
Yep I went to a few of those night games at Brookie and it was a punish getting home from them. That could’ve actually been one of them, I remember having the shits big time at one where we copped a flogging. Saw us win a couple there too though, including the one where Hame Lauaki had the best game of his career and tore them a new one, I think he got a hat trick from memory.
 

Penrose Warrior

First Grade
Messages
8,602
Yep I went to a few of those night games at Brookie and it was a punish getting home from them. That could’ve actually been one of them, I remember having the shits big time at one where we copped a flogging. Saw us win a couple there too though, including the one where Hame Lauaki had the best game of his career and tore them a new one, I think he got a hat trick from memory.
That was the Roosters in 2007, 31-all from memory? Unless that's another game. He scored 2 v the Roosters and was a beast that day, but never really repeated it. Actually, you probably mean the 2004 game at Brooky in his debut year. Geez, looking at the Manly side in that game, a lot of battlers in that outfit. They still finished 13th to our 14th, though.

We had a few forwards with potential that fired the odd shot but never kicked on, didn't we? Lauaki, Ukuma Ta'ai, Lousi (both of them), Matagi, SST before he left, Vete, Lisone etc.
 

Matua

Bench
Messages
4,529
Haha I remember that night well !! 0-2 to start the year and B Stewart had a blinder

the public transport to the Northern Beaches is hopeless, always have to take the ferry option
These days the B-Line from Wynyard drops you at the front door of Brookvale.

My first footy stadium was the Showgrounds Oval in PN. It was basically a speedway track with a grandstand for farmers, MRFU Officials and some local businesspeople.

But change nothing! The memories! As kids you could sit on the playing field, or even lie flat on this old tin communications shed up on the east side.

No team visited there and expected to beat Mighty Manawatu.
Awful place to watch rugby in, especially with Palmy's weather. Also, not was ... is.

Thankfully I've only been going there since the Poo were shit so haven't seen my beloved Magpies lose there too often.

I can't remember the first game I went to at McLean Park but I can remember a game I didn't go to, Springboks v Maori in 1981. I was supposed to be going to the game with my Dad and Grandad, but they did't take me due to all the protests and violence. Apparently I threw a hissy fit (and rightly so) and didn't even watch the game on TV. My Dad got hit in the head with a tomato walking to the game. :D
 

SpaceMonkey

Immortal
Messages
37,545
That was the Roosters in 2007, 31-all from memory? Unless that's another game. He scored 2 v the Roosters and was a beast that day, but never really repeated it. Actually, you probably mean the 2004 game at Brooky in his debut year. Geez, looking at the Manly side in that game, a lot of battlers in that outfit. They still finished 13th to our 14th, though.

We had a few forwards with potential that fired the odd shot but never kicked on, didn't we? Lauaki, Ukuma Ta'ai, Lousi (both of them), Matagi, SST before he left, Vete, Lisone etc.
Was most definitely Brookie but I don’t recall the year. Could’ve been 04, was definitely some time thereabouts.
 

Blair

Coach
Messages
10,086
Awful place to watch rugby in, especially with Palmy's weather. Also, not was ... is.

Thankfully I've only been going there since the Poo were shit so haven't seen my beloved Magpies lose there too often.

I can't remember the first game I went to at McLean Park but I can remember a game I didn't go to, Springboks v Maori in 1981. I was supposed to be going to the game with my Dad and Grandad, but they did't take me due to all the protests and violence. Apparently I threw a hissy fit (and rightly so) and didn't even watch the game on TV. My Dad got hit in the head with a tomato walking to the game. :D
The memories. Twelve-all with the Boks escaping with a late 'phantom' drop-goal. I wasn't there, I was in Palmy instead. SA had their first real test of the tour, a confrontation with the national champions, Manawatu.

The other first real test of the tour was outside, with the police turning out in their riot gear for the first time, with a confrontation with an organised protest march.

It was an ugly time, something that looked like 'Russia' my dad said, when he ducked out of the old Cossie Club to have a look at the police lines.

Us kids? Gloriously unsupervised. We went down, caught some protest action, then waltzed into the ground unopposed.

Cracking game, Manawatu, with eight All Blacks, had them 19-all with about ten minutes to play. The Boks ran away with it though, but the 31-19 scoreline flattered them.
 

SpaceMonkey

Immortal
Messages
37,545
f**k me some Sydney people are entitled. People in the other threads about stadiums complaining that the incoming NSW government wont front omoney to upgrade Brookie, Shark Park, Kogarah and Leichhardt, and will ONLY spend 300M on Pernrith, AFTER there's alread beenn two complete brand new stadia worth over 1B funded in Sydney over the last 4-5 years....

Can you imagine how rapt we'd all be if Mt Smart got even 50M in upgrades?
 

Blair

Coach
Messages
10,086
f**k me some Sydney people are entitled. People in the other threads about stadiums complaining that the incoming NSW government wont front omoney to upgrade Brookie, Shark Park, Kogarah and Leichhardt, and will ONLY spend 300M on Pernrith, AFTER there's alread beenn two complete brand new stadia worth over 1B funded in Sydney over the last 4-5 years....

Can you imagine how rapt we'd all be if Mt Smart got even 50M in upgrades?
I've just got back from travelling through the Penrith, Mt Druitt, Rooty Hill, St Marys area by train. You see it at its worst. First things first, the public schools look dire, barren, woefully underfunded.

Give those kids a decent chance. Upgrade those schools then we should think about a flash new stadium for the wealthy, pokie-rich, Panthers.
 

Beavers Headgear

First Grade
Messages
8,648
Probably annoyed because of the long list of broken promises in regards to those stadiums over a very long period

never really understood bulldozing the SFS and building something pretty much the same there
 
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SpaceMonkey

Immortal
Messages
37,545
Probably annoyed because of the long list of broken promises in regards to those stadiums over a very long period

never really understood bulldozing the SFS and building something pretty much the same there
The SFS was such an egearious example of people with money and influence getting their way.
 
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