Davester
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Traditional Tigers games safe
05:38 AEST Mon Aug 9 2004
Wests Tigers plan to play some NRL home games at Telstra Stadium will not threaten traditional showdowns at their core venues, club officials said after a record attendance at Leichhardt Oval.
The joint venture club attracted its biggest ever home crowd of 19,402, beating a figure of 18,883 set at the same venue against Parramatta in round 12.
Tigers chief Steve Noyce confirmed the club was considering shifting some of its home games to the vastly larger Olympic venue.
"There's some different sorts of games we can play (at Telstra) for commercial reasons, and some traditional games we can play at Leichhardt and Campbelltown," Noyce said.
"I think today proved that if you play the more traditional type game at the traditional venues they are really well supported."
Tigers skipper and hooker Darren Senter, who was making his final appearance at Leichhardt before retirement, described it as "a special place" because of the passion of the supporters.
The noise generated by the crowd was just as noticeable as its size according to Tigers' second-rower Mark O'Neill.
He returned to action today having missed the last two rounds after being king hit by Melbourne forward Danny Williams.
"When you get that kind of crowd here, it feels like you've got 40,000 because they are right on top of you, and close, and make a hell of a lot of noise," O'Neill said.
Tigers legend Paul Sironen, one of several members of Balmain's 1989 grand final team present, said the game was a throwback to "the good old days".
"It was tremendous to play Souths in the old gold (strip) with the big V and 19,000 watching," Sironen said.
"It just shows the guys down at the NRL that people still love the grass roots and traditional game and there's still room for them."
Coach Arthur Kitinas said last-placed Souths had been competitive for several weeks and the game was "probably one of those let downs that was always going to happen to us sooner rather than later".
"We are just not going to think about it (the wooden spoon), it doesn't enter into our thoughts, today was a fairly backward step, but we've got to get over it," he said.
The Rabbitohs suffered two first-half casualties with centre Shane Rigon (knee) and hooker Shane Walker (concussion) both forced out of the game while prop Todd Payten (cut eye) was the Tigers' only casualty.
05:38 AEST Mon Aug 9 2004
Wests Tigers plan to play some NRL home games at Telstra Stadium will not threaten traditional showdowns at their core venues, club officials said after a record attendance at Leichhardt Oval.
The joint venture club attracted its biggest ever home crowd of 19,402, beating a figure of 18,883 set at the same venue against Parramatta in round 12.
Tigers chief Steve Noyce confirmed the club was considering shifting some of its home games to the vastly larger Olympic venue.
"There's some different sorts of games we can play (at Telstra) for commercial reasons, and some traditional games we can play at Leichhardt and Campbelltown," Noyce said.
"I think today proved that if you play the more traditional type game at the traditional venues they are really well supported."
Tigers skipper and hooker Darren Senter, who was making his final appearance at Leichhardt before retirement, described it as "a special place" because of the passion of the supporters.
The noise generated by the crowd was just as noticeable as its size according to Tigers' second-rower Mark O'Neill.
He returned to action today having missed the last two rounds after being king hit by Melbourne forward Danny Williams.
"When you get that kind of crowd here, it feels like you've got 40,000 because they are right on top of you, and close, and make a hell of a lot of noise," O'Neill said.
Tigers legend Paul Sironen, one of several members of Balmain's 1989 grand final team present, said the game was a throwback to "the good old days".
"It was tremendous to play Souths in the old gold (strip) with the big V and 19,000 watching," Sironen said.
"It just shows the guys down at the NRL that people still love the grass roots and traditional game and there's still room for them."
Coach Arthur Kitinas said last-placed Souths had been competitive for several weeks and the game was "probably one of those let downs that was always going to happen to us sooner rather than later".
"We are just not going to think about it (the wooden spoon), it doesn't enter into our thoughts, today was a fairly backward step, but we've got to get over it," he said.
The Rabbitohs suffered two first-half casualties with centre Shane Rigon (knee) and hooker Shane Walker (concussion) both forced out of the game while prop Todd Payten (cut eye) was the Tigers' only casualty.
