We didn't play 15 games Away from Pirtek during the 2009 regular season and in fact we played just 10 games at Pirtek during the regular season. If we played 9 game at Pirtek in 2009, like we will do this season, statistics say that would probably would not have even made the Top 8 that year. We won 7 of 10 at Pirtek that year and 5 from 14 away from Pirtek with 1 draw at an ANZ Home Game.
Since the inception of the NRL in 1998, Parra played no less than 11 matches per season at Parramatta Stadium until 2008. During that time we took no more than one home game away from Parramatta Stadium each season and in fact took very few matches away from Parramatta Stadium except for 1998 to Parkes, 2005 and 2006 to Waikato. All our first round ANZ season opener games were actually our opponents Home Game. In this time we made the finals 8 out of 11 seasons.
From 2009 to 2012 we took 2 games per season away from Pirtek, since 2013 we've taken 3 games per season away from Pirtek. We've made the finals once in 6 seasons.
The Finals in itself is a different story. There has been 17 years of the NRL and only 3 Grand Finals winners out of those 17 have played some of their home games at ANZ and only only one team in the last 10 years. Manly, Storm, Roosters, Broncos, St George, Penrith and Newcastle have all won grand finals at ANZ without playing any of their home games at ANZ during the year. Why should we bother if it has little or no bearing on who the team is who wins the grand final each year?
The NRL has become an exceptionally close competition and taking games away from a ground where you play your best is simply sacrificing wins and finals appearances. The club is making an error taking 3 games per season away from Pirtek.
The only other team who now chooses to play more than 2 games away from their spiritual home is the Wests Tigers, who have made 3 finals appearances in 15 years.
