March 10, 2018
During our 10 day trip to Sydney we
were taken to see West Tigers vs Sydney Roosters at the ANZ Stadium in the
Olympic Park.
It was the first week of the new season, and the only things I
knew beforehand were that Wests were massive 4-1 underdogs, having finished 14
out of 16 whilst the Roosters were beaten semi-finalists in the play-offs.
Wests best player from last season, James Tedesco, had just joined the Roosters
and was expecting to be booed throughout ( he was )
We were able to park about 10 minutes’
walk from the stadium and the Olympic Park is an impressive complex ( as we
were leaving supporters for West Sydney Wanderers A-League football match in
the adjacent Spotless Stadium were starting to arrive ) and it was easy to
enter the stadium and find our seats. Our tickets cost 50 AUD and had good
views of the pitch, apart from the hot sun in our faces until it went behind
the opposite stand in the second half. Beer was ridiculous expensive 14 AUD for
a schooner ( 0.4L ) of XXXX Gold. Supporters of both sides were happily sitting
together. Whilst there was a section of the ground for the Roosters, there was
no segregation and a lot of good natured ribbing of the each other.
Wests kicked an early penalty but the
rest of the first half was dominated by the Roosters, who butchered several
chances ( including one where Tedesco dropped a pass 5 metres from the line
with no-one near him – “once a Tiger, always a Tiger” was the comment from
behind us ! ) and had a try disallowed for a forward pass.
Blake Ferguson, Roosters
big winger looked the best player on the pitch, constantly making 30 year
breaks before being tackled. However, Wests held out for a 2-0 half-time lead.
Roosters dominated the start of the
second half, and when a Wests player was sent to the sin-bin they surprisingly
chose to kick the penalty rather than play 6 with the extra man. Despite being
a man down, Wests dominated the next 10 minutes, kicked a penalty and then
missed an easy one in front of the posts, which was a cue for me to comment on
how bad the standard of kicking is in Rugby League. Back to 13 a side, Roosters
dominated again and eventually Ferguson was free to score in the corner. And to
confound my earlier words, the touch-line conversion was superb to give the
Roosters an 8-4 lead.
It looked all over, but Wests put some
pressure on in the last 5 minutes, and after a missed tackle their winger Corey
Thompson scored with a superb dive to the corner, touching down in mid-air just
before the covering tackler forced him into touch. 8-8 and I was looking to the
extra-time when Wests kicker surprised everyone with a touchline conversion !
With less than a minute to play, Wests
held out until the buzzer ( unlike in Union play stops on the buzzer ) to
register a surprise win.
After the match I did some homework on
the internet. West Tigers were formed in 1999 from the merger of Balmain Tigers
and Western Suburbs. Under the terms of the merger they play 4 games each at
their two home stadiums ( both 20,000 capacity ) and play the other 7 at the
ANZ. It seems they get financial incentives from the Sydney Council to use the
ANZ, as part of the continued usage of the Olympic facilities, and Wests are
happy as they can offer Corporate Hospitality which they can’t do at the two
old stadiums. Apparently, the fans prefer the games at the old stadiums, which
usually sell-out ! And only 18,000 turned up for a Sydney derby at the ANZ.
The Roosters best player, Blake
Ferguson, is an Aussie International, but was banned for 2 season for off-pitch
“mis-demeanours”, including domestic violence. The Wests try scorer was at
Widnes last season.
Highlights : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MINA6j4O404
No comments:
Post a Comment