Post by England 3 Lions on Apr 24, 2009 23:39:06 GMT 10
Conversions aplenty in the City of Churches
Glenn Jackson | April 20, 2009
Source: SMH.com.au
"AND a big welcome to rugby league," declared the ground announcer at Adelaide's Hindmarsh Stadium - no relation to Nathan.
We're not sure if it's been missed but league officials still hope for more regular visits to the city by NRL teams, and maintain the dream to have a team based there in the competition in the next 10 years.
Cronulla will certainly be back, hoping to cash in to the tune of $300,000 for three matches over consecutive seasons, starting with yesterday's encounter with the Cowboys.
Melbourne captain Cameron Smith has already thrown his weight behind the push for a team to be based in Adelaide, and while the game's momentum is far more powerful in league strongholds such as south-east Queensland and the Central Coast, the prospect of a South Australian entity gained another admirer.
"If they could put a team here, I think it'd be great for the game," North Queensland skipper Johnathan Thurston said yesterday.
The goalposts would appear to have to move significantly for that to happen - and quite literally, as the goalposts yesterday would need to grow about five metres (they looked to be straight out of a junior football encounter).
There are other obstacles as well. A radio announcer referred to Sharks coach Ricky Stuart as Ricky Craig during the week, while the siren sounded like it came from a police car - possibly appropriate for rugby league nowadays.
Yet there is more of a link than the fact that Wes Carr, of Australian Idol fame and who sings the code's theme tune, grew up in the city.
There was an old North Sydney jumper in the crowd (a fallback option should the Bears fail to relocate to the Central Coast perhaps?), not to mention the odd Super League Rams shirt among the 8547 spectators at the ground.
Huntley Armstrong, the SARL general manager, admitted his administration was in no hurry to formulate a business plan for inclusion in the competition.
"We're not that far down the path," Armstrong said. "[But] I'd like to see two or three games a year. I'd like to see it as a bit like … the Hawthorn/Tasmania model's a good one.
"I don't know if we can support a team full-time right now. There's a million people who struggle to look after the Power, the Crows, the 36ers, Adelaide United and the netball. Adding another one just waters it down again. We need to dot our Is and cross our Ts. If someone said to me 'tomorrow', I'd say probably not, but five or 10 years - absolutely."
Truth be told, what the people of Adelaide got yesterday was hardly a textbook rugby league encounter. But it did enough to ensure that by the time the full-time siren sounded - and thousands of Adelaide people looked over their shoulders for the boys in blue - there would have been some converted in the City of Churches.
Glenn Jackson | April 20, 2009
Source: SMH.com.au
"AND a big welcome to rugby league," declared the ground announcer at Adelaide's Hindmarsh Stadium - no relation to Nathan.
We're not sure if it's been missed but league officials still hope for more regular visits to the city by NRL teams, and maintain the dream to have a team based there in the competition in the next 10 years.
Cronulla will certainly be back, hoping to cash in to the tune of $300,000 for three matches over consecutive seasons, starting with yesterday's encounter with the Cowboys.
Melbourne captain Cameron Smith has already thrown his weight behind the push for a team to be based in Adelaide, and while the game's momentum is far more powerful in league strongholds such as south-east Queensland and the Central Coast, the prospect of a South Australian entity gained another admirer.
"If they could put a team here, I think it'd be great for the game," North Queensland skipper Johnathan Thurston said yesterday.
The goalposts would appear to have to move significantly for that to happen - and quite literally, as the goalposts yesterday would need to grow about five metres (they looked to be straight out of a junior football encounter).
There are other obstacles as well. A radio announcer referred to Sharks coach Ricky Stuart as Ricky Craig during the week, while the siren sounded like it came from a police car - possibly appropriate for rugby league nowadays.
Yet there is more of a link than the fact that Wes Carr, of Australian Idol fame and who sings the code's theme tune, grew up in the city.
There was an old North Sydney jumper in the crowd (a fallback option should the Bears fail to relocate to the Central Coast perhaps?), not to mention the odd Super League Rams shirt among the 8547 spectators at the ground.
Huntley Armstrong, the SARL general manager, admitted his administration was in no hurry to formulate a business plan for inclusion in the competition.
"We're not that far down the path," Armstrong said. "[But] I'd like to see two or three games a year. I'd like to see it as a bit like … the Hawthorn/Tasmania model's a good one.
"I don't know if we can support a team full-time right now. There's a million people who struggle to look after the Power, the Crows, the 36ers, Adelaide United and the netball. Adding another one just waters it down again. We need to dot our Is and cross our Ts. If someone said to me 'tomorrow', I'd say probably not, but five or 10 years - absolutely."
Truth be told, what the people of Adelaide got yesterday was hardly a textbook rugby league encounter. But it did enough to ensure that by the time the full-time siren sounded - and thousands of Adelaide people looked over their shoulders for the boys in blue - there would have been some converted in the City of Churches.
