here's a copy of my letter, lets see if they bother printing it.
As a proud manly Sea Eagles supporter who lives in Brisbane I was appalled at the article written by Ben Dorries in the Sportsday section of the Courier mail, 13th of September edition titled “ To follow Manly is an empty feelingâ€
Firstly I have followed the Manly Sea Eagles since I was an 8 year old in 1963, and the team has given me some magical moments in that almost 50 year period and I certainly have never felt “empty†following my team.
Ben’s article was of course written about the small number of seats occupied by Manly supporters at last Saturday nights NRL Semi Final held at the Sydney Football Stadium verses the North Queensland Cowboys.
Reading Ben’s article made me think that in typical journalist fashion he writes about half the story, and really without investigating both sides of the story so that the article is more balanced….so let me point out a few home truths he should have mentioned.
The game commenced at 8.30pm on a freezing cold Sydney night, hardly conducive to a family outing at the footy is it?
This is the latest a game had kicked off all year, and with the weather as it was it was hardly surprising to see a small crowd, especially as the game was against a team that had little to no support that came with them
Ben then went on to compare two Sydney based teams who played off on Friday night having a bigger crowd, well that’s not rocket science Ben of course they’d get a bigger crowd and so would this game have had a bigger crowd if we’d be playing another Sydney based side.
And Ben forgot to mention that unlike when we go to the Footy here in Queensland public transport isn’t free for the Sydney Football Stadium, and for a family of 2 adult and 2 kids travelling from the Northern Beaches that was an additional $50 on top of the ticket prices, which for finals are pretty expensive as they are and it all adds up doesn’t it and is another reason why many fans stayed at home and watched it live on TV instead.
And even if Public Transport was free, it’s well over 2 hours from the Northern Beaches to the SFS and the same on the return, and when you consider the game finished at after 10.30pm again it’s hardly conducive for families who are a big part of the numbers who attend these days and even regular fans who might not get home until well after midnight.
Ben also compares the 14,000 people who went with the huge numbers that attend Suncorp for the Broncos games, on that one he is right however he neglected to say that Brisbane with it’s 2 million people have one single team to support and Sydney with it’s 4 million people have 9 teams…do the maths Ben it’s not that hard!
There’s no doubt this game should have been held at the Sea Eagles home ground, Brookvale Oval. Whilst I doubt it would have seen thousands more attend there certainly would have been a good deal more and the atmosphere would have been a lot better on the smaller ground. The NRL should have stepped in as soon as Manly’s opponent was known and changed the venue, he blames everything in this article on the Manly supporters and not one ounce of blame is directed at the NRL, it’s a two way street Ben!!
It seems to me that Ben has a bit of a chip on his shoulder about Manly, perhaps it’s because he’s a closet North Queensland supporter and we just bundled them out of the comp with a 42-8 flogging??
Mark Tramby
Coordinator
Manly Warringah Travelling Supporter Group
