No home finals at suburban grounds ??

[Bradza]

From my understanding the purpose of this ruling was to make sure that everyone who wanted to attend could fit in, ie: they won't use the smaller grounds in week 1. This would rule out Kogarah and Wollongong.

 

[firechild]

Whether St Merge use Wollongong is largely irrelevant, the new changes disadvantage just 4 (or 5 with St Merge) clubs. Either take it back to the old days of all finals matches being played at the SFS (could make it ANZ too) or give everyone home finals. Typical that once again the NRL makes decisions making sure that the QLD clubs are not adversely affected while disregarding the fans of clubs that have been around for more than 5 minutes.

 

[The Who]

Totally agree Firechild.

 

[firechild]

Yeah, it sux that people have to be turned away but there's not much that compares to sitting at Brookie with a packed house for a finals match (exceptions would be watching blokes like O'Conner and Beaver play their last matches there - I'm talking about the farewell match against the titans for Beaver, not the finals match against the Dragqueens).

As a side note it really sux that only 1 finals match over the 4 weeks is played during the day. 7 night games, one evening match (GF) and a Sunday arvo game in week 1. I know it keeps getting said in different circles but bring back Saturday arvo games (and put them on ABC), especially for finals matches. The "experts" are always talking about how much better day games are because the dry track allows the ball to be thrown around more with less errors and generally faster play yet the NRL does nothing to allow us to see some of the most skillful players to every play the game show their talents. Look at what Snake has been doing lately, how good would it be to see him on a dry track week in-week out?