Tackles by candlelight

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byso

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ADAM LUCIUS and LISA MUXWORTHY
14mar06

MANLY may be forced to play their next three home games under sub-standard lighting at Brookvale Oval after Warringah Council admitted a $1 million upgrade would not be finished until the end of April.

The news will come as a big setback for the Sea Eagles, who were the subject of complaints from fans, players, match officials and television producers after Saturday night's first round match against Canberra was played under reduced lighting.

The north-east and south-east corners of the ground were poorly lit, making viewing difficult.

Four new light towers were due to be installed by April 1.

Manly have night matches scheduled for March 25 and April 1 and the round six game against the Dragons could be scheduled for a night kick-off.

Yesterday council administrator Dick Persson blamed the Sea Eagles for the delay.

"The lights were delayed because the football club failed to respond to issues the council had told them about ages ago," he said.

"They (the club) need to get their act together ... they wasted time stuffing around."

He said the timeline, forwarded to the Federal Government last year, showed construction from December to March with the lights turned on at the end of April.

Meanwhile Manly CEO Pat Wilson said the council was "prepared to go to certain lengths but perhaps doesn't fully comprehend the social and community benefits Sea Eagles games bring to the broader local community".

"We will continue to have dialogue with the council but the fact remains there needs to be some significant attention given to the venue," he said. "I'm disappointed to hear the council expressing its views in this way."

Fox Sports executive producer rugby league Michael Neill said the poor lighting affected coverage.

And fans vented their anger on the Sea Eagles website, saying lighting was "pathetic" and "embarrassing".

"I was waiting for them to light some candles," wrote a fan. "Really amateurish stuff."
 
This report is very true. It was a disgrace.

The least the club can do, is order 4 lights instead of 2.

There was one light on the hill side on the 50 metre line. Surely that was never going to be adequate.
 
i feel that if those 2 sets of light (existing already) were on it would have improved the eatern side significantly - which was the bad side.

funny how they are located in the north east and south east areas - the same areas that were poorly lit.
 
Maybe we could park some cars on the hill next game and shine the headlights on the ground so that they can see better.

It sounds like the club trying to do the lighting on the cheap as extra lights are going to cost a lot more money.
 
Why not hand out torches at the gate and we can all shine them onto the field
 
I'd like to know what staff member made the decision to cut costs on extra lighting.

Many people wont come again to a night game because of that crap display and they've got 3 in a row.

This could cost the club far more than an extra $10k approx for more hire lights.
 
I very likely not be at any of the next 2 home games partly because of the lighting and partly because of the over enthusiastic security and partly because I a busy and its hard taking a kid to the night games
 
Forgive me if i dont know the full story ,but havnt they had 7 months to have the new lights put in.It doesnt seem like there is many proffesionals trying to run a succesful business here !!!!!
 
Council has a bit to do with it as well.

Also fabricating these lights wouldn't be quick and any delays by club and Council would play in the hands of the fabricators as they always go over time.

But the club and Council should have known this.
 
it is possible the lighting was worse on saturday night than it was for the Tigers trial and the tigers trial was not under lights it was at 5 in the afternoon and it was still light when the game finished
 

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