Was it really Super Saturday?

[Rafters]

Unfortunately I had to do work on the weekend, but what was Super Saturday like for those that attended?

With no Swans match in Sydney this weekend, I was expecting a huge marketing campaign for this day but I didn't see anything which was a tad disappointing given the great package being presented.

What was the crowd like?
Who ran the canteen (and thus receive the takings)?
Any surprises on the day?
What was the surface like?
Any new recruits to Sydney that look the goods?

[BeeEmmAre]

I thought the day was a success for the true footy people who got to see all the teams play on the same day.
However, the fact that our major newspaper, The Daily Telegraph, won't cover the Sydney AFL really hurt the possibility of promoting the day as much as it should have been.
The crowd was unfortunately poor, with not much more than the usual attendance for each match, with those supporters only staying for their own club's match.
There were a few that hung around all day, but on the whole there wasn't as many as there could have been.

The redevelopment has made the ground look fantastic - they replaced all the bench seating around the whole ground and painted it in Newtown colours, and even better, the dome has been taken out of the ground, which should reduce how dry the centre gets and how wet the outsides get.
They only laid the grass five weeks ago I was told, and after playing league on it last week and five games of footy yesterday, it was still in good condition.
Some of the grass is still settling, but overall, it should be a much better venue for football long term.

On the field, I didn't see the Sydney Uni v Balmain match but the Students won by a long way and reports were that not much had changed, Western Suburbs had too much experience for Wollongong in an at times scrappy game, Pennant Hills needed to pull out all stops to beat a Campbelltown team that never gave up, UNSWES belted East Coast off the ground in the first quarter and were never challenged - they look like they will be the big improver this year.
The grand final rematch, which was the Match of the Round, was a scrappy affair with both teams making plenty of mistakes, but it was close all night and St George ended up making a couple less than North Shore.
It was the Crows' experienced players that stepped up such as Shineberg, Bedwell and Donohue, while Taylor looks like he can play a bit.
For North Shore, I really liked the games of Max Wilson and David Conway, and I think they will be good additions to the Bombers.
Norris will come up with a more indepth report I'm sure.

[wise one]

In the first game that commenced just after breakfast, Sydney University got their season off to a flying start with a 63 point win over a spirited Balmain Dickers side. The Students were able to get the jump on the Dockers and established a 23 point lead at the first break which they were able to build on. The Dockers were let down by poor finishing but too their credit fought the game right out and were able to out score their opponents in the final quarter.

For the Students, Alex Lee was outstanding on debut to finish with four goals. Andrew Kraefft, returning Skipper Frank Punch and new recruits Mark Egan also played well. Former Students player Janis Blums was the pick of the Dockers with fellow recruit Troy Parker also performing well along with Callum Matheson and Daniel Napper.

Above is a copy of websites report on Balmain/Students game, not sure if it is a typo ,but a very apt appraisal of performance put on park.

[The Duck]

Firstly, even though it wasn't promoted as it should have been I thought the league showed great initiative in trying to do something different for round 1 and attract a bigger crowd. In terms of the results, I thought their were no major suprises. Uni look like they may improve on last years results and with a few handy additions should be aiming to play finals. Balmain were still dissapointing and it won't suprise me to see a few sides kick a cricket score against them in 08. West's look like they won't go backwards this year but still might not finish much higher than they did last year. I think the Gong showed a little bit on the weekend that they will improve with time but are still not likely to make the finals. Penno started slow but finished really well and with a lot of kids will get better when they start to get closer to full strength. The towners were the suprise of the day for mine. They hung in there all day against a better opponent but only ran out of puff towards the end of the day. They might not be the easy beats that everyone thinks. Easts seem to have recruited well and were to physical for the Eagles. It will be interesting to see how they go against better opposition as I think the Eagles will be middle of the road. St George looked ok in a scrappy game and you would think they will still be there abouts whilst Norths were a little undermanned. They generally don't peak to early so they may take a few weeks to warm up. Overall I thought they day was great although it would have been better to see a few more at the ground.

[Norris Lurker]

My match report, with pics, is up on the RWO News section.

I think it was a good initiative, and hopefully it will be repeated in future years. It wasn't publicised except among the Sydney football community who would have gone anyway; but even though the crowd wasn't great it was a good way to open the season.

[The Spoiler]

[QUOTE=wise one;369162]In the first game that commenced just after breakfast, Sydney University got their season off to a flying start with a 63 point win over a spirited Balmain Dickers side. The Students were able to get the jump on the Dockers and established a 23 point lead at the first break which they were able to build on. The Dockers were let down by poor finishing but too their credit fought the game right out and were able to out score their opponents in the final quarter.

Sounds like a c@ck up to me.

[Norris Lurker]

After more than a week of procrastinating, dithering and getting side-tracked, I've created a result archive and photo gallery of Super Saturday; featuring a selection of pics from all 5 games.
Enjoy!!!!