Henson Park-proof that Rugby League & footy CAN co-exist

[JF_Bay22_SCG]

Hi gang,
I had the strange experience of watching BOTH rugby league and Australian Rules football at Henson park Marrickville on Saturday. I went for the novelty value of watching two sports at the one ground in one day. It was well worth it. Not only was the Jets match a close and entertaining one (with St George choking in the last couple of minutes, how fitting), but just watching how they took down the goalposts and re-painted the ground was realy interesting. The Jets players were still on the field when they were coming out taking the padding off the RL goalposts. Jeffles, are they the normal RL posts? They did look kind of small. not that I want to start a thread about which code has the bigger and better goalposts!

The Sydney AFL vs Southern League match was pretty entertaining I thought.As Jeffles said, Henson is near on the perfect grass roots Aussie Rules venue, even if a couple of the kicks at goal nearly went out of ground and down onto Petersham Rd. None of this annoying crowding around ball ups and chip kicks to avoid contested possessions that you see each week in the AFL. I'd have to say that there was hardly a ball up all night. This is one thing I just love about grass roots footy. It is just like footy used to be in the 80s in the AFL, just players going out to have a kick.

If what KingBenny from RWO said whilst chatting to AFL Sydney officials is correct, then it apears that the AFL ARE seriously looking at re-surfacing the ground to hold pre-season AFL matches at the venue within 2-3 years. A crowd of 10000+ is more than possible at the ground as well. as Jeffles mentioned, the local cuncil appear to be more responsive to the AFL Sydney than they are the Jets. But if having AFLSydney there means that a new surface is laid, then the benefits will be seen by both them AND the Jets. So it is a win-win situation for both parties.

Watching the Jets was pretty interesting, even if it has to be said that the ground is far from perfect as a league venue. That Newtown club song is a crack-up, they even have a techno AND country music version of it. Glory&fame and I laughed incredibly when the crowd of 8923 was announced over the PA. But were duly advised of the in-joke by Jeffles ; a poke at some of the inner Sydney NRL clubs fudging the figures to become eligable for NRL selection a couple of seasons back.

Great to see the club doing so well from its merchandising. Not only is the stuff they were selling of a very high quality, but it is bloody attractive. I'll be wearing my Jets cap around the place. I am a Newtownian, so I want to get behind my area.

The Jets are playing the Chooks Reserve Grade at Henson on Saturday. Im definitely going. And it appears that several of my mates in the Chook Pen are coming as well. I was impressed that the Jets had a hill army of about 40-50 standing up the top of the outer hill, complete with "Bluebag' sign. Will go out and see what they are about. It is just so pleasant going to grass roots footy with a bevie in one hand and a sausage sanga in the other abusing the ref/umpie.

Go the Jets. And go Henson Park. as that ever-loyal Sydney AFL fan Arnold Schwarzeneggar said, "I'll be back." This is proof once and for all to me that if people put their minds to it and put aside their hesitations about working with 'enemy' codes and learn to co-operate with each other, that they can BOTH benefit.

Pix can be seen below.

http://www.austadiums.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=811&start=30

http://redandwhiteonline.com/content.php?id=593_0_3_0_C

JF

[Glenn]

Really is great to get back to those suburban grounds to watch the football (be it league or AFL)
You are right about the goal posts Julian, they are smaller than the regular size (assuming something to do with moving/storing them ??)
Would be good to see some pre season games there, hopefully the AFL come good on the resurfacing of the ground.

[Northern_Swan]

Yes its good to see 2 codes co-existing BUT...

Why would AFLSydney want funding to pay a cent to resurface Henson park when they have just been given funding for a $10M stadium (big white elephant) in Sydney's west?

Wouldn't this money be better spent on infastructure for ameneties & lighting at other senior & junior footy grounds in the area or, god forbid, putting some money into footy in the bush?

Just seems like another example of AFLNSW/ACT only thinking about the big city and throwing money away on S^*T

[JF_Bay22_SCG]

Originally posted by Glenn
Really is great to get back to those suburban grounds to watch the football (be it league or AFL)
You are right about the goal posts Julian, they are smaller than the regular size (assuming something to do with moving/storing them ??)

I did look on with some restrained glee when they took down the league posts. I thought of how Beaussie would be enjoying the moment. Was having a kick to kick out on the field after the league with Teal. Some of the leaguies WERE giving out rather strange looks as we handpassed and checksided to each other.

Where do they store the league posts at Henson, in the bloody gutter behind the AFL posts LOL. (Gotta love grass roots footy, no sophisticated storing methods here.)

It is as close to what we will get to a ready made footy facility in Sydney. All it needs is a better surface around the centre square area and you'd be away. Already a ground umpteen times better than Manuka, I reckon.

If we get the facility at Blacktown that we can share with cricket, we will have then have two second tier standard AFL facilities in Sydney. At risk of sounding like Mark from Bronte, but who wants to go out that way every week to just watch footy?!

Henson is the ground for today and tomorrow Northern Swan. The Blacktown one may well be the ground of next week. And the week after that.

I think the motto of both stories is that when you ground share, the benefits far far outweight the negatives. and both parties have a greater bargaining point in terms of ground improvements.

JF

[swansrock4eva]

Nothern_Swan, I must disagree with you about the new field at Blacktown. The fact is that within 5-10 years, it is expected that there will be over 1.5 million people living in the western areas of Sydney, and in all reality, not that many more in the eastern suburbs than there already are now. That's quite a large population out there that's going to be essentially untapped and unresourced without this stadium. Why, then, does it NOT make sense to give them some well-constructed, useable facilities that scream AUSSIE RULES rather than RUGBY LEAGUE or SOCCER or RUGBY UNION? Surely having such facilities will help promote the game both at grass-roots and top level to such a large population, which is DEFINITELY something it needs.

Having said that, I must say that Henson is probably the best of the high-level fields that exist at present, and it should be maintained in good nick to ensure that the eastern-based teams do have a good ground to play on when they can't be arsed travelling west (). I personally found the ground to be in fairly good condition, and the facilities (cahngerooms etc) quite good compared to a couple of the other grounds around the place (was not a fan of Wests' home ground!).

So I guess what I'm saying is that there needs to eventually be a balance - you can't expect the "Westies" to travel east all the time, nor can you expect the "easties" to travel west all the time, so having suitable facilities in both areas should ultimately be the goal. At least at present there are a number of functional grounds in the inner west and eastern suburbs, but you can't really say that as much about the western regions in Sydney.

[j s]

I saw Henson Park for the first time last week but from the air while coming back the the Carlton game. Looked very impressive although those extra posts (with cross-bar) at the FH & HB positions spoilt the effect somewhat.

[Pekay]

USELESS TRIVIA-The Western Jets U18 football club (Div2 U18 Premiers 99) came about thru excess numbers from Blacktown and Hawkesbury junior clubs having nowhere to play colts footy..after much discussion between both clubs,the name "Western Jets" was created by a select few long serving members and the blue and white were the only good colours available(my dad actually whispered in my ear Go the Jets in blue and white-my dad played lower grade RL for the Bluebags in the 50s)so the now known NorWest Jets senior club has its identity roots from the greatest rugby league team ever..now JF,keen to get out and support us???

[Northern_Swan]

Henson is the ground for today and tomorrow Northern Swan. The Blacktown one may well be the ground of next week. And the week after that.

JF, if Henson is the park for today & tommorow, why spend money on it when it's only going to be wasted when (if) footy moves to a new stadium at Blacktown? as i said before, it's a wasted resource that could be better spent elsewhere.


Swansrock4eva- i'm not disputing that the population is shifting to the west & there is a need for footy infastructure in the future.

What i am disputing is the need to spend $10 million on a 10,000 seat stadium that will never get used for its purpose (i.e housing a 10,000 crowd).
The justification that was used was to house pre season games & some cricket matches. Is that really necessary? I mean if its a wizard cup game why not use the Stade de oz? Or a practice match why not use many of the good quality regional facilities?

For a cricket match use Bankstown Oval (or Newcastle, Bowral, Nth Sydney etc etc)

Surely it would be more beneficial for everyone to spend $2.5-3.5 million on three or four good regional facilities that will be the home to local footy (and heaven forbid, Newcastle might get some $ and we'll have a ground to play on!)

[swansrock4eva]

But the point is that there just aren't the facilities to even consider upgrading in the west - correct me if I'm wrong, but aside from the home grounds of Pennant Hills and ECE, I can't think of one other ground that would be considered suitable for any form of higher-level Aussie rules, yet we have guys playing out there week in, week out because there's nothing else and nowhere else to play. You can't upgrade something that's not there in the first place, and there's no point building some half-arsed hick ground with half a grandstand in the middle of Sydney and calling it progress. If you're going to spend the money, spend it well and make a long-term investment such as a multi-purpose stadium that can pay its own way with cricket matches and practice matches. With further expansion of the game comes more money and then further upgrades to the infrastructure across the state. But if you don't expand the game to get the money, what hope is there? Without wanting to come across as rude, because I do understand the problems faced in regional areas, the money simply won't come out of these areas - it comes out of Sydney. It's essentially a catch 22 situation, but long-term investment has to start somewhere, and the west is about as good as you'll get in Sydney because it still has trees that can be knocked down to make room for things like a stadium.

[JF_Bay22_SCG]

Originally posted by swansrock4eva
But the point is that there just aren't the facilities to even consider upgrading in the west - correct me if I'm wrong, but aside from the home grounds of Pennant Hills and ECE, I can't think of one other ground that would be considered suitable for any form of higher-level Aussie rules, yet we have guys playing out there week in, week out because there's nothing else and nowhere else to play.

Remember when our reserves played in the SFL. The only ground the AFL players union would let our boys anywhere near was North Sydney Oval. Suburban grounds like Brittania and Ern Holmes Oval, fuuuurget it. There was no way professional footballers were going to risk injury running around on the either concrete dustbowls or boggy mudheaps of the suburban parks of the SFL.

Henson Park represents a near ready made facility that we can not only use for big SFL games but hopefully AFL pre-season matches. Apart from maybe NSO (too small) or Macquarie Uni (no seats) there would be few other fields where you could do that.

Considering that there is another highly co-operative co-tenant to Henson park already with which we can share costs of ground facility upgrades, it would be crazy to not approach the Marrickville council together. Jeffles (board member of the Jets) from www.austadiums.com basically said that the council appear to be more responsive to AFL Sydney than the Jets from the outset. They asked for an improved PA system for the ground for their Grand Final, and got it instantly. Both them AND the Jets benefit from this in the long term.

Like it or lump it, Sydney needs as many decent-surfaced footy grounds as is. Henson Park is a start. Then we can look at improving places like Gore Hill Ern Holmes etc etc.

I'm sure there are ground in the Black Diamond league that need upgrading too. But saying that grounds in peripheral Newcastle should be given some sort of priority over growth areas in the Sydney metro area where the majority of NSW's population is is a bit tit-for-tat for my books.

I'd love to see the Swans play a Wizard Cup match at Henson. I think it would be good for Aussie Rules in Sydney. And good for not only AFL Sydney but the Jets RL side as well. As far as I'm concerned, everybody wins.

JF