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SOUTH SYDNEY CELEBRATE THEIR FIRST MATCH IN ABOUT 2 1/2 YEARS!
Counting since 17/02/02
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South Sydney (30) Saint George (18)
S.G. Ball (Under 18's)
Jersey Flegg (under 20's)
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South Sydney (8) Saint George Illawarra (16)
First Grade (Charity Shield)
Overall winners of the day - Rugby League
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It's back, along with the Rabbitoh's, The 'annual' Charity Shield 2002 Souths v's Saint George Illawarra. Proceeds to the Children's Hospital. These games were sadly missed the previous two years with Souths forced exile from the National Competition. This marks South's first game of competitive Rugby League in nearly 2 1/2 years and what a game it was considering we have not played at all as a new team until this match! South's first 'real' NRL match is set down for March 2002 but this trial match was sold out, televised live by Fox Sports, Channel 9 Sydney, Live in England and radio broadcast along with South's huge fan, Russell Crowe, organising for a personal live telecast to Rome where he was holidaying - all this a FIRST in the history of Rugby League trial matches in Australia and possibly the world! Who said Rugby League doesn't need Souths? Bet you're not now.
It has been a long wait but well worth it now. This game drew more publicity and attention than any Grand Final I care to remember and in fact it was like being at a Grand Final not only a trial match! This is the result of so many people, fans, celebrities, volunteers, legal teams and officials etc etc of the past nearly 2 and 1/2 years of fightback to have Souths re-instated to the League where they belong. They should never have been 'punted' in the first place. Rugby League needs Souths and if this game is any indication of the revival to Rugby League Souths can bring with it's re-instatement then all I can say is sit back and enjoy the ride.....
My family and mate's family day started at about 11am in the morning when we jumped into the car and left for Redfern Oval and the Leagues Club where we had a couple of pre-match drinks and then boarded the free bus shuttle to Aussie Stadium (formerly Sydney Football Stadium), our present home ground, to watch 5 games of Rugby League. We sat with our friends from the Macarthur Rabbitoh's in general admission bay 8. Enjoyed the footy and especially how well Souths First Grade side actually went considering they had never played as a team before. (20 all draw against many international stars in Saint Gils side give you an idea I am sure!) In fact all the Souths sides of the day played well and First Division put up an okay fight considering they were playing last years premiers.
When the team mascots ran on there was a surprise for many Rabbitoh fans. It looks like Reggie the Rabbit has a girlfriend???? There was Reggie running out chasing what appeared to be a female Rabbit (I called her Regina, officially I don't know - There are some things that do not change and that is the loudspeakers at the stadium only cater for people in lower rows as those undercover can't hear a bloody thing and needs to be fixed, please. So if the ground announcer introduced her I didn't hear it.) You can see them in a couple of the photos on this page.Thanks to Sean L. from the rabbitohs e-group who told me the ground announcer introduced this new 'rabbit' as Charlie, now whether or not Charlie is a girl or a boy anyone know?
South's have a lot to learn, which they will, as they play more matches together BUT they have gone out first up in a trial match and proven they actually do have something to offer to the Rugby League competition in certainly appearing very competitive in deed. Saint George Illawarra proved not to be easy beats in attack or defence on the day which only further highlights how well Souths did perform to have drawn the match (in fact if our goal kicking was a bit more spot on during the day who knows....sadly the winning attempt at converting our try in dying minutes of the game proved unsuccessful to the sighs of relief of the far out numbered Saint George fans (and players too) that attended the game. The game was a 'nail biter' all the way through and whilst it is nice to go out and easily win a game the fact that this was so close it put you on the edge of your seat all through the game, adding to the excitement of the day. (Just don't do it too often please Souths LOL LOL).
The official attendance crowd was 36,804 despite the game actually being a sell out (around 40,000 plus). The inclement weather during the first division game just prior to First Grade and the fact it was being televised live may have stopped around 4,000 paying fans from actually attending the game in person. Most likely Saint George Illawarra fans....LOL LOL....Souths wouldn't dare!? A small shame as the rain had stopped by First Grade. The stadium was virtually packed anyhow, and as indicated before, was a first for a trial match ever.
The big plus is that South Sydney Rabbitohs continue to hold the trophy pending next years clash. Well done and good luck for the season and seasons to come. You did us fans proud, thanks.
Oh well, a half hour or so walk back to the club for a few celebratory drinks, meat some new and past Souths players, see some friends and e-group members etc. We got home at 1.15am the following morning.....a long, but great, day. The club was staying open until around 5am for the fans that totally filled it after the game.
One last thing. I took heaps of pictures but as was under cover and very shady and also by the first division game it was pouring with rain and already very dark due to black clouds which can be difficult for a digital camera to deal with depending where shooting. Many of my photos, whilst good enough for me to keep, were not the better quality for putting on the net, sorry, but hope you enjoy this small selection anyhow.
Note:- To view larger picture click on the thumbnails below and a new browser window should open to display the larger version. All you have to do is re-select this window and click on the next picture you want to look at and go back to the other browser window and so forth. This is to save you having to continually click on the 'back' button in this window. It also allows you to use the back button on the picture 'viewing' (ie the new browser window) to look back and forward at the pictures you have already downloaded saving you having to download them again. Better still click on first thumbnail, then come back here and click on all the other thumbnails you want to see. When finished go to the 'viewing' window and use back and forward buttons to browse each larger image at once! As you do this 'clicking', provided your browser is set up to it's default setting, the file names under each of the thumbnails will change colour so you can keep track of which ones you have already clicked on thus avoiding repetitive downloads which can cost you if on a limited ISP plan. (Usual default settings are red for not visited and blue for visited) Enjoy.
To go to my other site, the main boycott history page (previously was the boycott page), you simply click on the link:-
It is okay for you to copy the pictures for personal use but remember to pop a donation off to South's! Please do not deface, make any commercial gain and so forth to / from any of the images. Thankyou.
"HELP ENSURE SOUTHS STAY IN THE LEAGUE!"
Same link can also be found at the bottom of every 'album' page. On that site you will also find graphics of past fightback / supporter stickers etc, most not on these pages.
CLICK ON THUMBNAIL PICTURE TO SEE IT AT FULL SIZE.
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RED & GREEN MUST BE SEEN!
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This photos page first posted to the Internet on 17th February 2002.
Actual sites last update can be found near the bottom of the main page which can be located from the link "MORE RABBITOH PHOTOS!" above.
Pages have moved several times as 'free' photo providers either closed up or started to charge for their services. Because there is a lot of work in setting these up I have given up and now trying my own web-page based photo albums which I have more control over and are a lot simpler to maintain. Because of the overall size of the album site, which is well over my ISP's megabyte limits, I have had to look for a 'free' web-page provider and in return for this 'free' service am displaying their banner adds. I am hopeful that the pages will no longer require any further movement. I hope this advertising is not too much of an inconvenience as the only other solution for me is to remove the pages from the web completely. You never know you might see something that interests you - but please come back!