The Eagles Merger

[heater31]

Read in Inside Sport once that Illawarra really were just happy to get a few home games out of the merger, so Rugby League could still be taken to the people (my knowledge of Sydney is not all that good, so imagine St George is one of the more inner suburb, traditional areas and Illawarra more of a family suburb??)

St George is actually an inner suburb near Botany Bay and Illawarra is actually a District of NSW and the Steelers were actually based in Wollongong. the NRL Dragons are actually a joint Venture in the NRL. Both clubs still have separate juniors and St George is considered to be the senior partner in the NRL setup.


My dad is an old school Torrens man and he was satisfied with how things went. Torrens had vacated their home of Thebby Oval and were virtually broke so Woodville Oval was the obvious choice with both player facilities and the Club behind the goals. Woodville had 2 nicknames in their short existence in the SANFL so what difference was it to change again?

[Magpiespower]

St George is actually an inner suburb near Botany Bay and Illawarra is actually a District of NSW and the Steelers were actually based in Wollongong. the NRL Dragons are actually a joint Venture in the NRL. Both clubs still have separate juniors and St George is considered to be the senior partner in the NRL setup.

At the time, St. George was virtually broke. Joint venture was their only chance of survival. Shame for such a proud club. Can't ever imagine the AFL letting Carlton or Collingwood merging.

Illawarra is given token acknowledgement at best. Sure, they get a few games at WIN Stadium. Even a mention on the club badge. But everyone considers the team to be 'St. George'.

Funny thing about Illawarra is that it exists in name only. It's a regionial area. The NBL's Hawks changed their name to Wollongong because that's the city they actually play in. Also more community support for 'The Gong'.

St. George have pretty much killed off the Sharkies as well. Cronulla really struggle with a big club like the Dragons as their next-door neighbour. Year-to-year proposition. Wouldn't surprise if they were the first NRL club to relocate.

Or suffer a similar fate as the Newtown Jets and North Sydney...

[am Bays]

Old time St George fans could claim that St George are merely claiming back their own territory. The NSWRFL brought in Cronulla and Penrith in 1967. Cronulla to basically weaken St George who had just won their 11th straight premiership and recruited heavily from "the Shire" and had the whole of South East Sydney to the own and boomed post war. Penrith to spreading suburbs of the West - sound familiar.

Illawara came in in 1982 once again after St George had won another two flags in 1977 and 1979. The gong I think was St Georges country zone.

So really if Cronulla were to fall over and with existing mergerof St George and Illawara the re-badged NSWRL competition is really just turning back time to when Menzies was in Power.

[Magpiespower]

So really if Cronulla were to fall over...

Reakon the NRL would be quietly popping champagne behind closed doors if this ever happened.

Finally get a team from the Central Coast into the comp.

Bring back the Bears!

[FlyingHigh]

Thanks for the above info on the Rugby League fellas, always interesting stuff.

[Il Duce]

So really if Cronulla were to fall over...

Reakon the NRL would be quietly popping champagne behind closed doors if this ever happened.

Finally get a team from the Central Coast into the comp.

Bring back the Bears!

Agreed 100%

[Strawb]

Old time St George fans could claim that St George are merely claiming back their own territory. The NSWRFL brought in Cronulla and Penrith in 1967. Cronulla to basically weaken St George who had just won their 11th straight premiership and recruited heavily from "the Shire" and had the whole of South East Sydney to the own and boomed post war. Penrith to spreading suburbs of the West - sound familiar.

Illawara came in in 1982 once again after St George had won another two flags in 1977 and 1979. The gong I think was St Georges country zone.

So really if Cronulla were to fall over and with existing mergerof St George and Illawara the re-badged NSWRL competition is really just turning back time to when Menzies was in Power.

The gong was a big St. George Recruiting zone back in day. so really it is just going back to what was. Except for the name all Illawarra got was a few home games and the socks. Interesting Merger was Wests Tigers it is a 50/50 club. Both clubs have a 50% stake in the club and the board is a 7 or 9 man board with every 3 years a Balmain and then a Western Suburbs person in charge of the club.

[McAlmanac]

For me, Woodville Oval was/is a spiritual home, so to have the team based there was a major win. Keeping League football in the Woodville area was important to me. As stated, Woodville had a couple of identities, so keeping the Eagle identity seemed a fair trade for the home ground. The "Big Eagle" guernsey of the 60's (one of the all time great guernsies) with some green incorporated would have been ideal.

Having said that, I believe robranisgod makes a good point in that if Woodville could have toughed it out then Torrens may have folded. From memory, I only saw about three hands go up against the motion at the meeting - I think they were all players.

[Sojourner]

Clearly the balance between upholding tradition and evolving as a club is a difficult one to keep in contrast when a club does amalgamate. The recent example of the Fitzroy members taking the Brisbane Lions to court to keep the trademark Lion emblem the same is perhaps a good example of how passionate people are over the changes that clubs wish to make. With that in mind I feel that the club did a very good job of the final presentation of the name, ground and so on that they had to put together.

As much as everyone likes Thebarton Oval for its rich SANFL history, its fairly obvious that the Woodville set up is a popular set up and works well. The club has announced major funding and development for the complex and I do think it will continue to have a high level of presentation as the SANFL moves forward, whereas the capacity to do the same at Thebarton may not have been there.

All that said however in regards to maintaining the history of the club, there is the issue of the club evolving and successive efforts at new guernseys suggest that the club is trying to find something that works not unlike what Port Power have recently done. The problem is perhaps that Yellow, Green and Blue are a difficult colour combination to get to work together. Yet to change it is to adopt a new colour or delete one of the old colours and that can only happen if the club is really ready to let go of the past. It would be interesting to see how an away guernsey in just Yellow and White would go much like the trialled St Kida away guernsey. I would like to see the Golden Eagle brought back as well, yet I think a lot more water probably has to go under the bridge yet before that can happen.