As North Sydney Oval stands eternal, the Bears live between past and future

Source : ABC NEWS

North Sydney Oval is a place where time stands still, which can be a good thing on the right day because it’ll make you want to stay forever. 

The ground has been used for more than 150 years, so a timeless quality comes with the territory, and you can feel that age from the famous fig tree at one end to the grandstands that dot around the oval in such irregular fashion.

You would never build a ground for rugby league to these specifications. It is too idiosyncratic, too asymmetrical, too clearly a product of decades of growth and changes happening to one part of the ground at a time.

But this is what gives North Sydney Oval its character. It was not planned, it is lived in. You can feel the age in the best possible way and in a world consumed by a need for efficiency, parts of it are gloriously archaic.

The Duncan Thompson Stand, with its green roof and wooden benches, has stood in some form for almost a century and the upgrades over the years have stopped the ground from falling into disrepair while retaining its genteel spirit.

It is the oldest of rugby league’s suburban outposts. They laid the first cricket pitch here in 1867, 10 years before the first Test match, almost three decades before rugby league was ever thought of and just a few months before the final British ship transporting convicts landed in Australia.

The Bears first played here in 1910 and even now, a quarter century after Norths went into hibernation and two decades after the last NRL games at the venue, it has still hosted the third most games of any ground in first grade history.

With the Bears being reborn across the desert in Perth, it’s natural to wonder if that number can grow again, even if it’s by one a year. In their pre-life, the competition’s newest club is caught between two worlds, between the future in the west and the past, so much of which lives on at North Sydney Oval.

It’s what sustained them through the wilderness, as was the dream that the Bears could come back again to the only real home they’ve ever known even as they prepare to find a new one on the other side of the country.

It’s why it was reasonable to expect a bigger crowd than usual for their first home game since the announcement, because surely this was a time to celebrate the end of the struggle.

But given the temperature never got above the mid-teens and the rain constantly threatened, the crowd for this game against St George Illawarra was close to the same as ever, maybe a little less. On a day it was 24 and clear in Perth, winter had well and truly set in at Norths.

But it was alright, because there have been so many days like this before, where it’s not about marquee signings and premiership returns but about being there for one another. The former can’t happen if the latter didn’t keep the home fires burning.

It’s match days like this that have kept the club alive all these years, as North Sydney Oval acted as a meeting place for the diehards who never gave up hope, the rusted-on Bears who couldn’t let go as much as they tried because no other team felt right, the dreamers and the nostalgia addicts, and the types who have a certain kind footy itch that the NRL and the stadiums that look like spaceships can’t quite scratch.

It is a community ground and North Sydney has been a community team for some years now. Greg Florimo once said that it was this aspect that made keeping the Bears going worthwhile, even if they never got back to the top grade.

He may have never given up hope of a first grade return but as the years mounted and various expansion chances came and went, Florimo and everyone else who kept the red and black spirit alive did so because every rugby league community needs a place to go and a team to hold close to their heart, and this was North Sydney’s.

Florimo is here today, shaking so many hands and getting so many pats on the back it’s as though he’s a soldier come home. Given all he’s done for this club, he kind of is.

There’s always a couple more Bear personalities floating around — Jason Taylor pokes his head in, so does Channel Nine presenter James Bracey in a faded Bears shirt that puts some of the faux-vintage numbers to shame.

Anthony De Ceglie is here too and the newly appointed CEO of the Perth Bears could have walked the ground anonymously not too long ago but now he’s the shepherd of the new side everyone knows him.

The crowd is alive with chatter over the possibilities in Perth, who could be coach, who they might sign, what it will be like when the Bears colours run out there again in the big league, even what to expect from the city itself when they head over for that first game because many of them have never been.

The action on the field, where Norths — currently acting as Melbourne’s feeder club — are locked in a bitter struggle with the Dragons, is tough and willing and even on an oval field it’s personal in a way NRL games never can be. 

The Bears score first through backrower Matt Stimson and are dealt a blow when fullback Zac Makelim is injured after 25 minutes. 

They manage to take a 12-6 lead into halftime before the visitors — who boast a score of NRL experience through Lachlan Ilias, Raymond Faitala-Mariner, Hame Sele and Cody Ramsey — grind out a 28-18 win.

Nobody seems to mind all that much. There are enough families here that the face paint stall is almost as popular as the front bar. 

It all feels a long way from the smoke-filled backrooms where captains of industry and politicians struck the deals to make the Perth dream a reality.

The Bears still print monthly match-day programs and their next home game in early June will be part of the annual Beer, Food and Footy Festival, which is exactly as good as it sounds and should lead to the biggest crowd of the year.

Kids slide up and down the muddy Doug Walters Stand, which is actually a hill, as beleaguered parents chase after them. A few fans duck over to Percy’s as the second half rolls on, because it’s as warm and dry as its beers are cold. The Bears lose, but it’s still a fine place to spend a Sunday, even a cold and wet one.

The match itself is only a part of the experience at places like this. Winning is always better than losing but there are always more games to be played and if results were all that kept fans going nobody would stick with footy for long. 

You come to hope for a win, you stay because it’s a part of you and you are a part of it.

Like a lot of the ancient suburban grounds, North Sydney Oval is a great place to be while football is being played, which is not the same thing as being a great place to watch football.

The same is true of many of Sydney’s oldest rugby league temples and on that scene, the Bears again find themselves caught between two worlds.

North Sydney Oval is more pastoral than Western Suburbs’ Lidcombe Oval, more picturesque than Newtown’s Henson Park, and a little more advanced than both besides. 

It wasn’t so long ago that it hosted the women’s State of Origin match, attracting a crowd of just over 10,000, which is close to the maximum the ground can safely hold.

That game has since outgrown the venue, which is why Bear Park is closer to the two aforementioned grounds than it is to Manly’s Brookvale Oval, St George Illawarra’s Kogarah Oval or Wests Tigers Leichhardt Oval and Campbelltown Stadium.

North Sydney Oval is a beautiful place but the heart can’t obscure what the head knows to be true. which is if the Bears were ever to realise their final dream and return here for just one day, the ground as currently constructed means their best shot would be a trial game and more NSW Cup matches like this one. 

Significant work would need to be done for the ground to host an NRL game.

The question isn’t the quality of the facilities, which have been upgraded to a high enough standard for the ground to host a women’s Ashes ODI earlier this year, its the just the size of the place.

For the Bears to justify moving a game there, a crowd of 10,000 would not be enough — especially, if mooted, the game would be against old rivals Manly.

With that in mind, and NRL attendances booming in general, shifting the game to neutral territory at the new Sydney Football Stadium is the more viable option for the Bears debut season in 2028.

That’s not to say, as the vision for the Perth Bears becomes more solid, a return to North Sydney Oval cannot happen.

It could take some years so the gears will have to start turning sooner rather than later but the goodwill for the Bears will never be greater than right now, when the old colours become new again and the resurrection finally comes to pass because even as a red and black sun rises in the west their links to this place will still be strong.

The local council in North Sydney, which has shown a great commitment to the ground for many years, has spoken positively about an upgrade and it would benefit more than just the Bears given the amount of men’s and women’s local and professional sport the venue hosts.

The link the ground has with the Bears is eternal, but it’s not just their place — the game against the Dragons was just their second home match of the year due to a late handover with the cricket season.

The NRL seems behind the cause as well. Part of the reason the Bears were chosen for expansion is because of their heritage and North Sydney Oval is a bricks and mortar link to what’s come before. 

What to do with Bear Park is the same fundamental question that hangs over the Perth Bears. It starts here, and this is perhaps where it will be hardest, but it’s something they will confront time and again.

How much of the past, which is proud and meaningful and gives them a credibility money cannot buy, can serve the future?

How much can that future, which depends so much on Perth taking this team to heart just as the northsiders did all those years ago, draw from their past?

Just as there’s a difference between a local oval and a stadium, between a wooden bench and padded seats, there’s a difference between being a club and a franchise.

Most NRL teams are torn between the two. North Sydney is more the former but any new NRL club must be more the latter. The Perth Bears must find a way to live in the space between.