kingbrooks
New member
balmain and wests was the right option
norths should have merged with parra and manly kept by themselves
norths should have merged with parra and manly kept by themselves
Why Not the Balmain Bears?
- Thread starter stevied
- Start date
GNR4LIFE
Well-known member
I wish the Bears were still around. Tragedy that the game has lost North Sydney Oval.
jirskyr
Well-known member
I was going to write a bit, people jumped in with the details already.
I do recall it was originally mooted to be Canterbury-Wests and Parramatta-Balmain to merge. Bears were always in line with Manly because of the geography you note.
Balmain and Wests both felt that the proposed mergers were more take-overs, and resisted, found common ground with each other and merged.
I think the members of the two football clubs supported it because of the natural feeling of the merger, I could never have comfortably supported an alignment with Parramatta, I would probably have gotten over it, but I always like Wests enough, they had the same battler-type background as Balmain, similar supporter base, it all just made sense.
They made a hash of the management but really as far as mergers go in rugby league, it's probably the most successful one, funny to say. They talk about internal ructions of the two factions but modern supporters are pretty on-board, there is only a very small core of Balmain- or Wests-centric supporters now 18 years later, and all the new supporters (kids) don't even identify with Balmain or Magpies.
WT are able to field a competitive football team every week, that's a measure of success, most mergers went to pot.
St George, a merger in name only for me, how often does the Illawarra or Steeler brand come up? It was a take-over, same thing I think would have happened to Balmain and the Magpies if they'd made other options.
Now for your question on Bears, I don't recall there ever being discussions in that direction. Bears and Tigers (or even Bears and Wests) would not have been a ridiculous fit, but it never really came up as a possibility from my memory. It was always going to be Bears-Manly.
What you can say is if Tigers and Bears had merged, Magpies would have been very strong chance of being cut. Maybe they could have gone down the Souths route and fought for re-admission, who knows.
I do recall it was originally mooted to be Canterbury-Wests and Parramatta-Balmain to merge. Bears were always in line with Manly because of the geography you note.
Balmain and Wests both felt that the proposed mergers were more take-overs, and resisted, found common ground with each other and merged.
I think the members of the two football clubs supported it because of the natural feeling of the merger, I could never have comfortably supported an alignment with Parramatta, I would probably have gotten over it, but I always like Wests enough, they had the same battler-type background as Balmain, similar supporter base, it all just made sense.
They made a hash of the management but really as far as mergers go in rugby league, it's probably the most successful one, funny to say. They talk about internal ructions of the two factions but modern supporters are pretty on-board, there is only a very small core of Balmain- or Wests-centric supporters now 18 years later, and all the new supporters (kids) don't even identify with Balmain or Magpies.
WT are able to field a competitive football team every week, that's a measure of success, most mergers went to pot.
St George, a merger in name only for me, how often does the Illawarra or Steeler brand come up? It was a take-over, same thing I think would have happened to Balmain and the Magpies if they'd made other options.
Now for your question on Bears, I don't recall there ever being discussions in that direction. Bears and Tigers (or even Bears and Wests) would not have been a ridiculous fit, but it never really came up as a possibility from my memory. It was always going to be Bears-Manly.
What you can say is if Tigers and Bears had merged, Magpies would have been very strong chance of being cut. Maybe they could have gone down the Souths route and fought for re-admission, who knows.
@ said:
If Wests or Balmain went the Souths route, they would not be in existence today. They would have gone broke quite quickly and the NRL would not be in any mind to prop them up. They would have faced the same problems taht they were facing pre-merger. Stand alone may have been possible initially but it was not sustainable. The Souths situation is not really relavent because YES they did fight and get re-admitted but would not have survived without Rusty and HAC buying them. In some ways Souffs situation is no different to the Wests Tigers. We are no longer Balmain or Wests and they are no longer SSDRLFC. I guess they get to wear their old jerseys.
My take on the whole merger,take over thing is,some clubs were on the ropes and may probably not existed much longer than they had…the Superleague really blew some clubs apart with the offering of big money that would of been unsustainable by the struggling clubs,anyway enough said on what should have or should not have been...Personally as many on here know,I was a Balmain boy my whole life,I lived and breathed the Tigers,the best thing for me was to embrace the merger as I had friends who played for the mighty Magpies and didn't mind them as I also liked the Newtown jets having lived there while attending business college..
Let me just say...it doesn't matter that the younger kids only know the WTs as they are today,for me and hopefully many Magpie brothers and sisters can solely enjoy the JV as we are lucky to have two great foundation clubs in one and with great leadership on and off the field we will be a club going forward at the rate of knots...I now live and breath Wests Tigers,thanks to the people who made this JV possible,we now need competence at all levels and we will be the force that the Magpies and Tigers once were in their early days....
Let me just say...it doesn't matter that the younger kids only know the WTs as they are today,for me and hopefully many Magpie brothers and sisters can solely enjoy the JV as we are lucky to have two great foundation clubs in one and with great leadership on and off the field we will be a club going forward at the rate of knots...I now live and breath Wests Tigers,thanks to the people who made this JV possible,we now need competence at all levels and we will be the force that the Magpies and Tigers once were in their early days....
innsaneink
Well-known member
@ said:
Dogs have regents Park berala etc, Enfield feds now with Balmain
Fairfield is Parra
Burwood/concord, five dock rsl, strathfield a Balmain
N
newtiger
Guest
I'm am old Balmain supporter and I am a devoted West Tigers supporter from 2000.
@ said:
Feel free not to venture back in the thread then.
jirskyr
Well-known member
@ said:
There is a long and varied history of how certain areas came to be under certain jurisdictions. Originally it was a lot about residency rules and clubs having to place players/junior clubs within their boundaries to qualify. The boundaries went in all weird directions depending on the politics of the time.
Balmain JDRLFC includes the Dundas Valley - that's 20 km from Leichhardt Oval! And explain to me how the Carlingford Cougars do not fall into Parramatta junior district?
Canterbury district has a club called the St George Dragons! Dragons JRLFC use Clemton Park as their home ground which is 2.5 km from Canterbury Leagues Club!
stevied
Well-known member
@ said:
Good on you TT! I agree with you that we are very lucky to be supporters of a merger between two traditional, foundation clubs and let me tell everyone I am a devoted Wests Tigers supporter! I want to thank all the contributors to this thread for three reasons;
1\. It clarified my fairly hazy recollection of the events leading up to and during the merger processes.
2\. It reexplained to me the reasons Wests and Balmain merged and why it was the best decision.
3\. It provided clear examples of the type of knowledgeable, passionate and fair-minded supporters we have on this site.
As most of you understood, I was merely putting forward a topic for discussion and I'm enjoying it!
Let's hope that, from now on, Wests Tigers management, the players and supporters can all get on the same bus and start providing the success us passionate fans deserve!
True story - back when the West/ Cant merger was first being sounded out. I borrowed a bunch of fan stuff from a Western Bulldogs (Footscray) fan that I knew. Took it to Campbeltown for a game, and told eveyone I had got my hands on some test supporters gear put together by the marketing team at Canterbury.
@ said:
Haha that's awesome.
How many did you fool?
That's a pisser… Good stuff! :laughing:
@ said:
You have to remember that when discussing Wests/Canterbury & Balmain/Parramatta boundaries your talking about 2 foundation clubs and 2 later clubs. West Ryde, Ermington, Dundas, Telopea, Rydalmere etc. became instant public housing suburbs from 1946\. Although it was a 20 minute walk from Rydalmere to Parra Town Hall, it felt very much a Balmain footy area as most people had come from that area and many knowing each other. Carlingford developed much later with farms still there in the 60's, so with the adjacent suburbs being in the Balmain juniors it probably seemed logical to follow. Parramatta DRLFC wasn't founded until 1947, so it's junior area was primarily to the west of Parra.
Wests had a larger area than many realise when you take in suburbs like Five Dock, Summer Hill, Petersham, Hurlstone Park, Burwood etc. The St George Dragons JRLFC were formed 60 years ago. Clemton Park is probably also about 2.5 km from Bexley so their original allegiance was probably with the older St George team.
240z
Well-known member
@ said:
Having been a Regents Park player many years ago I can tell you it is part of the Canterbury District and goes from there south Revesby and then east to Canterbury. I wanted to always play for Berala because of that but the Rego jersey was identical to the Magpies, black jersey and white V. Berala and Lidcombe was the start of the Magpies district and it went East to Ashfield.
innsaneink
Well-known member
Cougars (Carlingford) and Shamrocks (Dundas) were both originally school teams
St Gerards on Pennant Hills rd & St Pats Dundas Kissing Pt Rd
St Gerards was a primary school I think and they originated with two teams in the 60s, Parra or Norths didnt want to help them but Balmain came to the party
St Pats College move to Dundas in the 60s also in the early 60s, a club was formed in 67, St Pats sports club and teams entered Balmain JRL in 68
My son played for both these great old clubs and attended St Pats college
St Gerards on Pennant Hills rd & St Pats Dundas Kissing Pt Rd
St Gerards was a primary school I think and they originated with two teams in the 60s, Parra or Norths didnt want to help them but Balmain came to the party
St Pats College move to Dundas in the 60s also in the early 60s, a club was formed in 67, St Pats sports club and teams entered Balmain JRL in 68
My son played for both these great old clubs and attended St Pats college
innsaneink
Well-known member
@ said:
I guess Enfield Federals werent formed then as they had the Magpies jumper too
