Fears 'Spoon Bowl' will attract lowest crowd for 20 years

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Vlasnik

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Proud fans of Canterbury and Parramatta appear to have finally had enough, with Thursday's western Sydney derby in danger of drawing its lowest crowd in 20 years.

The Thursday night timeslot and awful form of the Eels and Bulldogs - they are last and 14th respectively - has left officials fearing a four-figure turn-out at ANZ Stadium for the Spoon Bowl.


"I feel for both sets of fans at the moment, especially ours because it's well documented what we're going through [with the salary cap].

"The last few weeks we've been playing positive footy with some younger blokes, so that's where we're at. They [Parramatta] have been playing some good footy, they've been a bit unlucky like us and if they take their chances they win a lot more games.

"Jarryd is a quality player, and players like him don't lose their ability. He's an important part of their team he's going to be hard to contain Thursday night, that's for sure.''


Eels CEO Bernie Gurr said the Thursday night timeslot in Sydney was a tough sell at the best of times, and a crowd of 10,000 was expected.

The lowest modern-day crowd for the derby was 1998 when 9541 watched the Eels triumph 7-6 at Belmore Sports Ground.

Derby day: Brett Morris helped the Bulldogs to a 20-12 win the last time the teams met back in May, when over 15,000 fans turned up to ANZ Stadium.

Photo: AAP
"Nobody is denying Thursday nights in Sydney [are difficult], where it's difficult to get around and get home and get the family and get back to a ground,'' Gurr said.

"It's good for ratings on TV but it's difficult getting people to the game. It's a bit like the 6pm Friday timeslot for certain venues in Sydney.


"But typically there is a passionate rivalry between these two clubs, a traditional rivalry with some great clashes in big games. We're not doing well this year but even before I was at Parramatta, the games against the Bulldogs were always special.''

Clubs have struggled on a weekly basis to draw decent crowds, but the Eels would have anticipated their clash with Canterbury to be an easy sell when the fixture list was first released.

As for Hayne, Gurr said there had been no further talks about offering the pin-up a new deal for 2019.

Gurr added the Eels had lost seven games this year when they had scored the same amount of tries as their opposition.

For the Bulldogs, who started strongly against South Sydney, and unlucky to lose the week before when they led Canberra by 14 points with seven minutes on the clock, could welcome back Greg Eastwood, while Nu Brown is a chance to be promoted to the starting side.


Lachie Lewis has showed plenty of good signs in his three NRL games at five-eighth, while Will Hopoate is sure to be primed for a big game against his former employers after quickly adjusting to life at fullback.

The Eels and Bulldogs have conceded 752 points between them with Johnathan Thurston's North Queensland, another shock disappointment, splitting them in 15th.
 

Vlasnik

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Sitting 14th??? We should celebrate :grinning: Now if we could only win on Thursday we might be able to gift wrap a wooden spoon in blue and gold and present it to the Eels after the game.
 

Scoooby

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Sitting 14th??? We should celebrate :grinning: Now if we could only win on Thursday we might be able to gift wrap a wooden spoon in blue and gold and present it to the Eels after the game.
Yes I would like to gift wrap the spoon for the eels Thursday night !!
 

Vlasnik

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It sounds like the only ones cheering on Thursday night will be the crickets chirping in the back ground.

 

Mr Invisible

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NRL: Crowds were strong for the Bulldogs vs Eels Thursday night game, with 38,423 packing into ANZ for the clash.
Reality: 5,200 supporters braved the cold and shitty weather to watch the Dogs play the Eels.
 

Realist90

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Come on guys and little dumb girls, let’s not be negative. We are improvement so much so we can potentially not receive the wooden spoon. More positivity thank you.

- sincerely the federation of genderless brave warriors with instilled bulldog DNA
 

The_Chimpster

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[QUOTE="Vlasnik, post: 3389289
while Nu Brown is a chance to be promoted to the starting side.
[/QUOTE]

Chance, what more does he have to do?
get a Dean pay tattoo, or branding on his ass cheek
 

Novdoggie

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No point in marking out the goal lines for this one
 

Novdoggie

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Well suck it up NRL. It's your problem now. You created it, you can fix it!
Yep!

The NRL need both these teams doing well for it to prosper. Maybe they might do something about salary cap mismanagement because I think a 10k crowd would be an absolute embarrassment to the game for two of the biggest traditional clubs.
 

Novdoggie

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[QUOTE="Vlasnik, post: 3389289
while Nu Brown is a chance to be promoted to the starting side.
Chance, what more does he have to do?
get a Dean pay tattoo, or branding on his ass cheek[/QUOTE]In fairness to Pay Nu Brown has been injured. Yes last week he came on and did well enough to be promoted so hopefully after a run under his belt he gets his chance this week in the starting side.
 
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