By Jacquelin Magnay
First published in The Age on April 4, 1998
Storm’s dream start amid ticket chaos
Melbourne wins on its dome debut with a 24-16 defeat of the Bears before a capacity crowd.
Storm’s Scott Hall celebrates with fans.Credit:Joe Armao
Thunderous applause from a capacity crowd and spectacular fireworks greeted the Melbourne Storm players as they ran on to Olympic Park for their first home game last night. But the first-night delight was soured by a ticketing bungle that left an angry mob of frustrated spectators outside the gates.
Yet the Storm played to the sense of occasion, pelting North Sydney 24-16 with the Bears’ score bolstered only by a converted try to Matt Seers after the final siren.
With four wins in succession — three of them away — the Storm has rocketed to the top of the rugby league ladder.
“We’ve arrived in Melbourne,” a jubilant coach Chris Anderson proclaimed.
“It was a great night, the players were rapt in the atmosphere, it was tremendous.”
The crowd outside Olympic Park.Credit:Joe Armao
The 21,000-seat ground was filled with expat league followers dressed in Canterbury, St George and old Eastern Suburbs jerseys alongside thousands of curious Melburnians keen to see what all the fuss was about.
The official crowd figure was given at 20,522, although thousands of pre-paid patrons, including gold pass members, were let into the ground without count at half-time. Club officials and the booking agent Ticketmaster were clearly caught unprepared as more than 3000 queued beyond the adjacent Glasshouse waiting to collect pre-booked and paid-for tickets.
Jeff Calderbank, of Cheltenham, had his gold member’s pass in hand, but had waited for well over an hour to pick up the ticket he had booked for his young son Adam.
“I rang and booked his ticket last Wednesday and paid $6 for it and another $6 transfer fee and this is what I get,” he said.
Roger Hayward, of Armadale, bought tickets for his wife Jean’s birthday but the only action they saw was the queue inching forward for nearly two hours.
Melbourne Storm play their first home game in 1998.Credit:Joe Armao
Clearly the Storm was caught red-faced by its own success. Executive director John Ribot apologised and urged people who had problems to ring the club on Monday. “We have to take a rap over the knuckles for that,” he said.
“It is a shame that when someone pays money to watch a rugby league match and they can’t get in.”
Even so, the house-full signs were welcome news for Ribot and his News Ltd backers, and Premier Jeff Kennett, who viewed the action from the boardroom box at the $5 million revamped Olympic Park.
Second-rower Paul Marquet, originally named on the bench, significantly made the first tackle of the match and then backed up with the first try.
As North Sydney coach Peter Louis summed up later, the Storm laid the foundations for the win in the first half with quick play-the-balls, a lot of muscle and forward movement.
“Whenever we had the ball they were in our face and when they had the ball they got us on the back-foot,” he said.
Back in the dressing room, the Storm players were euphoric.
Captain Glenn Lazarus said: “I am going to like playing here a lot if we can attract this sort of atmosphere and crowd each home game.”
