By RAY CHESTERTON
News Ltd
ONE of the most famous and formidable rugby league grounds in the world is being reborn, RAY CHESTERTON reports on the resurrection of Kogarah Oval.
Former St George Test hooker and captain Ian Walsh thinks of Kogarah Oval as a pressure cooker.
Small, pristine, verdant and appealing, Kogarah Oval was a boutique football ground ahead of its time.
It was also a test of an opposing team's resolve and a challenge to their ingenuity and composure when St George turned on the pressure.
And St George knew about turning on the pressure.
With players like Graeme Langlands, Reg Gasnier, Johnny Raper, Norm Provan, Billy Smith and a conveyor belt of other champions, St George won 11 successive premierships between 1956-66.
St George were unbeatable at Kogarah over those 11 years.
Between 1954 and 1966 St George played 56 games at Kogarah for 55 wins and a draw (20-all with Balmain in 1959).
It was an incredible run.
Now Saints are marching home again to Kogarah Oval, their spiritual home.
On Sunday they play neighbours Cronulla, a club that was part of Saints own recruitment base when they were at their peak.
Cronulla won first grade inclusion in 1967 and, although matches between the two adjacent clubs have never been malicious of violent, they are always played with intensity.
"One day they [Cronulla] were a junior league. The next day they were in first grade and we were playing against them," Walsh said.
"There was always a little bit of feeling in those matches."
Now St George, helped by an $800,000 government grant, have remodelled and repaired Kogarah Oval. They are returning to the ground they first used in 1950.
The return is a tribute to people power and the doggedness of a group of supporters who refused to accept that Kogarah Oval was gone.
Even as Saints adopted an almost nomadic existence by adopting Aussie Stadium, the SCG and Belmore as home grounds at different times, focused supporters refused to relieve pressure on the club, administrators and politicians to revive Kogarah.
"It's fair to say there has been an outspoken group of supporters wanting a return to Kogarah Oval," club chief executive Peter Doust said.
The initial stage of remodelling Kogarah Oval will cost nearly $2 million and includes 600 concourse seats, new food and drink outlets, new toilet blocks as well as improved facilities for coaching staff and the video referee.
It is another chapter in the history of a ground that started its life in 1936 in Kogarah Park as part of the golden jubilee celebrations of Kogarah Council.
The ground's official name is Kogarah Jubilee Oval but it has generally been known as Kogarah or Jubilee Oval.
It is one of the grounds that took on a personality of its own – as all good home grounds do.
Kogarah Oval's status was lifted by the premiership success of the St George team and its symbiotic relationship with an army of supporters.
THE return to Kogarah is being regarded by the red and white faithful as an almost religious experience.
When Saints left Kogarah in 1999 it was seen as permanent and heartbreaking.
The ground was in need of work and was not considered worthy of extensive renovation because of its small size.
Besides, St George had merged with Illawarra and would be playing at least half its matches out of WIN Stadium in Wollongong.
It seemed the end of a relationship that stretched back to Saints' first premiership game at Kogarah Oval on April 22, 1950, a 17-15 loss to Souths.
The crowd loved it, and came back for more. Every time Saints played at Kogarah the multitudes would arrive by car, bus and train.
Eight-carriage trains would pull into Carlton station carrying red and white supporters wearing scarves, beanies, jumpers and carrying flags.
The crowd would file down Jubilee Ave towards the ground 1km away, eager to see their heroes in a small arena that brought them closer to the play that the larger SCG.
"I remember watching them come down the street and thinking 'what a great sight'," former St George and Australian captain Graeme Langlands said.
"The supporters were an important part of being at Kogarah Oval."
Langlands will be one of the 15 St George "legends" honoured before Sunday's game.
The others are: Reg Gasnier, Johnny Raper, Norm Provan, Billy Smith, Ian Walsh, Ken Kearney, Johnny King, Eddie Lumsden, Kevin Ryan, Rod Reddy , Craig Young, Matt McCoy, Noel Pidding and Mark Coyne.
It will be St George, now St George-Illawarra's first appearance at Kogarah since July 11, 1999, when they beat Penrith 38-24.
"It's good to be going back to Kogarah," Langlands said.
Copyright 2003 News Ltd