September 5, 2002
THOSE fire-breathing Dragons are coming back to Kogarah - and the happiest man around is St George rugby league immortal Johnny Raper.
"This is where we belong," said the former international lock, regarded by many as rugby league's greatest player.
St George Illawarra and the National Rugby League will hold a press conference at the ground today to announce what many fans have been urging for the past two years: a return to Kogarah's Jubilee Oval from next year.
With new and improved facilities for all fans, St George Illawarra will play five games - or nearly half their home games - at Kogarah with the other seven being played at WIN Stadium in Wollongong.
Raper, 63, praised the Dragons for their decision to upgrade facilities and return to Jubilee Oval, rather than play at the much larger Aussie Stadium.
"This is the Dragons' heartland," he said, looking over a ground that he remembers used to have up to 20,000 fans cram in to watch him and fellow Test stars such as Reg Gasnier, Graeme Langlands and Billy Smith do their stuff.
"The danger with staying away from Kogarah was the prospect of losing a lot of fans who just don't like to travel ... and losing the junior league as well."
St George Illawarra chief executive Peter Doust said that with the backing of the local councils and State Government, the Dragons hoped to start about $1million in initial maintenance work and ground improvements.
A formal decision to apply for a grant of up to $400,000 from the State Government to fund improvements at Jubilee Oval is expected to be taken by Kogarah Council on Monday night.
By that time, Kogarah hopes to know whether the other two St George councils, Hurstville and Rockdale, will contribute cash to a public appeal to match the state grant dollar for dollar.
Rockdale Council has supported the "Dragon 'em back to Kogarah" campaign, but has not voted any money.
It is understood the council is waiting to see how much the St George Leagues Club is prepared to contribute before making a decision.
Hurstville Council was due to consider the issue again last night after deferring the matter on Monday. The amount mentioned privately for each council to contribute is $50,000, probably from next year's budgets.
Kogarah Council must be able to guarantee the matching amount before the state grant can be approved.
Kogarah is setting up a steering committee including the three mayors, the leagues club, the football club and the three local state MPs to drive the fundraising campaign.