In My View - November 2005

By Luke Brailey
Back to Belmore Inc. President

Belmore Sports Ground has seen better times and a lot of people in the Canterbury--Bankstown area want it to see the glory days again - the Bulldogs on the field playing first grade matches in front of the blue and white army no matter how small the ground may be.

The story of the Bulldogs and the history of rugby league in Australia are just about the same thing and the history of Belmore Sports Ground is very much part of that story. Now all this is under threat because of a proposed move to Telstra Stadium that would prevent the Bulldogs from playing NRL games at Belmore. BSG is a central component to Belmore’s identity and way of life. The Bulldogs need a home ground that links them permanently to their historic roots. Belmore Sports Ground is the best place for that.

The Bulldogs decided to leave the local area entirely to an alien environment at Homebush for the club’s first-grade training and administration quarters. As pointed out in this article, this is a move that would signal the end of a 71-year association between the club and the Canterbury-Bankstown area.

Because Belmore Sports Ground sits on land controlled by Canterbury Council, the council should perhaps endorse a plan for the sports ground that gives the football club a first-class base and the club should seek to secure it on reasonable financial terms for as long as possible. The football club, Canterbury Council and Federal & State governments would work together to finance this plan that would ultimately secure the Bulldogs’ future at Belmore.

The Canterbury-Bankstown area is passionate about rugby league and the Bulldogs. For 70 years, people in this area have gained strength and hope from watching the Bulldogs play at Belmore Sports Ground. Generations of families have cheered on the Bulldogs there and generations of young footballers have aspired to play on the same famous ground as their heroes. It is for this reason that we hope to return one day to Belmore Sports Ground.

Belmore Sports Ground with 20,000 people is more viable than at Telstra Stadium with only 10,000 people and looking at empty seats. I refuse to give up on the majority of Bulldogs supporters’ dreams of returning to our spiritual kennel. There is a prospect that the Bulldogs can return to Belmore. There are avenues to pursue and only if every avenue to keep the Bulldogs at Belmore has been pursued should any move be made to relocate the club.

While I recognise that the Bulldogs football club needs to make commercial decisions, in the fair dinkum department, the decision to leave Belmore is improper and wrong. Belmore Sports Ground could be upgraded as a first-class facility and would provide the Bulldogs with a bright future in the Canterbury-Bankstown district. The sports ground is in the midst of its supporters, the people who have made the Bulldogs who they are over the past 70 years.

I hope that the Bulldogs’ administration will listen to us when we tell it that the loyal supporters of this football club very much want our team back playing at Belmore Sports Ground. I urge the football club to come back to their traditional heartland, the local people that made them the outstanding club that they are today and who are very proud of them.