Suncorp Stadium a fitting arena for greatness

TEN years already? It seems like only yesterday that we all oohed and aahed as the Broncos and Knights ran on to re-developed Suncorp Stadium.

Matt Bowen

TEN years already? It seems like only yesterday that we all oohed and aahed as the Broncos and Knights ran on to re-developed Suncorp Stadium to kick off the latest incarnation of Queensland's field of dreams.

It's difficult to believe now, with the stadium recognised as being amongst the best rectangular sporting grounds in the world (if not the best) that some narrow-minded short-sighted harbingers opposed its redevelopment.

I still feel bad about that.

It didn't take being at that first game - a win to a Joey Johns-fuelled Newcastle - 10 years ago tomorrow to change my mind and turn me into a Suncorp believer.

That happened a few weeks earlier when the then-Sports Minister Terry Mackenroth took a gaggle of journalists and one former footballer - a certain Wally Lewis - on a tour of the partially fitted-out stadium.

We walked in and our collective jaws hit the ground, as millions more jaws have over the past decade - 5,561,696 to be precise.

I remember we walked up the concrete steps as far as our hard hats would allow, while Wally regaled us with tales of beating the Blues on the old Lang Park.

"The ground fell away to that corner," he said, pointing down at a pile of rubble.

"I'd kick it down there and it would roll and roll. Garry Jack never worked it out."

We followed the imaginary ball as it rolled and rolled towards an imaginary corner post, the imaginary crowd screaming and banging their yellow Fourex cans together, but even Wally had to admit those days were gone forever.

"I would have loved to have played here," he said.

We would have loved to have watched him.

Those who have been around for a while talk about how the Commonwealth Games and Expo brought Brisbane into the brave new world. I've always thought Origin was just as crucial in convincing Queenslanders they were all grown up, and Suncorp Stadium is the symbol of that maturity.

Not that it has stopped those of us who live here from indulging in some childish pride.

When friends, who have watched rugby union Tests all over the world, came up from Sydney for the Bledisloe Cup match in 2006 I didn't ask them if they enjoyed the game. My first question was: "What did you think of Suncorp?"

Like all of us after our first look, they were gobsmacked.

One of the great things about the stadium is that we never get used to it. The events we have seen there, the moments we have witnessed never allow it.

Trawling through my memory banks to "research" this column, I was bombarded with favourite moments and cherished experiences.

I know I'm blessed to have a job which gives me the chance to have a front-row seat as sporting history is written, but it's not always the great happenings on the field that make the best memories.

Of course there have been no shortage of them at Suncorp.

There was Billy Slater's miraculous regather-kick-swerve-dive try in Origin ll, 2004. Although I'm equally partial to Matt Bowen's extra-time intercept match-winner in Game l the next year.

There was Gorden Tallis in 2004, still hampered by the neck injury that would see him walk away from the game, turning back the clock and scoring a "Raging Bull" special against the Storm. Then dedicating it to his newly-born son Ethan.

There were the farewell games of Bronco and Queensland greats Darren Lockyer and Petero Civoniceva; Will Genia scoring the try that gave the Reds the Super Rugby championship in 2011, the Roar winning and winning and winning on their way to the 2012 grand final, and concerts from Robbie Williams and U2.

But to me - and I'm sure, to many, many others - it has been something personal that makes this big, beautiful, shiny stadium part of our lives.

My best memory? Driving my then eight-year-old son to a Broncos game and remarking that he hadn't said a word for almost the entire trip.

"I'm concentrating Dad," he said. "I have to remember the way for when I bring my son to Suncorp Stadium."