AFL Gather Round Brisbane v North Melbourne: All the news, colour and action from Mount Barker clash
Saturday’s Gather Round clash in glorious Mount Barker was the perfect blend of old and new – and gave the country a glimpse into the future of this bold, new venture.
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Mount Barker is the face of Australia’s expansion with its picturesque AFL ground wedged between the rolling countryside and new McMansions flooding this massive growth corridor.
On Saturday, the 50th venue to host an AFL game also became the battle ground for South Australian Premier Peter Malinauskas’ Gather Round master plan.
This glorious Adelaide Hills location, 40 minutes south-east of the city, was transformed for footy’s 16,299th match into what the game used to be with a hint of what this bold venture might become.
A quaint little ground with a tea-cup ride for the kids in the background and the Roos cheersquad partitioned off with plastic orange bollards.
The $3.50 sausage sizzle (damn you, inflation) right next to artisanal treats like $13 hot dogs and $12 glasses of the local pinot noir.
The ground had been boosted to a capacity of just over 7000 (official crowd 7329) with temporary stands and flash media facilities, with just enough old-fashioned nostalgia to remind us the best of community football.
And on a day when only the contest really disappointed – the Brisbane Lions won in a canter by 75 points – it became another Gather Round triumph as the action moved from the city to the suburbs to the hills.
But as the debate quickly morphs from whether Adelaide hosts the 2024 version of Gather Round to whether it can extract a four-year deal, it was also the first step in Malinauskas’ grand vision.
If Malinauskas has his way, according to AFL insiders, he would host events at both the Barossa Valley and McLaren Vale wine precincts next year.
The league assessed 14 venues in the Barossa before settling on Mt Barker in the Adelaide Hills because of a ground that recently received $38 million to set up a community sports facility.
Then, with the might of the AFL and $2.5 million in local and state funding, it transformed this venue in five months of work.
Malinauskas will believe this triumph of infrastructure building and old-fashioned hard work will prove creating two new venues to showcase wine regions next year is a drop in the ocean.
It meant 20 weeks of furious toil for curator Luke Cousins as he combated issues both significant and trivial.
His nervous moments came pre-match, not from the duck poo the AFL had so feared they installed a sonic machine to scare off winged interlopers.
Instead, it was 6mm of overnight rain.
In the end, he rated his upgraded surface and eight or nine out of ten.
“We just wanted to get it right for the government to give us this game. It’s a huge honour and we had to deliver and we are pretty confident we have,” Cousins said.
He need not have worried, with Griffin Logue walking past and declaring the surface “like carpet”.
North Melbourne president Sonja Hood, recovered from breast cancer and proudly representing her club in South Australia since midweek, was basking in the pre-game vibes.
“There is something so lovely about being in a place where people just love what you do,” she said of Gather Round and the appreciative footy public.
“The atmosphere out here is going to be fantastic, it’s just back to your roots community football and that’s exactly what we are about. A bit Arden Street-y, we would like to think cold rain would be an advantage for us, you have to take what you can.”
Up on The Terrace, sampling the array of local delicacies was Mark Bell, a former Coober Pedy resident who has moved to this growing area with his wife to raise 13 and 15-year-old kids.
They play for the Mount Barker’s Barkeroos – one of 20 mens, girls and boys teams and rising – and hope this game can leave a legacy for years to come.
“To have an AFL game on our home deck is pretty surreal and pretty amazing,” he said.
“We are pretty fortunate we get to have this exposure on this stage. We get brand new goalposts, hopefully we get another scoreboard. It’s a legacy of being an AFL ground. It is something that will attract more footballers to the area and get more people into the ground.”
On a day when Alastair Clarkson made clear he believed this concept must revolved between states every year, the counter argument was clear from Brisbane legend Alastair Lynch.
“It’s like grand final week in April in Adelaide,” he said of the hype generated at Mt Barker and across Adelaide.
The answer surely lies in handing Adelaide a 12-month runway to the 2024 version while giving Sydney two years to develop the 2025 version.
Former Geelong and Port Adelaide SANFL forward Dwayne Russell said retaining the event for next year would be a fair reward for a state that has a wonderful story to tell without often having the vehicle of major events to do so.
“I think there is a lot of beauty in SA that doesn’t get talked about outside of SA because people like to poke fun at the state,” he said.
“There are places undiscovered by people outside SA like the Barossa, places like Kangaroo Island, Victor Harbor, Port Elliot, the Riverland. If Gather Round allowed people to discover all those things it is worth its weight in gold.
“It would be a great reward for the government for what they’ve done to allow them to monetise it more next year and give them a reward but letting them have it one more time. It makes sense.”
SCOREBOARD
BRISBANE 5.1 10.6 17.13 22.20 (152)
NORTH MELBOURNE 5.1 7.1 9.2 12.5 (77)
WARREN PARTLAND’S BEST – Brisbane: Neale, Daniher, Dunkley, Hipwood, Cameron, Andrews, Ashcroft, Zorko. North: Sheezel, Ziebell, Stephenson, Coombe, Powell.
GOALS – Brisbane: Daniher 5, Cameron, Hipwood 4, McCluggage, Berry, Zorko, McKenna, Wilmot. North: Stephenson 4, Comben 2, Sheezel, Taylor, Shiels, Larkey, Powell, Phillips.
INJURIES – North: Simpkin (hand).
UMPIRES – Brown, Nicholls, Gianfagna, Dore.
CROWD – 7329 at Mt Barker.
Fagan’s Mount Barker surprise
- Warren Partland
Brisbane coach Chris Fagan is only too willing to promote Queensland as a venue for Gather Round after lauding the success of the inaugural weekend in Adelaide.
Admitting he had given the concept little thought in the lead up to the historic clash against North Melbourne in Mt Barker on Saturday, Fagan said the atmosphere had been “really good”.
“There are a lot of football grounds in Queensland, we have got two great stadiums and other grounds around the state,” Fagan said. “Hopefully that (Gather Round being held in Queensland) might be the case at some point.
“I wasn’t sure when we were playing in some place called Mt Barker, I’ve never been here before. I wondered what it would be like, might be a bit of a country ground, the surface might be a bit scratchy, probably going to be small.
“It was none of those things. The surface was sensational, as good as you would find anywhere in the country.”
Fagan believes his clever small forward Charlie Cameron, who finished with four goals in the 75-point belting of the Kangaroos, had been unaffected by racism comments on social media last week.
Describing Cameron as a resilient character, Fagan said he was loved by his teammates and had been well supported since the disgusting attack.
“He is hugely popular in our group and brings the fun and energy,” Fagan said. “I don’t think it bothered him and I’m glad he played well.
“Hopefully all the (racism) rubbish which seems to be popping up a lot lately stops. They (Indigenous players) love letting footy do the talking.
“It’s a good way to show if people want to say those things, it does not affect me.”
After scores were level at quarter-time, the Lions cranked up their game in emphatic fashion in a team-orientated performance which impressed Fagan.
The most pleasing aspect for the coach was the unselfish approach from his players, while also satisfied with the defensive pressure.
He noted the line-up had a swag of personnel changes from last season and the side was still learning to gel.
“It was great to get some percentage because we did not have much of that,” he said. “We need to keep it low key, but it will do a lot for our confidence.
“The best teams are the most connected teams. Our boys are a close group and they played that way today.”
How an ex-cow paddock became ready for AFL footy
– Matt Turner
The AFL has gone to every length to make sure an Adelaide Hills ground with an “MCG-like” surface is ready to host its first match on Saturday, even installing an “ultra sonic” bird deterrent.
Days out from Mount Barker staging Gather Round’s only regional clash, a repeller has been brought to Summit Sport and Recreation Park as a precaution, despite locals and the council insisting birds are not an issue.
It is the latest step in a mammoth operation to transform the venue from a sheep paddock three years ago to an oval with turf that Brisbane star Lachie Neale compares to the MCG.
The ground, which is about 40km from Adelaide’s CBD, has never hosted more than 1000 spectators but 8000 people are expected to attend Saturday’s sold-out match between the Lions and North Melbourne.
AFL boss of competition management Laura Kane said the league did many things to get the ground prepared and bird repellents were not unique to Mount Barker.
Mount Barker Football Club president, Matt Schultz, said corellas and cockatoos were common in the Hills generally during the summer, but in footy season birds were rarely at Summit Sport and Recreation Park, the team’s home ground.
Mount Barker's Summit Sport and Recreation Park is looking a treat, a day before the Adelaide Hills ground hosts its first AFL match.#gatherroundpic.twitter.com/CD2Ph178Vc
— Matt Turner (@mattturner1986) April 14, 2023
Deck looks good in Mount Barker. pic.twitter.com/XhzvjZPbXi
— Peter Malinauskas (@PMalinauskasMP) April 14, 2023
“It’s a bit of a surprise to me that they’ve put in the ultra sonic bird scare because we just don’t have issues out there – you don’t see them on the ground at all,” Schultz said.
While locals are not worried about birds, they are keeping on eye on the weather forecast.
The Bureau of Meteorology says there is a 50 per cent chance of at least 10mm of rain.
Schultz thought the ground’s surface would hold up fine.
Neale, who grew in Kybybolite in SA’s south-east, liked what he saw of the oval, which had similar dimensions to the MCG.
He was excited about playing in front of lots of family and friends, saying it would be particularly special for his grandad, a former Mount Barker local.
The Brownlow medallist’s first impression of the turf was it was “unbelievable and MCG-like”.
“It feels like that other than the stadium, but I love the backdrop here, it’s magic,” Neale said.
The oval sits between cow paddocks and hills, in a bucolic, elevated setting unlike any existing AFL venue.
Mount Barker council purchased the 38ha block of land in 2009.
Stage one of redevelopment started 10 years later after a $21m investment between Mount Barker, the federal and state governments, the AFL, SANFL and Football Federation SA.
New goal posts, temporary grandstands, a replay screen and a media box are just some of the infrastructure that has been installed to get the ground to AFL standard.
Wineries, distilleries and breweries showcasing Hills produce are behind an Adelaide Oval-like mound at the southern goals.
“Three years ago, this was a paddock with Murray grey cattle walking around eating the grass,” Leach said.
“Today you can see something any groundsman would be proud to call his own oval.”
SA Premier Peter Malinauskas said organisers had done an extraordinary amount of work in a short period to get the ground to AFL standard.
Malinauskas had fought for the Barossa Valley to stage the regional match but the AFL could not find a suitable venue and it chose Mount Barker instead, largely due to its size, space and surface quality.
“The whole idea for Gather Round from the state government’s perspective was to showcase beautiful parts of our state and the Adelaide Hills is a fine example of that,” Malinauskas said.
He hoped SA would host more than one regional game if Gather Round returned.
The Barossa would be on the cards, as might McLaren Vale.
“With long-term assuredness we can invest in the long term in other venues outside of this one so that the experience is unique, real and different from year to year,” Malinauskas said.
Leach, Schultz and other locals were keen for Mount Barker to get another chance.
Decked out with balloons in Lions and Kangaroos colours, the town’s main street was pumping on Friday, not long after the AFL teams’ trainings and signing sessions at the redeveloped ground.
The community cannot wait for what Leach and others are calling the biggest day Mount Barker has ever had.
“Everyone … in the area are honoured to be chosen for this match,” Leach said.
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