Watching The West Tigers Play On Sunday Arvo At Leichhardt Oval Is The Most ‘Sydney’ Thing You Can Do

"Hot day, hot dog," crowed the vendor, which confused me, because it was winter, but then it was kind of warm, and that's Sydney for ya. We don't really have a winter. There was no time to stop. We were making good pace with the foot traffic down Mary Street toward the southern end of Leichhardt Oval. In 15 minutes time the mighty Tigers were to take on Jonathan Thurston's North Queensland Cowboys in what would be one of the games of the season. Old mate's dog set-up did look good but we'd already been sorted by the Italian birds up the road. Real-deal butcher's meat too, not rubbish frankfurters, with onions off the hotplates, served and paid for in less than 30 seconds.

Leichhardt Oval is one of the last surviving bastions of traditional working class rugby league. As the game finds itself increasingly shunted to zero-atmosphere mega-stadiums with a 20% fill-rate, the humble Leichardt Oval with its 20 000 capacity and routine sell-outs is one of the few places you can experience rugby league as it is meant to be experienced. That is, on Wayne Pearce Hill with a tin of full-strength VB in hand and a crowd comprised evenly of dads and daughters, houso heads, ironic inner-city intellectuals, Pacific Islanders, Melanesians, Viets, Phillipinos, First Australians, assorted gambling, alcohol and drug addicts, and this guy, who really hates Jonathan Thurston.

They had it all to do, Jason Taylor's men. Despite a year of chaos, marked by the incredulous dismissal of Robbie Farah, a finals place still beckoned for the Tigers. In one of the boldest moves by a coach in his first year at a club, Taylor had axed the Leichhardt Wanderers junior and Origin stalwart, Farah, in favour of the energetic youth and dazzling creativity of halves/fullback trio, Mitchell Moses, Luke Brooks and James Tedesco. The fall out has been immense and is still ongoing, with Farah continuing to fire shots at coach Taylor via press conferences held on the sidelines of the reserve grade fixtures he's spent the last few weeks playing in. You can't blame him. Today should have been one of the greatest days of his life. Farah was set to rack up his 250th game for the Tigers today had everything gone to plan. And where else but Leichhardt Oval. There would have been no greater honour could for a rare one-club man such as he and it's hard to imagine a crueller blow for such loyal club man. But it's hard to argue with Taylor's decision. The Tigers have looked amazing without him, winning two from two since he was axed and building nicely toward the finals. A win over a star powered Cowboys outfit today will see them take off like a locomotive for the top eight.

First they will have to find a way to nullify the Cowboys half and Greatest Of All Time, Jonathan Thurston. What a afternoon this will be, watching the master at work from as intimate a vantage point as the Hill at Leichhardt. One for the grandkids for sure.

Entering through the southern end you're thrust straight into the Tigers merchandising tent, emerging out the other side to an electric feel. The hill is packed and Bowie's "Golden Years" reverberates around the ground us as we tread the soggy turf looking for a spot. It's not easy. The Tigers play only three or four games a year at Leichhardt and true league fans know the privilege of a clear line of sight at this suburban pressure cooker.

Huge fig trees billow over the fence while in the other corner some lucky prick sits on his front porch with his kids taking in the action. The best we can do is stand behind one of the giant light polls.

The atmosphere is intense. You're right on top of the players at Leichhardt. If you ever wanna scare your kid out of playing rugby league just bring him here and sit him in the first few rows. The sound of muscles slapping, skulls klokkking and, if you're particularly unlucky, bones snapping, is unlike anything I've experienced at any other sporting ground.

The menacing prop forwards who receive the ball off the kick off stand less than a meter from howling, irate fans as they prepare to receive the ball. I've seen scalding hot chips lobbed at man mountains here and heard obscene stream of consciousness rants that would make Allen Ginsberg blush delivered straight to a players ear hole.

It's suitably tense to open up. Kevin Naiqama pounces on a Cowboys error to open up the scoring for the Tigers. Thurston, meanwhile, ghosts around the field largely invisible for the opening 20. He's fresh off an injury and tentative in his involvements. The Cowboys look lost without him. He'll play this one out in a dinner suit but that doesn't make him less of a threat, necessarily. He proves as much at the 22nd minute mark when he chooses his moment and finds some space behind the defensive line with a centimetre-perfect grubber into the hands of Kane Linnett to level the scores at 6 a-piece.

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The Tigers strike back through David Noafaluma and a tremendous solo effort. It's pure grit and determination as the islander somehow overpowers three defenders to get the ball down. As he returns to our corner of the field for the restart the Leichhardt experience begins. The crowd goes up, long and loud, in an immense show of solidarity with the player. We're close enough to see how visibly moved by the response Noafaluma is which only encourages the crowd. Both teams will testify to the psychological affect of playing here after the game, with Cowboys Prop, Matt Scott going as far as saying he enjoys the abuse.

"I do admit I do enjoy it, the animosity…Certainly, I think there's a little bit of preferential treatment at the suburban ground," he will say at the presser.

The game sits delicately poised at 12-6 to the Tigers at halftime. A hush falls over the crowd as a tense arm wrestle sets in through the middle third of the game. Kevin Naiqama defies physics with his defence. The diminutive Fijian pocket rocket with a world class high-top hits and sticks like no other on the Tiger's right side. But the Tigers lack big-game expertise in crucial positions and Thurston is to lurking ominously in back play. He's still in that dinner suit but you get the sense he's just waiting to pluck the Tiger's eyes out once fatigue takes hold like he's done so many times for QLD at origin level.

Such is the intensity it could be an origin clash right now, but on an smaller suburban scale. A flurry of action begins the final ten minutes. Sue scores for the Tigers but Ethan Lowe answers straight back for the Cowboys to keep them within six. It has all the makings of a heartbreaking Thurston-led golden point boil over. Suddenly there's a hoarse desperation in the voices of Tigers fans as they're unable to convert momentum, emotion and field position into points. Then it happens.

James 'Teddy' Tedesco, the exploding star of rugby league, throws down arguably the solo effort of the year. A Cowboys defensive rush successfully shuts down a Mitchell Moses field goal attempt resulting in a nothing ball fired out to Tedesco in our corner of the field. I will have two main memories from this game. Kevin Naiqama's defence and the first few steps of Tedesco's try scoring run. The acceleration, power and balance of the man in those first few meters is shocking. He shakes Queensland origin 5/8 Michael Morgan easily and sets off back toward the sticks, beating Cooper, Taumololo, and hooker Granville twice. He brushes past a couple more, including origin prop, Jimmy Tamou before confronting who else but Thurston on the try line as they engage in an arm wrestle over the chalk. I counted ten tackle attempts Tedesco shrugged off on his way to the line. The ball catches some of the chalk, maybe. Controversy will linger over the decision for days to come but this is Leichardt Oval and you'd be a brave referee to deny an end to the game this poetic. An advertisement for KFC flashes across the screen before the video ref gives his decision: try. Delirium ensues.

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As the the full time siren goes and the Tigers take it an image of West Sydney-born rugby league great, Jarryd Hayne flashes on the big screen. It's an advertisement for the Tigers next game against Hayne's new team the Gold Coast Titans at Campbelltown Stadium, the Tigers other home ground in Sydney's furthest western reaches. The game is billed as "Hayne's return to Campbelltown" after the NFL-convert and rugby league great decided to head north to the Gold Coast and turn his back on his Campbelltown housing commission roots. The game promises a spectacular clash between the Hayne Plane and James 'Teddy' Tedesco, two players who vill vie for the NSW fullback position in the coming years. But the Tigers faithful aren't having it.

"URA FUCKING HAS BEEN HAYNE. HAS BEEN, HAYNE. FUCKING NUFFINNNGGGG," yells the neck-tatted youth in front of us. The west is Tigerland now and that means Tedesco country. They are on a tear toward the finals.

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