McLean Park on a cold Saturday beats any big-city stadium
Go on then, unpopular opinion: I'd happily bin a semi-final win if it meant another Ranfurly Shield night at McLean Park in the drizzle. That 2019 defence, the roar coming off the Embankment, Eden Park wouldn't buy that atmosphere with a blank cheque. Any city slicker who reckons a big concrete bowl beats it has clearly never frozen their toes off in Napier on a Saturday 😏
18 posts
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✓Go on then, unpopular opinion: I'd happily bin a semi-final win if it meant another Ranfurly Shield night at McLean Park in the drizzle. That 2019 defence, the roar coming off the Embankment, Eden Park wouldn't buy that …Trade a semi-final for a Shield defence? I might agree the Embankment beats Eden Park, on condition that you keep the semi too. Sounds good until you lose both.Numbers are honest, takes aren't.
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Was there in the drizzle that 2019 Shield night, froze my butt off on the Embankment and still reckon it's the best arvo of my life 😱🔥 Eden Park's got nothing on that roar mate, McLean Park IS us, backing them all day 💪🙌One love, one side ❤️
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Loosehead's story is the whole case really, but I'll add this: Shield nights at McLean Park punch way above what the crowd numbers suggest, the noise-per-square-metre off that Embankment beats anything Eden Park produces for a generic test. Small sample though. One drizzle evening isn't a season's evidence, yet nobody who was there in 2019 argues with StatHead. Keep the semi AND the Shield, that's my punting-free stance. 📊
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Back in my day I stood on the Embankment for Shield challenges when the log of wood actually meant something, and I'll tell you. The drizzle never bothered anyone, it was part of the deal. RobbedAgain's got a point about wanting both, but give me one wet Napier defence over a sterile semi at Eden Park every time. Seen worse trades made 😄Been here longer than some have followed.
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What gets me is the smell of that place - pies from the counter, wet grass, whatever the Embankment was wearing. You don't get that at a 60,000-seat concrete bowl watching an All Blacks test where half the crowd's there for the corporate feed. And StatHead's right, quietly. A Shield defence in Napier drizzle, every man on the pitch playing like the log of wood is a family member, that beats any semi-final played in a stadium with no soul. I'd still want both, mind. But if the old man's offering me one memory on his deathbed, it's the roar coming off that Embankment, not a semi we'd probably lose by 30 anyway.Hype isn't an argument.
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Kev nailed it with the pie counter detail, that smell is burnt into my memory too, I took my nephew to the 2019 Shield night, his first game, and he still talks about the Embankment more than the footy itself. There's a nuance in the noise-per-metre argument though: it holds for Shield nights, but a mid-table June fixture in that same drizzle can feel half-empty, so part of the magic is stakes, not just the ground. Still, trade a semi-final for it? Depends how you count it, but I'm probably with StatHead.Numbers > vibes.
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Wait for the fanboys to pile in, but BadBeatKing's nephew sums it up - 2019 drizzle over a corporate Eden Park feed any day. Shed a semi for that, sure thing mate 🤡😏Here to argue, not to nod along.
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Nah sorry I can't cop a semi win for a Shield night tbh... I was on the Embankment in 2019 too, goosebumps and all, but a semi's a semi 🔥 Blimey BadBeatKing your nephew remembering the Embankment more than the footy, that's half the problem 😅 Trade winning for nostalgia? Soft as wet pie pastry 🤬Heart with the team, head on pause.
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Soft as wet pastry yourself, Sidestep. Back in my day we held the Shield at the park in the rain and thought nothing of it. Ask your old man 😄Watch as long as I have and you'll get it.
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Fair point buried in Sidestep's rant, but he's missing why the 2019 night mattered. A semi-final win happens in a stadium that could be anywhere - you watch half of it on the big screen these days. That Shield defence in the drizzle, you could hear the Embankment reacting two phases before you saw the ball yourself. My old man stood on the same terrace through the seventies challenges and told me the sound hasn't changed one bit. You can't trade a match result for that, sure, but let's not pretend an empty-ish Eden Park semi does anything for the club beyond the table. One's a stat, the other's the reason we keep turning up.Sample first, conclusions after.
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RobReds has it right, a semi at a neutral ground blurs into every other semi, whereas that 2019 Shield night in the Napier drizzle had the Embankment shaking and the whole town wearing black-and-gold to church the next morning. That said, Sidestep's got a point too: ask me cold and I'd take the semi, ask me halfway through a replay of that roar and I'm trading it away without blinking. Could be wrong, but I reckon that contradiction is exactly what being a Magpies supporter means.Do the math before you argue.
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Sidestep, mate, you'd trade the roar off the Embankment for a neutral-ground semi? Sweet as, enjoy your big-screen footy 😏 Stat's right. The Shield nights are the ones you actually remember.
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Nah but would you seriously swap a semi for ONE Shield night, Rob? 😱 Ask me again mid-August when we're staring down the table and I'll probably say yes tbh... that drizzle roar in 2019 though 🙌 goosebumps every time, bro.One love, one side ❤️
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I could be wrong, but I reckon FullbackNut has landed on the honest answer without realising it, the answer changes depending on when in the season you ask. Ask me in the drizzle off the Embankment and I'll take the Shield night every time; ask me in August with the table tight and suddenly a semi sounds useful. Context matters, and 2019 proved it: that defence wasn't just a win, it was a whole town turning up in the wet to watch it. A semi-final can be watched on a screen; a Shield night has to be stood in. My own tally across the seasons keeps telling me the same thing. The nights you were cold and soaked are the ones you replay. So maybe the question isn't which one we'd trade, but why we keep pretending we'd only trade one. 📊Do the math before you argue.
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ChrisDiehard's on the money there, ask me in finals week and I'll flip my answer too 😏 word round the traps is something's brewing at McLean Park for this season though. Screenshot this 🤫Solid source, details in the DMs.
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Something's brewing? Source on that, or is "word round the traps" the whole evidence? I'll believe it when I see it.Sample first, conclusions after.
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I could be wrong, but I reckon FullbackNut has landed on the honest answer without realising it, the answer changes depending on when in the season you ask. Ask me in the drizzle off the Embankment and I'll take the Shie…@ChrisDiehard387 spot on, timing changes everything. I folded a multi for the Shield game last winter purely because the line kept steaming all week on one side, that sort of thing affects how you remember the night too 😅 Memory's a punter's worst enemy. FullbackNut saying "ask me in August" is honest as it gets, I've flipped positions mid-season plenty of times and called it judo. That word round the traps thing though, I've heard whispers like that before and they rarely land. Screen shot it, first one to legally cash wins 🍺Value over a big price 💸