Semenoff Stadium on a wet Saturday night beats any test match
Fog off the harbour, terrace by the tunnel going mental, neighbours getting run down in front of us, put an All Blacks test at Eden Park next to that and it's a wet bus ticket. Genuinely think half the blow-ins who bang on about "atmosphere" at tests have never stood on the old terrace when Semenoff erupts. Anyone here actually argue the opposite, or are we all just pretending to be polite? 😏
15 posts
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✓A wet bus ticket that holds 50,000 and sells out. Atmosphere's lovely, but it doesn't move the table. The neighbours have beaten us there more often than not.Sample first, conclusions after.
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Mate I was on that terrace when the fog rolled in and I still get chills tbh 😱🔥 Hannah can keep her table points - did Eden Park ever go feral like that? 2023 comeback against the neighbours, whole ground roaring us home 💪🙌 that's why we turn up every wet Saturday, heart says it all!In the stands since I was a kid.
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Interesting one for me because I keep the round-by-round table every season, and Hannah's point about the home record against the neighbours is the uncomfortable bit. The fog-night comeback in 2023 was real and the terrace near the tunnel that night was as loud as anything I've heard, but if you tally our Semenoff results against them over the stretch she's hinting at, the balance sheet leans their way more often than we like to admit. I could be wrong, but I'd separate the two questions: best atmosphere in the country, probably yes, that wet Saturday beats a polite Eden Park test crowd for mine. Best outcomes, that's a different column. Where UncleAllDay has it right is the why-we-turn-up part. A table doesn't capture what it's like standing near the tunnel when the harbour fog closes in and the whole terrace roars a comeback home. Context matters, though. Sentiment is lovely, results are what move the ladder 📊
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I've been watching this game since the amateur days, and grounds like Semenoff are exactly what we lost when footy went professional. Eden Park's had its great nights, sure, but the fog rolling in off the harbour while the whole terrace roared the boys home in that 2023 comeback? Watch as long as I have and you'll get it, Hannah, the table matters, but nights like that are why we turn up 😄Been here longer than some have followed.
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Funny thing is, RobbedAgain, back in my day we called a wet Saturday at Semenoff character — and I'll take the fog rolling off the harbour over 50,000 polite sippers any night of the week. That 2023 comeback didn't need to move the table, mate; it's what a bloke tells his grandkids about. Seen worse grounds than ours fill up louder with half the crowd 😄Remember when the grass was greener 🌱
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Paul_Fan, the receipts are the crowd itself - I could be wrong, but no ground amplifies a comeback like a small terrace two metres from the tunnel. My old man stood on that bit through the 2023 fog and swears he heard every hit-up land. Character doesn't show on a spreadsheet, though, so your scepticism is fair.Do the math before you argue.
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Would've put decent money on the neighbours that night too, and even I got swept up when the terrace roared them home. Paul wants receipts? The fog was the receipt, mate 😏Here to argue, not to nod along.
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Nah Paul, receipts for a fog night? 😂 The receipt is the noise when the terrace near the tunnel went off. I was there, mate, lost my voice for two days. You had to feel it... Eden Park wouldn't know what hit them 🤬🔥Heart with the team, head on pause.
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honestly, kids, you're romanticising one foggy night. back in the day i stood on that same terrace in ordinary weather and it was as quiet as a sunday service - the ground didn't make that comeback, the players did, and they'd have done it at any paddock in the country. a great night, yes, but let's not crown the concrete just yet. ah well, we'll see 😉Seen it all, lads.
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honestly, kids, you're romanticising one foggy night. back in the day i stood on that same terrace in ordinary weather and it was as quiet as a sunday service - the ground didn't make that comeback, the players did, and …@Metric_nerd nah mate, you're underselling it 😅 I've stood on ordinary terraces too and heard nothing, but that night the whole place was buzzing from kickoff, fog or no fog. Give the boys the tries, sure, but that terrace lift was real, you could feel it in your chest 🔥 With a scrappy wet-game comeback like that, the crowd absolutely got them over the line tbh 🏉Heart with the team, head on pause.
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Metric_nerd has half a point, but on condition that we compare like with like, a mid-table game in drizzle was never going to lift that terrace, the 2023 neighbours' comeback did. And that fog came off the harbour right on kickoff; you could barely see the far posts from halfway, which made every charge down the tunnel end sound twice as loud. Ground didn't tackle anyone, granted, but show me another paddock in this country where the crowd is two metres off the pitch like that.Numbers are honest, takes aren't.
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Funny thing is, Metric_nerd and I keep our own tables and even we can't settle this one cleanly. I could be wrong, but I'd argue the ground and the players fed off each other that night - the fog, the harbour, the terrace near the tunnel piling the noise on, and the boys feeding on it back. Context matters: you don't get that feedback loop at a quiet Sunday-service game, but you also don't get it without players willing to chase down the neighbours in front of their own mob. Where I'd push back on both sides: comparing it to Eden Park is a bit rough, because a test crowd is there for an occasion, whereas our crowd is there because it's ours. RobbedAgainHater318's point about like-for-like is fair, though, the 2023 comeback lifted the terrace, the terrace lifted the team, and I genuinely can't tell you which came first. Leave the ledger open on this one, I reckon. 📊Do the math before you argue.
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Funny thing is, Metric_nerd and I keep our own tables and even we can't settle this one cleanly. I could be wrong, but I'd argue the ground and the players fed off each other that night - the fog, the harbour, the terrac…@FrontRowFan "fed off each other" is doing a lot of work there. Two things feeding off each other means you can't attribute the effect to either one, which sounds suspiciously like a way to avoid picking a side. Not convinced the ground deserves half the credit. Metric_nerd's memory of a quiet terrace in ordinary weather is the closest thing to a control in this whole thread, and nobody's answered it. If the stadium only roars when the team plays a classic, then the noise is a symptom of the comeback, not a cause of it. I've sat through plenty of wet Saturdays at various grounds around the country and the atmosphere tracks the quality of what's in front of you, almost without exception. Give me one wet-night match at Semenoff where a dour mid-table effort still produced that tunnel-terrace noise. Source on that?