Round 8 of the Telstra NRL premiership saw the Wests Tigers return to the newly renovated Campbelltown Stadium for the first time this season to take on the Sydney Roosters for the second time this season. Round 1 saw the Wests Tigers cop a pummelling from the Roosters to the tune of 44-32 in stifling conditions. Both teams entered the match on 8 competition points and facing several injury concerns. The Roosters entered the match minus halfback Mitchell Pearce and backrower Daniel Conn while the Tigers were missing halves Tim Moltzen and Robert Lui.
With the Tigers lacking a genuine halfback, this saw regular hooker and captain Robbie Farah move to halfback for today’s game in an effort to get more quality ball to Benji Marshall, while backrower Liam Fulton moved to hooker and big Todd Payten was a late inclusion to the starting side with Mark Flanagan dropping back to the bench and Junior Moors dropping out of the side. Western Suburbs halfback and captain Nathan Waters was named on the interchange bench for his first grade debut. The last couple of matches had seen the Tigers drop off from their good early form with plenty of dropped ball and massive tackle counts. If they were going to win today, they needed to reverse this trend.

Construction at Campbelltown Stadium is continuing throughout the off-season as the $8 Million Federal Government grant has helped Campbelltown City Council proceed with Stage 3 of the redevelopment.

Additional seating and the new video scoreboard support structure can be seen in the pictures posted below. The works also include enhancements to amenities and media facilities, as well as a new passenger lift and access stairwells in the western grandstand.

The Wests Tigers have posted comments on their website (this link is now defunct - Wests Tigers have taken it off-line for reasons unknown) claiming that there will be four home games at the traditional venues in 2010.

Since 2005 the Wests Tigers have been playing 6 home games at non-traditional venues, leaving 3 home games for both Leichhardt and Campbelltown. 6 home games were played at Telstra Stadium, then at the  SFS/SCG each season for a reported $100,000 windfall for the club.

This increase in the number of traditional home games will be warmly welcomed by Wests Tigers fans. Traditional home games have been drawing high crowd figures over recent years and with recent Government funded projects to develop the venues, both Leichhardt Oval and Campbelltown Stadium should now be more economically viable as home game venues for the club.

To view the complete Membership packages read more........