One Last Roar from the Hill

You don't need a ticket to know when it's game day at Leichhardt.

You can hear it from three streets away. The PA crackle, the siren, and then the roar: a sound that rolls up over the terraces and out across the suburb. It's the noise that makes locals in their backyards and kitchens look up for a second and think: 'Ahh, the Tigers are playing'.

You don't have to care about rugby league to feel it. The cheers, the traffic, the hum of a packed ground on a winter afternoon: that's the sound of the neighbourhood switched on. It belongs to everyone within earshot. Not just the people inside the fence.

Because Leichhardt Oval was never only a footy ground. It's the walk up James and Mary Street, fans off the light rail with scarves on and kids on shoulders. The bumper-to-bumper traffic, and witnessing the slow pilgrimage of fans marching uphill to cheer on their side. It's that racket outside your window that tells you what day it is without checking a calendar. Then, you get to the Hill: a great sweep of grass where, for the price of general admission, you stand shoulder to shoulder with twenty thousand strangers and feel like you own the place.

There aren't many grounds like it left. Most of the game has moved to the big rectangular stadiums out west. Allocated seats, corporate boxes and roofs – but stripped of the character games once had. Leichhardt is one of the last of its kind: a proper suburban ground where you stand on a hill, in the weather, close enough to hear the players call the play. There's no roof over the Hill, so when it rains you get rained on. Nobody's ever much minded. Locals have long called it the "Eighth Wonder of the World." It's said with a wink, but if you've been there at full roar you'd struggle to call it a lie.

The ground has been here since 1934. Balmain played their first match on the site on Anzac Day that year, and in the more than ninety seasons since, the ground has hosted more first-grade rugby league than any other still in use – over 600 games and counting. It has seen State of Origin's ancestors, when interstate matches were staged here for the lights and the atmosphere. A record 23,000 crammed in for a 1981 cup final. The great Balmain sides of the late '80s were roared on by crowds pressed ten deep against the fence.

The Hill itself carries a name now: Wayne Pearce Hill. Wayne was a Balmain hard man who sold hot dogs there as a kid before he went on to pull on the black and gold. He recalls the noise off the grass in his playing days as 'absolutely electric' – anyone who's stood there on a good day knows exactly what he means.

And it was never only rugby league. When the postwar years turned Norton Street into Little Italy, the community built its own football club, APIA Leichhardt, and it took its turn on this same grass. Sydney FC have played A-League nights here, the Waratahs have run out on it, and the big GPS school rugby days pull crowds of their own.

It almost didn't make it this far. For years the ground was quietly falling apart with dated facilities, dodgy lighting, a railing that gave way during a schoolboys match in 2022. There was a real prospect that the football would simply drift away for good, the way it has from so many old suburban grounds. What kept it alive was people who refused to let go: a "Save Leichhardt Oval" campaign, loud locals, and eventually a $40 million commitment from all three levels of government to fix it rather than abandon it.

That rescue is exactly why the ground is about to fall silent. Construction starts at the end of this winter, the gates close through all of 2027, and Leichhardt reopens in 2028 with a new grandstand, a rebuilt lower bowl and facilities that finally meet the modern game. The Hill survives – a non-negotiable in the final design – and the heritage-listed Keith Barnes Stand stays too. But the raw, weatherbeaten, stand-where-you-like ground that generations grew up on is about to change for good.

The NRL Wests Tigers have already had their last hurrah for now. On a Sunday afternoon in June, they sent the old ground off in the only fitting way: a 36–28 comeback against the Titans. With captain Jarome Luai finishing a hat-trick with the winner in the final minute, 17,773 packed in to roar them home. A last dance, and one that'll go on the long list of iconic games played at the Oval.

But the ground isn't quite done. Two goodbyes remain, and both are for us as much as the players.

On Friday 11 September, the NRLW Wests Tigers play Canberra under lights – the last game of football Leichhardt Oval will host before the gates close. And then, on Saturday 19 September, the Inner West Council throws open the turf itself for One Last Roar: a free send-off on the famous grass, with live music, food, family activities and the whole neighbourhood invited to stand on the ground one last time before the diggers move in. Free entry, 1pm till evening, RSVPs open now.

This is the one to circle. You don't need to know a forward from a fullback. Bring the kids, bring someone who's never been through the gates, and stand on the Hill on a spring afternoon while the music plays and the old ground has its last, loudest day.

In honour of the last roar, we're putting together a collection of favourite memories and stories from locals. If you've got a game, a player, or a walk up Mary Street with your dad in mind, we'd love to hear it. You can send us a message at [email protected] or reply to the most recent edition of the email. The best responses will be shared in a future edition of the Hardt.

We'd love to hear from you while the old ground's still standing.