Stella junior and I usually go and have a kick on LSO before the game when we get to the SCG, as do a fair few folks. It's something that I personally enjoy quite a lot, growing up in Sydney and playing footy in the 80s you were definitely a bit of an oddity if you went and had a kick with someone at the local oval, it's fantastic to go and have a kick (in the sun! at the SCG!) on an oval filled with like minded folks.
Yesterday as we were gathering our stuff to head in for the game we were approached by a security guard from the standard SCG Trust/Moore Park group. He explained that we could not kick footballs on the oval unless we had hired the ground ourselves (I believe the logic being that as there was a game on at the SCG then LSO was included as part of that "hire"), he had been instructed by his supervisor that this was the case and was just following those instructions. We were on our way anyway and did not mind, I did let him know that it was a tad silly, that it was common practice to kick a ball on LSO etc.- but the end result was that about 30+ Swans fans sprinkled around LSO that were generally just parents having a kick with their kids were cleared off.
To be absolutely clear, he was not forceful/impolite in any way, in fact he was extremely polite and apologetic about the situation (if anything he was a pleasure to deal with), and was clearly just following what I assume were some miscommunicated instructions (and I must say he did a very good job of following those instructions, he managed to clear the oval!). I think the club may want to follow up to ensure that this is all sorted out for next year, I assume this is just a case of confusion as instructions/guidelines came down the line but it might be an idea to make sure that there's not some obscure bit of insanity creeping in that the club is not aware of.
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