Sydney claim the first overseas AFL win, beating the Saints in Wellington.
Many player stuggled with the slipper conditions - Sydney's Daniel Hannebery gets out a handball. Picture: Phil Hillyard Source: The Daily Telegraph
THEY call it the 'Cake Tin', but Wellington's Westpac Stadium instead turned out a soggy, sticky souffle.
And on a night when New Zealanders seemed desperate to see the high-flying aerobatics adorning the promotional posters for this game, it was the one small negative of the AFL's week-long festival of footy.
The slippery, boggy conditions that seem the fault of poor drainage at this SCG-long but extremely thin ground meant the game itself was not the feat it might have been.
In all there were plenty of rucks and mauls of the AFL variety, and while St Kilda coach Scott Watters lauded the 186 tackles laid, the fans might have wanted more freak goals and spectacular marks.
The players line up for the ANZAC day ceremony. Picture: Hillyard Philip Source: The Daily Telegraph
All of which made St Kilda's last-quarter comeback in front of an encouraging crowd 22,546 so important last night.
It allowed a crowd that had watched plenty of scrappy play and just 15 goals to that stage to really get their teeth into this foreign code.
Even for 30 minutes they roared and cheered and barracked like they might have in the Animal Enclosure at Moorabbin, or more hopefully for the AFL, at any local rugby union venue across New Zealand.
By the afternoon, with thousands of locals and travellers packing local bars watching the Essendon-Collingwood Anzac Day contest, it was apparent this game was gripping a city dubbed 'The Coolest Little Capital in the World' at least for a day.
When the crowd roared out national anthem ' God Defend New Zealand' pre-match, it was proof that the crowd was more than just blow-ins and expats - the New Zealanders wanted a taste of this game too.
The Swans celebrate their win by singing the club song. Picture: Phil Hillyard Source: The Daily Telegraph
The AFL will never take over this country, but the feel-good vibes from the contest put a perfect exclamation point to a week City Hall would feel was flawlessly executed.
The local press lapped it up, the crowd was strong given the Hurricanes pulled just 6000 here last week, and 4500 Australians who flocked here are likely to push significant word-of-mouth traffic for next year's contest.
As Sydney's Anzac Medallist Dan Hannebery said: ''We heard there was a lot of excitement through the week and a few of the guys were saying they had friends that knew people from New Zealand who were keen to come and have a look,"
"The crowd were great tonight, they were quite vocal and it's quite evident there's a lot of New Zealand fans out there so it's great to increase the exposure to the sport outside of Australia and New Zealand fans came out in droves tonight.''
The week guarantees the AFL will be back next year, and with St Kilda aggressively pushing its brand.
''It is a bonus on so many levels,'' said Saints coach Scott Watters.
''There are commercial opportunities, and unbelievable cultural opportunities for our players.
"To play on Anzac Day, and the relevance to our playing group who have been through this sort of day, some are are 18-year old kids and to be in that sort of environment for their growth as people, not just as players (is massive) so I am 100 per cent behind it, I think it's brilliant.''
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