Born from the ashes: The Eels came of age on the night of their first premiership | Millie Muroi
Parramatta Eels fans Mick Harrison and Steve Thorne maintain their innocence when asked about fuelling the fire that destroyed Cumberland Oval in 1981, but they were there to experience the euphoria it exuded.
Harrison, 21 at the time, drove to the game at the SCG in his blue and gold panel van with a couple of mates. They returned to the Eels leagues club before the fire started, but ended up packed like sardines at the bar. But a moment of clarity amid the blaze stopped Harrison from adding to the fire. “I thought to myself, ‘I want to keep a hold of this’,” he said. “So I grabbed the paling and stuck it in my pocket. I had a piece of timber about two feet long sticking out the back of my pocket.”The next morning, Harrison returned to see if he could pick up some more souvenirs from the ground but returned empty-handed.
“The estimate is that about 5000 people were in the club, and an additional 10,000 began filling the precinct around the club,” she said. “When the team arrived at the club that time, they couldn’t get within 50 metres of the front door. The story goes the players were lifted by the fans and taken to the club.”
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