Why Sydney Football Stadium should have a grandstand named in honour of Beetson

The names of the grandstands at the soon-to-be-opened Sydney Football Stadium have been revealed.

Rugby league icon Ron Coote, football icon Johnny Warren and Wallabies great Sir Nicholas Shehadie will be immortalised at the rebuilt stadium.

Controversially, the SCG Trust has also opted to name on stand the ‘Garrison Stand’, acknowledging the British Army Soldiers that played cricket on a stretch of turf that later became the SCG.

While the Sydney Football Stadium sits next to the SCG in Moore Park, SEN’s Michael Carayannis was shocked that the British Army was given the nod ahead of home-grown sporting heroes.

“The naming of the grandstands at the new Sydney Football Stadium at Moore Park, that stadium will be completed by the end of the season hopefully, for the last round of the NRL,” Carayannis said on SEN 1170 Breakfast.

“Ron Coote, Johnny Warren, Nicholas Shehadie are all worthy recipients, I don’t think anyone can complain about that.

“Then, the Garrison Stand, which is recognising the British Army soldiers from the 1850s who were based at the Victoria Barracks and played sports at the SCG, not the SFS, the SCG.

“The talk is that, ‘Where’s Arthur Beetson?’, he’s one, Brad Fittler was an option for the younger demographic.”

With the Roosters set to call the SFS home, SEN’s Jimmy Smith was stunned that Beetson wasn’t acknowledged due to his cultural and sporting significance to the area.

“Arthur Beetson, the game that’s going to be played most there, there’s probably going to be more rugby league than any other sport,” Smith said.

“An iconic figure in many ways, an Immortal, that says it all.

“I’m not saying that Ron Coote should be delisted from that point of view, but Arthur Beetson.

“Then from a cultural and political point of view, the fact that Arthur Beetson was the first Indigenous captain of a sporting team, that’s so rugby league to get that right, and I think with this they’re getting it wrong.”

The 45,000 seat facility will first host a game on September 2 when the Roosters and Rabbitohs meet in Round 25.