{"id":241242,"date":"2022-09-27T02:58:59","date_gmt":"2022-09-27T02:58:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=241242"},"modified":"2022-09-28T02:00:18","modified_gmt":"2022-09-28T02:00:18","slug":"eels-fans-heartache-as-grand-final-sells-out","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=241242","title":{"rendered":"Eels fans' heartache as grand final sells out"},"content":{"rendered":"

When a sleeping giant like the Parramatta Eels<\/a> makes a run to the grand final, there's plenty of things to like; reminiscing about the good old days, hoping for a drought being broken, and of course, Sydney becoming awash with blue and gold.<\/p>\n

Eels fans have snapped up plenty of tickets to Sunday's now sold out grand final – but with such a large fanbase, there's always going to be some fans left out in the cold.<\/p>\n

That's the shame for \ufeff61-year-old Darren McCartney, a diehard Parramatta fan who now lives in Darwin, has an interstate membership and was one of the unlucky ones.<\/p>\n

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"I'm originally a Wentworthville boy, and my dad was an Eels supporter going back to the days at Cumberland Oval – I've never known anything different," he told Wide World of Sports. \ufeff<\/p>\n

Despite more than a half-century of fandom, McCartney's never been to a grand final\ufeff that they won – although he still vividly remembers being there in 1976 when the Eels lost to Manly, 13-10.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

"I was right in that corner where Neville Glover dropped that ball, so that scarred me for life," he joked. \ufeff<\/p>\n

But when Parramatta's golden period rolled around in the early 1980s, McCartney had enlisted in the RAAF – and was unable to attend any of their four successes before settling in Darwin in 1986, where he's lived ever since.<\/p>\n

\ufeffThat year, of course, was the last time the Eels lifted the trophy.<\/p>\n

"As soon as the Eels won on Friday night, every man and his dog jumped on to try and get tickets – and it didn't so much crash as it did just keep popping up with error messages," McCartney said.<\/p>\n

Disappointed, the Eels tragic tried on each new wave of releases, right down to the final release on Tuesday – where remaining tickets disappeared in a matter of minutes.<\/p>\n

"Every time a new batch came you'd just sit there on Ticketek with multiple devices, just hoping. I did get in a couple of times but there's obviously a lag from people purchasing to when they update the site with what tickets are available," he said.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Already down in Sydney for a family event over the weekend, he's now kicking himself for not following his daughter's lead and buying tickets after the win over Canberra in week two of the finals – but even if he's watching from a couch, it will still mean the world.<\/p>\n

"\ufeffLooking at this playing roster, I'm 62 next year, I'm probably not going to have many more chances to see them in a grand final where they may have a chance to win," he said.<\/p>\n

He's not giving up hope of a ticket yet, and says he'll keep searching all the way up until Sunday – although he's accepted that it's a long shot.<\/p>\n

"There's going to be thousands and thousands of people trying to call in favours," he conceded.<\/p>\n

Stream the NRL premiership 2022 live and free on<\/strong><\/em> 9Now<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

NRL CEO Andrew Abdo said the demand for tickets had been "overwhelming".\ufeff<\/p>\n

"The grand final teams represent the beating heart of rugby league," he said.<\/p>\n

"Clubs that represent modern day Australia. Confident, vibrant and growing communities. Heartland areas that have more kids picking up a football for the first time than ever before.<\/p>\n

"There is much to look forward to this Sunday \u2013 a traditional rivalry that has never been played on the NRL grand final stage before and an NRLW grand final between two teams in just their second premiership seasons.<\/p>\n

"History will be made."<\/p>\n

\ufeff<\/strong>\ufeff\ufeffFor a daily dose of the best of the breaking news and exclusive content from Wide World of Sports, subscribe to our newsletter by<\/strong><\/em> clicking here<\/strong><\/em><\/a>!<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When a sleeping giant like the Parramatta Eels makes a run to the grand final, there's plenty of things to like; reminiscing about the good […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/241242"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=241242"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/241242\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":241244,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/241242\/revisions\/241244"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=241242"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=241242"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=241242"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}