Bears Finally Back On Home Soil
By DAVID ROWLANDS
NORTH SHORE TIMES - 11/6/2004


North Sydney players could be excused for asking directions to their home ground this evening.

After all, they haven’t ventured onto North Sydney Oval for over six weeks, which is a heck of a long time for a team to be on the road in any competition.

Tonight’s opponents will presumably have little trouble locating the venue, thanks to the navigation of a man who knows it intimately.

“I lost a lot of skin on that cricket pitch area, that’s for sure,” recalled David

Fairleigh, who played 13 years with the Bears before seeing out his NRL career with Newcastle.

These days, he’s assistant coach of the Knights Premier League side and admits that tonight’s visit evokes mixed emotions.

“It’s impossible not to spend almost your entire career with a club and not feel something for them,” he said.

“I always enjoy going back to North Sydney Oval. We played the Bears there last year and I must admit that it felt strange to spend so much of your life in one spot, then go back there as the ‘enemy’.

“I had a lot of good times at Norths and met plenty of great people there. Fortunately, they’ve got two of the best in charge now in ‘Flo’ (Greg Florimo) and Gary (Larson).”

Fairleigh, a powerful second-rower who carried the incongruous nickname of ‘Daisy’ throughout his career, has remained firm friends with his long time team-mates who now form the Bears brains trust. He’s looking forward to catching up for a post-match ale across the road at Percy’s, just like the good old days of the 1990s when Norths were regular finalists and the trio earned representative honours.

At some point, their reminiscing will give way to talk of what lies ahead for the red and blacks. Obviously, Fairleigh would love to see the club re-join the NRL just as much as his mates do, but he has an extra reason for wanting to see it happen under the Central Coast Bears banner, through being a product and resident of that region.

“There’s a lot of support here, good infrastructure, a lot of juniors and they have the backing of someone like John Singleton,” he said from his Terrigal home.

“Rugby League relies on its core support and it would be a tragedy if they turned their back on some thing that has so much going for it, which also allows the Bears’ great heritage to survive.”
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