Eastwood Rugby to leave TG Millner Field as changing demographics force rethink

A host of outside pressures will see the six-time Shute Shield champions relocate to a new facility in Castle Hill, roughly 20 kilometres to the north-west, from next season.

The move has been a long time coming.

The Eastwood board decided to sell TG Millner more than a decade ago, before finally selling it to North Ryde RSL in 2017. A move to a new home was always on the cards, but few thought it could happen as soon as this season, with the RSL club actively looking for buyers for the decades-old ground.

Eastwood has a legal right to stay at TG Millner until the end of next year. But they have an agreement with the RSL Club that, if the ground is sold, Eastwood will be paid the remaining money they’re owed from the original sale of the ground and will relocate.

The question is, will the RSL sell the ground this year, forcing the Eastwood to leave?

“We just don’t know. It’s a toss of the coin,” Eastwood general manager Robert Frost told CODE Sports. “The board’s decided to be prudent and say there’s a chance (it could be our last season at TG Millner). We don’t know if it’s one percent, 10 percent or 50 percent, so we’re drawing up a list of contingency plans.”

Even if the ground is sold this year, it’s unlikely the new owners will make immediate sweeping changes, so Eastwood might well be able to play out 2024 at TG Millner.

In 2025, though, the club will be heading to a brand new facility at Castle Hill.

No more pre-match feed at Wings. No more post-match kick-arounds with the kids as the sun sets and first grade leaves the pitch.

It will be the end of an era, and the start of a new one.

The land TG Millner sits on was initially purchased in 1950 specifically for Eastwood Rugby. The original clubhouse was built by a dedicated group of volunteers, with dressing sheds following shortly after in the early 1960s.

Many years later, as a 17-year-old first-grade debutant, Matt Burke – fresh off scoring a double and getting in a fight – snuck in a post-match beer in those same sheds. He was too young to have one in the clubhouse.

Burke is one of a long list of club favourites to have also represented Australia, with Marty Roebuck and Brett Papworth, through to Matt Dunning and current stars Nic White and Mark Nawaqanitawase all representing the Woodies and the Wallabies.

But equally as important are the countless weekend warriors who play for nothing but the love of the game and a few cold ones with mates afterwards.

That last game will be a bittersweet occasion for everyone connected to the club.

Eastwood’s relocation is both a sign and a symptom of changing times.

Put simply, the district is no longer the rugby union enclave it once was.

That demographic has moved to rapidly growing areas further out.

“The Parramatta Eels moved from Parramatta to Kellyville three years ago, and they’re 10 minutes up the road from where we’re going to be,” Frost said.

“They left Parramatta for exactly the same reason we’re leaving Eastwood: changing demographics.

“We’ve both gone to an area that’s booming with young families with kids in precisely the demographic that’s likely to play league and union.”

While it’s a move away from its geographical home, the club doesn’t intend on formally changing its name.

There’s an obvious financial windfall behind the sale of TG Millner Field, but Eastwood’s relocation is about much more than money. It’s about securing the club’s future by moving to an area where they can scout and nurture the next generation of Matt Burkes and Nic Whites.

“That’s the only reason we’re doing this. It’s to reinvent the club in a more fertile ground,” Frost said.

“There will be 20,000 people living around the new train station at Castle Hill – which is a 10 minute walk from where our new ground will be – and all those kids are going to want to play sport.

“It’s just about fishing where the fish are.”