Full name Seiffert Oval Address AU, Australia | Surface Grass Capacity 15,000 | |
Location Queanbeyan, New South Wales Similar Queanbe Pound, Queanbe Leagues Club, The Queanbe Age, Manuka Oval, Canberra Raiders | ||
Seiffert Oval is a rugby league ground in Queanbeyan, New South Wales that served as the base of the Canberra Raiders for the first seven years of its existence (1982-1989). Seiffert Oval is now used to host games of the Queanbeyan Blues Rugby League club. The capacity of Seiffert Oval currently stands at 15,000. The ground record crowd was set on 18 June 1989 when 18,272 fans turned out in Round 12 of the 1989 NSWRL season to see the Raiders defeat the Brisbane Broncos 27-6.
The Raiders' first game at Seiffert was in Round 2 of the 1982 NSWRFL season against the Western Suburbs Magpies. In front of 6,769 fans, Wests ran out 33-4 winners, with the home side failing to score a try against their opponents' seven. Canberra's first win at the ground, which was also their first ever competition win, would come in Round 8 of the 1982 season when 9,982 fans saw the "Green Machine" run out 12-11 winners over the Newtown Jets.
The ground hosted an 'international' rugby league match during the 1988 Great Britain Lions tour when an Australian President's XIII, including Raiders Mal Meninga and Glenn Lazarus, defeated the tourists 24-16 on a wet day in front of 6,037 fans. It also hosted an international rugby union match when the British and Irish Lions defeated the ACTRU 41-25 in 1989.
The Canberra Raiders final premiership game at Seiffert Oval was on 20 August 1989. On the day the Raiders (who won their first premiership that year becoming the first non-Sydney premiers) defeated the Illawarra Steelers 16-6 in front of 6,161 fans. The Steelers had also joined the competition in 1982.
On February 18th in 2017, the Canberra Raiders made a return to Seiffert Oval, Queanbeyan but it did not go as planned. They were hammered 44-0 against the 2016 NRL Wooden Spoon Winners (Last place) the Newcastle Knights that was the Newcastle based teams first win since April 10, 2016 where they beat the Wests Tigers 18-16 at Hunters Stadium, Newcastle.