KEY POINTS:
As former Kiwi Mark Bourneville took his last look at Carlaw Park before it is bulldozed, he chuckled at the memory of the day his Mt Albert side played Otahuhu in the 1984 Fox memorial final.
The young winger was on the field but it was what was happening off it that had him in fits of laughter.
"Our prop Dommy [Dominic] Clark had a broken arm and was sitting on the terraces when our cheerleaders started getting a hard time from some drunk guy who kept harping on at them.
"So Dommy got up, went over and belted the bloke with his broken arm then went back to watch the game. He got arrested and the Mad Butcher [Peter Leitch] had to go and pay his fines when he appeared in court on the Monday."
Bourneville, a five-test winger who became a dual international when he played for France in the early 1990s, was with two other former Kiwis, Don Hammond and Ron McGregor, taking their last glimpses of Carlaw Park before it is demolished.
Broken glass is strewn throughout the 85-year-old grandstand, which is vandalised and derelict.
It will be dismantled over the next three weeks.
But parts of it will survive - heart rimu timber from it is being made into plaques which the Auckland Rugby league will sell for $300 each.
Across the main playing field are the concrete terraces which used to seat thousands of fans but are now overgrown with metre-high weeds and smeared with illegible graffiti. All three men agree it's a sad end for the home of New Zealand rugby league.
"It was a tremendous arena," said Ron McGregor, who first played at Carlaw Park as an 11-year-old for the Richmond club in 1936.
"You were so close to the ground that you could hear what the teams were saying to each other and could feel the tackles. It felt like you were a part of the game."
Mt Smart Stadium was good, "but it's almost like you need binoculars there. Carlaw Park was different and had an electric feel about it".
The park, bought in 1921 by Auckland rugby league officials with the help of the Auckland City Council and the Government, hasn't hosted a test match since the Kiwis' 74-0 thrashing of Tonga in 1999. Its last game of league was in late 2002.
Don Hammond, a 20-test veteran and Kiwis association president, said the rugby league community would always hold the park in special regard.
The second-rower remembered one incident when he played against Australia in the second test there in 1961.
"I got tackled and was about to get up when (Australian halfback) Barry Muir put a short one in and kicked me in the face. I couldn't do anything about it so I just played the ball."
Hammond, who captained the Kiwis on their tour of Great Britain and France later that year, said the pain was greater at the end of the game, when the Kiwis lost 10-8.
Bourneville didn't play a test at the park, but he did play for Auckland against Australia in 1985 after the Aussies' 18-0 test loss to the Kiwis.
"Gene Miles, Greg Dowling, Chris Close and Greg Cornescu were in there and had a point to prove to the New South Wales coaching staff."
"They were giving their coaching staff a hard time from the field and thrashed us about 40-10. I remember Nicky Wright laying out one of them in the first minute; he couldn't get off the ground fast enough."
The three men played in different eras but said the crowd support was never lacking.
They spoke of the great clubs through the eras - Ponsonby in the early 50s, Ellerslie (which became Eastern United) through the 60s, Mt Albert in the late 60s and again in the 1980s.
While the heavy machinery is lining up to put an end to the park, there is a silver lining in the sadness for the Auckland Rugby League.
It is selling the freehold rights for the Number Two ground for an undisclosed sum, but the main ground will be leased in perpetuity guaranteeing a "significant income forever".
Auckland Rugby League chairman Cameron McGregor said the park's legacy would continue to be be felt.
"We gave away the stadium idea and had our cry then, but in reality what the park is really going to do now is something even more significant."
"It's an income for Auckland rugby league for all time."
The future
* Carlaw Park is about to undergo a transformation.
* The main playing field - once a Chinese market garden, now a packed carpark - will be replaced by a village for people aged 60 and over.
* Plans for the Stanley St end of the park, where the No 2 ground once was, include a hotel, two commercial buildings and another carpark.
