The Great Southern Bar holds the southern end of George Street, a landmark on the strip since 1844 and now one of the most reliable screen bars at the Central station end of the city. The pitch is simple: big screens, a TAB on site and every major code live, in a room that opens early and runs late on a fixture night.
The address is 717 George Street, minutes from Central and the Haymarket edge of the CBD, which puts it in front of a steady commuter and student crowd. The bar lists its coverage as NRL, AFL, EPL, NFL, NBA and UFC, and the on site TAB makes it a punters' room as much as a viewing one. That breadth at a transport hub is what earns it a place on the Sydney sports bars shortlist for the city's south.
The room reads as a proper George Street pub rather than a designed sports barn. Dark timber, a long bar and screens placed so the main viewing wall holds the marquee fixture while the TAB corner runs the racing. It trades on being a dependable, no fuss local at a busy end of the city, which is exactly what a commuter wants before a train or a fan wants before a night game.
What to order: this is schooner and TAB territory, so a cold tap lager around nine to eleven Australian dollars a schooner is the base order, with the bar and bistro deals doing the rest of the work. The kitchen runs reliable pub plates, a parma or a burger in the high teens, built to soak up an afternoon on the punt. On a big race day the room runs on jugs and form guides, which is the venue at its truest.
The crowd is CBD and Haymarket workers, students from the nearby campuses and a racing and footy following crowd that treats the TAB as part of the night. It fills for NRL and AFL finals, Origin, the racing carnivals and major UFC cards, and stays busy through a Friday after work. Sydney sports bar guides, Time Out among them, regularly list the Great Southern among the city's dependable screen pubs, which matches how the main bar reads on a fixture night.
Who it is for: the fan who wants screens and a TAB a short walk from Central, the after work CBD crew and anyone who rates a heritage pub over a polished venue. Pair it with a wider city trail, lining it up with York 75 up the hill on York Street or the Sporting Globe on the harbour, with more across the Sydney bar guide and the national sports bars index.
Best time to go is an hour or two before kickoff or the feature race, when you can still claim a stool in front of the main wall, or a Friday after work when the commuter crowd lands. Avoid the room at the close of a big race day if you want quiet, when the TAB corner runs hot and the bar is several deep.
Context rounds out the picture. The Central end of George Street has rebuilt around light rail and towers, which makes a surviving 1844 pub that kept its screens and its TAB a genuine city landmark. Marcus Webb rates the Great Southern as the south CBD room to meet a fan before a night game, the kind of George Street pub where the racing and the football share the one bar and nobody minds the noise.
Sources: Great Southern Bar official site (greatsouthernbar.com.au, sports bar page); Time Out Sydney best sports bars guide; Yelp venue listing (717 George St, Sydney).
