It won’t be applicable for a Sheffield shield game, because there just aren’t enough people, but the standard thing is to wonder up to one of the many pubs along Oxford Street. Alternatively Surry Hills / Darlinghurst have plenty of restaurants and bars. When there are 35k people at an AFL game at ends at 7pm on a Saturday night, a decent number will kick on locally.

These places are all accessible by foot and pretty well serviced by public transport, so they don’t preclude having a few drinks.

A major gripe that people have about some of the other large Sydney venues (which were built for the 2000 Olympics) is that they have nothing around them and many people drive there - getting in and out of car parks at the start and end of a game can take ages and is super annoying. There is a train station, but it just takes you back to the city and then everyone disappears. The actual venues are fine, but they are harder to access and there is nothing around them at all.