As a Roosters fan, I have commended the efforts of my team in previous years as being one of the few teams in the competition, if not the only one, to regularly take a home game each season to areas in Australia that don’t have an NRL team.

For ours, the area of focus is Gosford, a city on the Central Coast in NSW who have been on the bad side of lady luck on more than one occasion when it has come to the continuous aspirations of the local community to have their region served as an entity in the National Rugby League competition.

To understand the pain and frustrations inflicted upon the people of Gosford, one only has to re-trace the steps of history.

Exhibit A: The North Sydney Bears.

The Bears, a foundation club, made the decision that at the end of 1999 they would travel north an hour up the highway and call the Central Coast home.

Unfortunately for them and the people of Gosford, fate as we know it (or more commonly known as Mr Murdoch) got in the way, and under the cover known as the ‘criteria’, North Sydney were not granted a license into the NRL 2000 competition.

Exhibit B: The Northern Eagles.

Fast track one year, Manly and North Sydney, two clubs who hate each other, decide to make up and kiss and become one big happy family known as the Northern Eagles.

The Eagles, who deliver on North Sydney’s promise to bring games to Gosford, compromise on having half their home games played out on the Central Coast. Yippee!

Unfortunately this ugly figure of fate turns up again (now disguised as Manly board members, who from all sources, are said to be ugly) and decide that things just aren’t working out and they want a divorce. Although it seems bad, their publicist says they still remain the best of friends.

In the midst of the divorce, Manly gets the house, car, and kids, and North Sydney gets the boot. Manly find this all too stressful and decide to go back home and live with mum and dad (Brookvale Oval).

Exhibit C: John Singleton’s cash cow.

The year is 2005 and expansion is on the horizon. Three contenders emerge as the likely 16th team — Michael Searle’s Gold Coast Titans, John Singleton’s Central Coast Bears, and some crazy anonymous Dutch guy who wants a team in Wellington, New Zealand.

The prospect of a Central Coast side did look promising and the Bears were ticking all the right boxes: modern stadium, community support, juniors, sponsors, ideal area, and eccentric millionaire.

The people of Gosford had every right to be confident. Yet, as it did in the past, fate came just in time. Although now in the shape of David Gallop and his cronies from the NRL board.

The answer was clear to all three hopefuls: thanks but no thanks.

With the answer set in stone, John Singleton told the NRL they knew where to come knocking when the NRL was ready for a 16th team.

And they did. A year later the Gold Coast Titans were allowed into the NRL. And we thought some ethnic groups have had a bad run in history. Try being a league fan in Gosford!

But what does this have to do with the Roosters, the team that has tried to fill the void of the lack of league to the Gosfordians at least once a year every year since 2004?

Well, on April 20, 2008, the Roosters will play the Newcastle Knights 100 years to the day they played their first game of rugby league. This exciting event, a part of the NRL’s heritage round, will be played before a Roosters ‘home’ crowd in, you guessed it …n Gosford.

I could not think of a better way for the Roosters to show respect to their local Sydney supporters for their past 100 years of loyalty than by celebrating such a tremendous event in city of Gosford.

While the Roosters continued efforts to promote rugby league in Gosford, an area that has been through much heartache, are appreciated, it should not come at the expense of the history and tradition of the club.

Moreso the fact that in the two previous years, the Roosters have opted to move their home games against Newcastle to Gosford.

For those needing a lesson in geography, Gosford is a 50 minute drive to the Newcastle region and many Gosfordians identify themselves as Knights supporters.

Now call me paranoid, but it seems that this game is only being played at Gosford to maximise crowds, which in turn maximises profit return. Shock horror! Someone call the police now.

But seriously, before you start sending me nasty emails, I know just as well as the next person that doing such a thing to boost crowd numbers isn’t a crime and can be looked at more as a service to the game.

But the 100th year to the day that the Sydney Roosters stepped out onto the field in the red, white, and blue, is to be replicated in a foreign city. A crime has indeed been committed.

History and tradition has been traded in for a few extra bucks.

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