After five years of potential and heart break the Sydney Roosters finally have their hands on the Provan-Summons trophy.
Coming up against the might of the Melbourne Storm, the Roosters were in jeopardy of losing their fifth of seven grand final appearances in the NRL era.
More NRL Grand Final
» Match report: Sydney smash Storm
» Seven talking points from the match
» WATCH: Video highlights from the match
» Sydney Roosters player ratings
» Melbourne Storm player ratings
» Best and funniest tweets
Since winning their 13th premiership in 2013, until today they’d won three minor premierships for two preliminary final losses, both embarrassing capitulations in games they were expected to win.
That recent record was enough to fill oceans of doubt in the team about whether they could get that final win of the season.
But tonight they got the job done against probably the toughest opposition they could have faced and in the face of serious adversity.
They’re a polarising team, the Roosters. You like them or you don’t. And like a lot of our preconceptions in sport, that dislike is based on things that aren’t necessarily true.
When Cooper Cronk signed on for 2018, people shook their heads about how the Roosters had snagged ‘another’ elite talent. But there’s plenty that we overlooked.
Players like Latrell Mitchell, who lit up the 2018 Origin series, have been grown by the Roosters. Boyd Cordner is a one-club man and the inspirational captain of the Roosters and New South Wales. Unsung and unfashionable performers like Jake Friend and Daniel Tupou keep delivering.
(Photo by Mark Metcalfe/Getty Images)
There’s a host of young guns coming now to accompany Mitchell. Joseph Manu is a centre combination with Mitchell that will terrorise for years to come. Victor Radley has shown in his first NRL season that he’s one to watch for the future as he learns from Friend and Cordner.
We tend to forget the players the Roosters had to let go as well, and it’s a roll call of quality.
Among many others there’s premiership forward Aiden Guerra, New Zealand winger Shaun Kenny-Dowall, proven quality in Michael Gordon and of course halfback Mitchell Pearce.
Most of the noise around the ‘salary sombrero’ is based on stories linking players to the Roosters, whether there’s truth to it or not. A lot of people (myself included) assume that because they can access the cash, they can get any player they want.
But it’s not that simple. Chairman Nick Politis and his team don’t just throw cash around to build a team of ‘galacticos’ like many others in world sport do.
The Roosters don’t recruit a player because they can, they recruit a player to meet a specific need.
They’re also confident and courageous enough to make a decisive call when the need arises – see Mitchell Pearce being moved to Newcastle, and Paul Momirovski playing last week’s preliminary final in just his second game.
If there’s a player with their card marked by the league for behavioural issues, they’ll back their culture as being strong enough to get the best out of them and for the most part they succeed.
There’s definitely a quality to this club that people want to associate themselves with. And a lot of that is attributable to the coach, Trent Robinson.
Robinson is one of the best coaches in the game, yet his understated way and low key approach means he’s almost forgotten when it comes to talking about the best mentors in the NRL.
But his players know him, and his players love him. He’s a man manager of the highest quality and combines this ability with strong tactical nous and preparation.
In light of this premiership and their regular season records of late, it’s easy to forget their 2016 season from hell, when the Roosters finished second bottom with a paltry six wins.
Robinson was under incredible pressure that season, just his third in the NRL. The Roosters had taken a huge risk in bringing a 35-year old head coach across from Catalans Dragons and after winning a premiership and being awarded coach of the year in his first NRL season, expectations were sky high.
People called for his head, doubted his abilities, revelled in the Roosters struggles as happens to the tall poppies.
But Robinson endured, recognised what he needed to change and kept putting work into players like Mitchell, Joseph Manu and Siosiua Taukeiaho to climb back to the NRL’s summit.
There’s no reason to think a repeat of 2016 is in the Roosters’ immediate future. There’s enough young blood, veteran quality and thirst for success around the place for that to happen.
I guess we’re all going to have to keep on hating the Bondi club for a while yet.
Brett
Roar Rookie
Robinson is the key. Listening to him throughout the season and especially after the GF he is meticulous and somewhat scheming in his planning. His approach to the season has been likened to a Melbourne Cup preparation. A gradual build with some set backs along the way culminating in a peak timed to perfection. On GF day the Roosters had all the answers and just like the game against the Rabbits the previous week the opposition rarely looked like scoring. It is fraught with danger to look back to the previous weeks games but as the Roosters neared the summit in out classing the Rabbits, the Storm were slipping backwards after a less than convincing performance against a broken, battered and scattered Sharks side.
Footy Fan
Guest
One of the little pleasures in sport, is that after a big, deserved win, the most biased, poor- sport fans are the ones that are the most ticked off. The comp's super challenging for all teams. Over the years, different teams have had peaks from 5-15 years - Souths, Saints, Souths, Easts, Parra, Canterbury, Canberra, Penrith, Manly, Brisbane, Easts, Melbourne, Manly, Melbourne. Pre-salary cap these team had heaps of stars, but still good footy nouse with coaches like Jack Gibson, Warren Ryan, Tim Sheens and Gus Gould. Post-salary cap the big change is that club management, coaching and development of youngsters is not just a part, but is everything. "Harlem Globetrotter" teams simply don't exist any more. There are always another 6 or 7 teams that can challenge the top teams. Bellamy's always developing a stack of Gladsby's, Stimpson's, Croft's and Hughes' from square one. Ditto Robbo with Liu's, Tetevano's, Matterson's, Radley's and Manu's. They do it better than other teams. These players were on no-one's radar but they're now grand finalists / premiers / SOO players / internationals. Add on original strategies for attack and defence, and attention to detail. The most premierships by any team post-super league is 3. You don't even need to go through the books - you just think about the clubs with the best management, coaching and development and you get the answer: Broncos, Storm and Roosters. End result: teams at an extended peak for a generation can still only manage a 15% premiership strike rate. If you can appreciate the big picture, how many different parts to juggle and how brilliant the Bellamy's, Robbo's and Bennett's are and all the support staff and strategies behind them, then you'll get a stack more out of the game. And if your club can do the same for a decade, they might start to win, too. Cheers
Pickett
Guest
Very true Ren.
Renegade
Roar Guru
Bunnies fans are special “Keary flumed another GF as there was no opposition”.... sorry Steve, that’s crap... Rusty let go of a good one and would be regretting it - Keary could’ve helped their pedestrian attack over their last two semis.
Pickett
Guest
Steveng, Don't use the holy name of Ron Coote in vain for your deceitful purposes. He is an absolute gentleman and legend of the game. Publicly he always says he supports both Easts and Sou ffs, but its fact that his dad supported Easts. Also his junior club of Kensington was snatched by Sou ffs in the 50's. 90% of people there would say they are Eastern Suburbs. Also, Keary grew up in Oakhill - thats Parramatta territory. How many of your current team are true, blue local juniors - I can think of Sutton. But the superstars like GI, Burgess Trio, Cook etc are imports like any other professional teams. You lot go on about Sou ffs juniors like it's a badge of honour - that's a myth and so 1950's thinking.
Pickett
Guest
Good for you. Now put down your metho, and get me my latte. With almond milk.
steveng
Roar Rookie
Hahaha you clown, I've seen the Bunnies every gf win since 1953 (that's 8 to 5 of yours) all in colour as I was there 'live' since when I was 7 yrs old, grow up!!! You haven't got a clue what you are talking about, typical chook lol
JN
Roar Rookie
well, we had to buy people due to the Souths stealing all our junior teams long ago. no one really mentions that, do they? Most of your juniors would have been ours, funnily enough!!
Pickett
Guest
Steveng At least I've seen 5 of our GF wins on colour TV. You've seen 1. Easts 5 Sou ffs 1.
steveng
Roar Rookie
HaHaaa, you can have 'Angus Crichton'! One thing that is a fact is that the Bunnies had contributed much more to the chooks with players than the other way around, and for the chooks to win gf's lol e.g. Coote, Keary etc etc and don't forget, that there allot of our juniors that are playing in the NRL comp and with other clubs. The chooks have always bought players since Jack Gibson era of 1974 side to win gf's, they have gone all out with multi million dollar contracts and you are still on par with us Bunnies since 1969 in gf's wins (I won't talk pre those years) as the overall score is Bunnies 21 gf's and the Chooks 14. Go the Bunnies!!!
Pickett
Guest
They're all tough as nails. Sattler, Sam and Cronk will get the most ink because of their huge profiles, but you had SKD who played most of the 2013 GF with a broken jaw, Ferguson played last 20 minutes yesterday with a broken leg. I'm sure there were lots of other GF stories of blokes playing with broken bones and being needled up etc which don't get publicised.
Dylan Napa’s Underwear
Guest
Incorrect. They changed it when the Sydney Olympics was awarded to or fair city. The bulldogs & tigers also changed to Sydney for a brief period.
Mitcher
Guest
Some people just need to have a whinge about anything. Pretty sad.
JoM
Roar Rookie
Think you can add Ferguson to that list as well now. Played for most of the 2nd half with a fractured fibula.
souvalis
Roar Rookie
Yes and Tupou- Fergo may usurp Schubert and...whoever the other winger was in the dominating season of ‘75...what was his name again ? Nah....
concerned supporter
Guest
Steveng, I think the name change to ''Sydney City Roosters" was instigated by N.Politis as he had Sydney City Ford.
Pickett
Guest
Yep. An Easts-Souths GF would be bigger than Ben Hur. Bring it!
Pickett
Guest
The Latrell-Manu combo may usurp the Brass-Harris combo.
Pickett
Guest
Angus Crichton for starters. But he's just returning home, as he was an Easts junior and did his high school in Eastern Suburbs.
Jackson Henry
Roar Guru
Enjoy the win Muzz. Well done to your dudes.