Dear rugby league

Nice read Jacks, should have followed dad to the Rabbits but.. obviously a rebellious soul.. My league memory is from early 70's, in late primary school having come from o/s. Didn't know about league but when pushed I picked the Tigers due to my love of the animal from Sub-Continent youth. That was a Thursday. On Saturday arvo I sat with my brother listening to a league game on an old radio (I think it was Frank Hyde calling it.. lol) and all I heard all afternoon was these two blokes, Langlands and Smith totally destroying whoever they were playing. They were about all the names I heard, constantly, all arvo and try after try scored or set up by these blokes as they carved up the other mob. I asked my brother about them and he told me they played for St George. That's my team I announced, dumped the Tigers on the spot and commenced a 40++ year love affair with the Dragons.

I moved to Vic too. Sports section of the newspaper has about 20 pages of AFL, 2 pages for every game and some random pages. Then stuff on tennis, cricket (couple of pages), cycling, lacrosse, chess, badminton (B-comp), squash (juniors) then before 12 pages of racing there will be a quarter page about league - and only if the Storm were playing. League has no hope in Vic.

You taking the p*&& ?

Jacks this was a really good article. The best articles are the ones that lead to quality comments and discussions below the line. Well done. Still can’t like Easts though.

Your name’s very apt? Hey,I love everything about the Storm. I know a lot don’t. Probably mainly people from Sydney? Well tell you some thing about Melbourne? You have one of BEST living Coaches in the World involved in the “Storm”. Namely Craig Bellamy. To me he’s a Legend and so is his Captain Fantastic, Cameron Smith. He break the record for playing over 400 games this week.Absolutely Brillant. The word Legend is banded about too often in my opinion? But these two are definitely in the platinum category. Over in Perth Matt Hodgson played 100+ for the Farce. Great, but honestly not legendary status!! It really rankles me when media, put people on “pedestal’s “when are not deserving of it. Sorry Matt. I’m not blaming you, just the system when people give out gongs too easily. Anyway back to Melbourne and RL. Yes it’s a slow burn, but 20,000 members is nothing to be sniffed at? More people you talk to in Melbourne, say they have soft spot for the Storm or say it’s their second team after their AFL team. AFL is big there, but where their dreams end. They can’t even give the game way, as nobody is remotely interested, International and that is a FACT. They can jack it ,as much as they want herein OZ. That’s their ceiling. It’s like the Scottish Premier League compared to the EPL. It’s watching the “Pop & Crisp’s”League. Like I keep banging on though. The Australian NRL, the teams, the Media at large including “Paul Kent” and the actual ARL have got to in brace the International Footballing Calendar. Why can’t the best National sporting team play more often to fan crying out to see them. Lets not keep the magical Kangaroo’s in forefront if people’s minds? If want digest this? Just look what Tonga did for game of RL by being prepared to back it and go support the WC 2017. This is true lifeline of the game of Rugby League.

Clipper, It’s not hard to turn Yawion off, especially watching the Public School bred underachieves. The words pompous and conceited, come to mind. And Honestly, I can’t understand AFL , but can see why it’s so popular abroad. NOT?? Even the Chinese aren’t interest. So god bless Australian and it’s so called National game.

Hi Jacks, If you like Rivalry . Then you can’t go past them English Derbies. Leeds v Bradford Hull v Hull KR Wigan v St Helens Wakefield v Castleford All teams hated each other for weeks, before the game, and some could be family relatives. The pain was hard to take ,especially if you lost the battle. We had the “wood over Leeds” for few years. It was great until “ our bubble burst”. Sorry Australia. The atmosphere here is no match to the English Passion and game day buzz.

The eastern suburbs have never been a heartland of league, so your mission to try and get rugby or AFL off TV screens in the local pubs will be hard going.

For me was the childhood memories of going to school across the Rd from Jubilee Oval. I lived 5 minutes away and we had our school carnivals there. So it was natural that I would support St George, just like one of my prized possessions back in the day was a photo I had with Ricky Walford. These are the things which lock you in for life, although merging with another team, playing out of Wollongong and essentially basing themselves anywhere but Kogarah hurts that connection.

I supported Canterbuy since the 70s but when Chris Anderson went to coach Melbourne I started following them too since 1998. It's been a great ride. What an amazing club.

I'll always call them Easts. Sydney Roosters is a stupid name, and the club should abandon it.

I believe that big Mark Harris started out up in PNG and was spotted by the Roosters and flown down to Sydney for a trial......the rest is history

Mate, where do most clubs fail....?? The admin & the board room stuff more clubs than anything. I know that Nic will tell you that it has not always been plain sailing, he has mede mistakes along the way, but he is smart enough to have learnt from them. However that has been far outweighed by the astute decisions he has made His faith in Trent Robinson is one such example. The success at the Roosters has been the club admin stability ....full stop end of story. When you look at clubs in trouble .....the problem stems from above..... Bulldogs ...Board Parra .......Board Titans......Board Broncos....Board And....if you think that recruitment and retention is just a coaches job you are kidding yourself....If you have a board that does not understand the game ..then fail... So many people bag the Roosters & reckon that they cheat the salary cap......yeah sure they do. Go have a look at all the great Ex-Roosters players around the game that are making excellent contributions to their team. In fact you could put together a pretty formidable team from the blokes that are around the NRL. The policy of both Nic & Trent is that if they have a player that they cannot guarantee a permanent first grade spot & they get a decent offer elsewhere, the club will not stand in their way .... It is a well run club and you are right the godfather has made it that way

Well Jacks my old man knew Nic pretty well. It was through business primarily. Nic is a pretty smart operator as they say in the motor trade. I have followed the Roosters since 1967 when we came back to Sydney & lived at Bondi. I was acquainted with Arthur Beetson as well as other players of that mid 70's era and a member of the Leagues & footy club. I too appreciate what Nic has done for that club, for having spent 40 odd years in business I know what a solid strong well balanced business plan brings to any business. Beeto's life long best mate lives up here .....would have been the original "Billy Slater" had it not been for a spear tackle against Newtown in 1969. Johnny "Straw" Andrew...... I might live in Qld but the Roosters will always be my team ....and my state of Origin is NSW so go the Blues on Wednesday night ..

Nice piece. ..but I doubt your team was ever made up of a mish mash of journeymen, discards and refugees....It was more like some of the best players from each team that was deliberately killed off. Some of us expected them to succeed early with players they had. I also doubt Sydneysiders don't want Melbourne in the comp. Most just dont like the hierarchy falling over themselves to keep them winning abd relevent, mostly at the expense of other clubs. IMO, I would love to.see a 2nd Melbourne team in the NRL. Nice story though.

First game of footy I saw as a little boy was the '74GF where Easts played the Berries and won. Love at first sight. 75GF was the Changa white books massacre. My best friend at the time took me to Easts training where I got the autograph of Artie, Fairy, Coote, Schubert, Monkey Mayes, Bomber Peard, Bunny Reily and just about every one of the 74-75 legends. The players came to our school, local servo and I got up and personal with them at Easts Leagues club as a little kid. Played league for my primary school and union for high school (2nd XV). My kids played junior RL for local club and I played in the Masters comp with that club in my 40's. A handful of blokes played Reserve grade, but the majority were A or B graders. I held my own. Throughout all that time, Easts were my one true love. Some pretty lean years from mid 80's to late 90's with a few good years eg 1987. But these were very rare. Easts really were the transit lounge back then. We've won 3 premierships in the last 17 years, which makes up for those 20 odd years of mediocraty, but during the transit years period, I wondered if we'd ever win it again. Most fans my age hate being called 'Sydney' Roosters. I never call us that. Most blokes over 35 will always refer to us as The Roosters, Easts or Tricolours, but never, ever Sydney. For me, it's always and forever Easts. As an Easts fan, I hate Sou ffs. But in the 2014GF, I was cheering for them madly. But don't tell Puppy Serf or Steveng. I've now recovered from my moment of madness and said a thousand 'Hail Mary's and repented of my blasphemous sin. I can't wait for the final round, where we will put them in their place. The Easts-Sou ffs rivalry is a vital fabric of RL folklore. It would be a tragedy if this ever ended due to merger, relocation or collapse. Rugby League - the greatest game of all!