As an NRL supporter, it is vital that you barrack and side with your team no matter how poorly performed, socially irresponsible or disliked they may have become.
If anything ever did manage to sway an individual’s sentiment away from the club whose DNA they claim to have inside their body, they were never a fan to begin with.
That is what true rugby league fans do. They parochially support a club in the most one-eyed manner imaginable, all the while detesting the colours of opponents and rarely giving credit to the feats of the players who wear them.
That tribalism has sustained the game for over a hundred years and will continue to do so, despite the best efforts of the odd Neanderthal player who tests the patience of sports fans by presenting the game in a poor light with questionable decision making.
In a nutshell, that is the magic of rugby league, the game that always survives in spite of itself and thanks to the unwavering support of fans who give emotionally and financially to the cause.
That passion will once again come to the fore this weekend when the Penrith Panthers and South Sydney Rabbitohs do battle at Suncorp Stadium to decide the 2021 premiership.
(Photo by Jason McCawley/Getty Images)
No doubt, fans of the cardinal and myrtle will be ravenous in their support of Wayne Bennett’s men during their 80-minute quest for a 22nd title and the wild westies at the foot of the mountains will surely be very much the same, hoping that a third premiership trophy will take pride of place in the Penrith cabinet come Monday morning.
It sets up as a cracking game, one where the Panthers appear certain to start favourites after two seasons of dominance and a preliminary final defeat of Melbourne that potentially signals towards a premiership that many thought they had wrapped up 12 months ago.
However, as intriguing as the Sydney-centric contest may be, it is also one that draws nothing but angst and disinterest from those residents in Australia’s most populous city, whose allegiances lie elsewhere.
(Photo by Ian Hitchcock/Getty Images)
As a Canterbury fan, the idea of a Souths win makes me physically sick. Had Sam Burgess been rightfully removed from the field in the early stages of the 2014 grand final, things may well have played out differently for my blue and whites. Instead, the Englishman courageously led the Rabbitohs as they dominated their way to a first premiership since 1971.
Yet climbing aboard the Panthers’ bandwagon is also far from an option, with Penrith hooker Jamie Jones, club legend Greg Alexander and a young Brad Fittler having put the Dogs to the historical sword on many occasions – and the memories are still vivid.
Fans of the Roosters could well find themselves in a similarly confused position. Supporting the arch-enemy Bunnies isn’t happening, nor is an allegiance to the team that snatched the 2003 premiership from under their noses and prevented rare back-to-back NRL titles.
(Photo by Cameron Spencer/Getty Images)
Eels fans will still be seething after what appeared a controversial and somewhat unlucky loss to the Panthers in Week 2 of the 2021 finals, where the Penrith support staff pulled every trick in the book to assure victory.
However, while the Parramatta supporter base will be dead against the Panthers, the chances of them selling their souls and siding with the eastern suburbs elite are slim and none.
Like fans of the Dogs and Roosters, perhaps they should just switch off and watch some top-quality reality television on Sunday night?
Manly fans find themselves in the most intriguing position. While determined to see their preliminary final conqueror defeated on the final day, such a result would also mean a win for the men from the western suburbs that they so desperately attempt to prevent from entering their sacred peninsula on most days of the year.
It is indeed a conundrum for fans.
Between them, the Dragons and South Sydney won all bar two of the premierships on offer between 1949 and 1971, thus creating the greatest rivalry in Australian rugby league.
No Saints fan in their right mind with be supporting the Bunnies, yet good luck getting any self-respecting Red V supporter to support the Riff. That sort of thing just does not happen in Sydney.
(Photo by Cameron Spencer/Getty Images)
The Cronulla fanbase appear unlikely to even consider supporting either of the grand final combatants, such is their disturbingly insular nature and the fickle disinterest they show once their own team is out of contention.
As for the Wests Tigers’ fan-base, glorious memories of the 1969 grand final where a stunning upset saw the black and gold topple the Rabbits should see most hoping for a similar loss.
However, the Western Suburbs folk ingrained in the Tigers’ merger will be wishing nothing but the worst for Souths’ opponent, a club that pinched a talented player or two from their ranks when the Magpies needed them most.
In reality, supporters of every club in the traditional rugby league heartland of Sydney have every reason to tune in to something other than the NRL grand final on Sunday. But they won’t.
We will all be watching and that is what keeps the game alive, healthy and expanding. No matter how much fans of the foundation or long standing clubs detest the successes of their opponents, there is always a story, a drama and a new piece of rugby league history to be written.
For that reason we will all be tuned in, somehow wishing that both teams could lose and our own team could be triumphant instead.
Glory Bound
Roar Rookie
#windownotclosed, #windowstillopenwide #southssupportersareheretostay!
Slammin_Sam
Roar Rookie
who really cares about the juniors...they certainly dont help you with premierships....
Slammin_Sam
Roar Rookie
banter enjoyed and skipped...wont see many souths supporters for a few years now thank goodness #windowclosed
Gauss
Roar Rookie
Give me a break. I'm sixty. I've seen Souths play one grand final since I was ten. So no, some fans haven't had enough.
Tim Buck 3
Roar Rookie
Melbourne are a great success in all aspects of the game except producing juniors. I realise Victoria is a hard market to crack.
Tim Buck 3
Roar Rookie
We need to expand by adding four teams, two from Brisbane/Qeensland and one from Perth and Adelaide. Could you convince two Sydney teams to relocate?
Big Mig
Roar Rookie
Short Memory - best comment, should be posted for all Roarsters to read. :thumbup:
Big Mig
Roar Rookie
Pickett, with those wise comments about what's good for the soul, I'd almost expect you to be a rabbitohs supporter. Leave the soulless tricolours nd join the glorious red and green illuminati :happy:
Glory Bound
Roar Rookie
Norths were the Rabbitohs feeder club in reserve grade, but they had their own NYC team. The 2012 NYC Team of the Year. 16. Luke Keary (Rabbitohs) https://www.zerotackle.com/2012-nyc-team-of-the-year-14744/
Pickett
Roar Rookie
I thought he played for Norths in the NYC? Or were they the feeder club for Souths at the time?
Glory Bound
Roar Rookie
I qualified my statement and divided them into 3 categories. 1. South Junior, 2. players who have played lower grades for the Rabbitohs or once played in the Rabbitohs NYC U20's team, 3. Players who never played in the NRL before joining the Rabbitohs. I made it clear that Luke Keary came under no. 2 not no. 1. Next question Pickett?
andyfnq
Roar Rookie
Not at all. Melbourne are obviously the standard regarding professionalism that every other club aspires to. Despite at best ambivelent support from the NRL (so unlike their rampant and frankly disgusting cheerleading for clubs based in Sydney) and the NRL media, this is a club that has had a period of success lasting decades that other clubs can only dream of. The success is based on a mixture of hard work and relationship building that no club North of the ACT and South of the Tweed (with the possible exception of the Roosters) has come close to matching. If more teams were like Melbourne, the NRL would be a lot more entertaining. And if the the NRL media got their collective lips off the collective @r$es of clubs from the Harbour city and Newcastle, it would be a lot more fun to follow.
jimmmy
Roar Rookie
If you add Victorian teams to your first sentence I sort of agree with you.
Glory Bound
Roar Rookie
Do you like to argue in circles? Buying a premiership refers specifically to the Roosters, who have been over the salary cap for the last 5 years and for 2013. Which other club could lose half their roster in one season then lose an international rep player in Joseph Manu only to replace him with an international and Origin rep player, Josh Morris. That was my point. That and the fact that the Rabbitohs always have around 5 - 6 South Sydney juniors each year. In the GF Souths will have 6 juniors playing just like the Panthers who have the largest and most talented Rugby League junior nursery in the competition. I refuse to acknowledge Isaah Yeo and Matt Burton as Panthers juniors coming from... DUBBO! That's like giving the Rabbitohs a juniors boundary stretching to Taree in the north, Narooma in the s south and Parkes to the west. It's almost as far as it is from Redfern to Port Macquarie as it is from Penrith to Dubbo! No wonder the Panthers junior nursery is flooded! Btw, there are even two Souths Sydney juniors/NYC team members playing for Penrith, Api Koroisau and Paul Momirovski. So which team do you support SM? The Panthers?
jimmmy
Roar Rookie
They can't answer them apples Albo and that the reason my support slightly leans your way.
Short Memory
Roar Rookie
Love the use of bold type. It makes your argument so much more convincing :laughing: Yes, Souths 2014 team had 5 local juniors, and that's great. Good for them. Hooray. Should be more of it. But the reality is they also had 8 gun players - 7 of whom played in the GF and one only missed because he was suspended, 5 of whom were Origin or International reps - who were developed elsewhere. So my point that it's a bit rich accusing other clubs of 'buying' premierships still stands, with a majority of 8 to 5. And my memory is fine... what was you name again...?
Glory Bound
Roar Rookie
All 3 Burgii had not played in the NRL, and George and Tom were yet to represent England when they played for the Rabbitohs. Sam had played a handful of games for England, but also debuted in the NRL for Souths. Chris McQueen was playing QLD Cup along with Dave Tyrrell. Greg Inglis and Ben Te'o were the only existing Origin reps brought into the side at that time. Lote Tuquiri was on his way out and couldn't get a contract with the Tigers. Lote's last rep game was at least 4 years before 2014. The Rabbitohs 2014 premiership winning team had FIVE South Sydney juniors John Sutton, Adam Reynolds, Alex Johnston, Dylan Walker and Jason Clark. There were a further NINE players who had not played a game in the NRL and were either part of the South Sydney Rabbitohs NYC team; Apisai Koroisau, Luke Keary and Kyle Turner or had not played in the NRL before joining the Rabbitohs and playing in their lower grades or feeder clubs before cementing a spot in first-grade in the NRL; i.e. Chris McQueen, David Tyrrell, Kirisome Auva’a and of course Sam Burgess, George Burgess and Tom Burgess. You must have a Short Memory, mate? :laughing: :laughing: :laughing:
Short Memory
Roar Rookie
I'm worried about your well being TS. If a comment that unremarkable cause you to choke on your cocoa you might want the nice ladies in white to start serving it in one of those sippy cups. An opinion kind of needs to be an opinion about facts. Otherwise it's just fantasy ramblings (Stay tuned for my next article about whether unicorns or flying monkeys make better outside backs!) So even on an opinion website there are a few pretty basic requirements. Job one - get hold of some facts. Job two - have an opinion (preferably an interesting one). Job three (unfortunately optional) avoid dull cliches like calling Souths "Souffs". Enjoy your cuppa :happy:
Short Memory
Roar Rookie
You having' a laugh? Sam Burgess was an international star. Other NRL clubs wanted him - though he signed to Rabbitohs for "less" money. The Bunnies squad also included a few other nobodies who were not developed by Souths - including Lote Tuquiri (Origin, International), Issac Luke (International poached from the Bulldogs Jersey Flegg team), Ben Yeo (Origin, International), George & Tom Burgess (brothers of the more famous Sam), and arguably Chris McQueen (Origin) who played all his development footy in Qld. So you're right. Souths 2014 didn't have 3 marquee players brought in as developed adults. They had 8.
Glory Bound
Roar Rookie
Well, that has always been my philosophy. It took us years to finally agree on something, Pickett. Just in time for the Rabbitohs 22nd premiership. :thumbup: