Roosters fans get upset when you say there isn’t many of them.
Looking past the trumped up crowd figures or the fact that the club only survives because a handful of rich old men like having a play thing to occupy their time on the weekends now that playing Golf is out of the question, Roosters fans get pissed off by constant talk that they should not be part of the National Rugby League.
On Friday night we will come to a point where Roosters fans can actually stand up and be counted. At home, in support of their own club, in support of their new favorite player in Sonny Bill Williams, Roosters fans have a chance to show everyone else that they belong in the National Rugby League.
It would be utterly embarrasing if on Friday night we find that Allianz Stadium is overrun with Canterbury Bulldogs fans.
Allianz Stadium is smack bang in the center of Roosters territory. The traffic alone should keep most Bulldogs fans away, right? So it has to be a given that Roosters fans will far outnumber Bulldogs fans for a game that has been built as a grudge match.
You see, we can all focus on Sonny Bill Williams, but it all goes deeper than that…
The Roosters won the 2002 NRL Grand Final in the season in which the Bulldogs were not allowed to compete in the finals for salary cap breaches. Thats not the Roosters fault! Lets face it, the Bulldogs didn’t deserve to be part of the premiership that season for the way they cheated the salary cap. Bulldogs fans know that. They know there are no excuses.
The two teams met in the Grand Final a couple of years later and the Bulldogs came away winners. It was the end of a Roosters reign that only saw them win one premiership and lose in three other deciders.
Then something happened. The Roosters started to pick and choose players out of the Bulldogs club that they felt would make them a great side again. Braith Anasta and Willie Mason were the headliners, and when Sonny Bill Williams walked out on the Bulldogs the whispers were already strong that if he ever played Rugby League again, it would be for the Sydney Roosters.
And here we are….
So Roosters fans, this is your chance to shut the mouths of every other NRL supporter that doesn’t believe you deserve to have a team in the competition.
It is really simple. If you outnumber Bulldogs fans, you win. If however the Bulldogs supporters outnumber you lot on a Friday night, at your home stadium….then, it is going to be very difficult to every shake that feeling that you lot don’t deserve a place in the National Rugby League.
I’m a neutral in this war. I don’t care who wins of loses this battle. I’ll be watching though, and as always, I am the judge, jury, and excecutioner….
I am The King Of Rugby League….and that is my challenge to Roosters fans.
Turn up, or shut up.
Nate Myles, Mark O’Meley