Why the Dragon is mightier than the Rooster
23 April 2007
2007 is a momentous year for the Sydney Roosters. While the Roosters have so far registered a string of disappointing on-field performances, the proud foundation Club is celebrating its 100th season and aiming for its 1,000th win against the Dragons on ANZAC Day.
With both the Roosters and the Dragons in the unfamiliar position of cellar dwellers after six rounds of the competition, the ANZAC Day match is anyone’s game.
However, the Dragons should gain some extra incentive in attempting to delay the Roosters from registering the Club’s 1,000th victory since 1908; something that the Dragons have already achieved despite their significantly shorter lifespan in the competition. An additional incentive for the Dragons is the chance to register their 100th victory against the Roosters.
As a foundation Club that entered the NSWRL in 1908 with Souths, Balmain, Wests, Newtown, Newcastle, Norths, Glebe and Cumberland, Eastern Suburbs had a thirteen season head start on the St.George Dragons.
While St.George had unsuccessfully attempted to enter the Sydney premiership in 1908 at a meeting at Rockdale Town Hall, a meeting at the Kogarah School of Arts in November 1920 cemented St.George a place in the NSWRL and sealed Annandale’s expulsion from the competition.
By 1921, Eastern Suburbs had already established a proud legacy with three successive premierships in 1911, 1912 and 1913. Like most new Clubs, St.George took some time to find success in the NSWRL and didn’t defeat Easts until 1924.
St.George became a competitive entity with the arrival of the legendary Frank Burge from Glebe and at Arncliffe’s Earl Park they became one of the most gritty teams in the competition.
Both St.George and Easts had the joy of whipping Canterbury-Bankstown by gigantic margins in 1935. Canterbury received no favours in their maiden year when the Roosters destroyed them by 87-7 and St.George annihilated them by 91-6 or 110-6 if modern scoring is applied.
By the time that St.George achieved their maiden premiership in 1941, when they defeated the Roosters by 31-14, the Roosters had already notched eight of their twelve premiership victories.
With St.George recording another premiership in 1949, the Dragons’ fortunes were on the rise while the Roosters’ status was on the wane. Like all opposition, St.George completely dominated the Roosters throughout the late 1950s and well into the late 1960s, with the highlight being the 1960 Grand Final where the Saints massacred the Roosters by 31-6.
In 1963, the Dragons overtook the Roosters’ premiership tally and soon set a host of records that are unlikely to be broken:
Most Grand Final victories (13)
Most successive premierships (11)
Most Club championships (18)
Most Third Grade premierships (14)
Biggest winning margin (91-6 vs Canterbury in 1935)
Last First Grade team to be undefeated in a season (1959)
Last team to win all three grades (1963)
Throughout the seventies, the Clubs had similar fortunes with both registering two premiership victories. The Roosters won their first successive titles since 1937 when they triumphed in 1974 and 1975. The Roosters inflicted one of the Dragons’ most embarrassing defeats when Graeme Langlands experienced white boot horror during the 1975 Grand Final. The Roosters savaged St.George by 38-0 in a defeat that will long be remembered by both fanatical supporter bases.
While 1975 was a setback for the Dragons, the pain was fleeting and St.George recorded gutsy premiership victories in 1977 and 1979.
Neither the Roosters or Dragons experienced a particularly successful decade in the eighties. St.George were impressive up to 1985 but their fortunes sank when Kogarah Jubilee was abandoned for the SCG, while not even a brand spanking new Football Stadium at Moore Park could inspire the Roosters out of the mire.
The nineties were a particularly tumultuous decade for both Clubs. The Roosters struggled for credibility and support throughout the first half of the decade and in 1995 they changed their identity to the Sydney City Roosters. Experiencing a revival under Brian Smith, the Dragons came close to premiership success on two occasions but were denied by the cashed-up Brisbane Broncos.
In 1995, with the advent of Super League, the future of the Dragons and Roosters was almost intertwined. The St.George Board authorised dialogue with the Roosters and both parties signed a document stating that they would investigate a possibility of a merger. The St.George supporter base reacted furiously to the Easts-Saints merger headlines and by August 1995 the proposed merger was no longer feasible.
A year later, the mighty St.George recorded a memorable 36-16 semi-final victory over the more fancied Roosters, with the likes of Mundine, Coyne and Bartrim leading the way.
By 1998 when St.George agreed to incorporate Illawarra into their Club to ensure that the South Coast wasn’t lost to the NRL, the Dragons were already recognised as the greatest club in rugby league history. They had surpassed South Sydney’s tally of victories and left the other remaining foundation Clubs such as Easts well behind. Having given the foundation Clubs 13 years’ head start, the Dragons’ current record of 1,022 victories is truly remarkable.
In 2002 the Sydney Roosters had reason to crow when they won the premiership, albeit because the Bulldogs were stripped of their competition points because of salary cap breaches. A premiership in the modern NRL era is the one achievement that the Dragons are yet to reach but if history is a guide the Saints will be sure to march in sooner rather than later.
Although the history of the Roosters is a proud one and deserves to be celebrated with great gusto in the Club’s 100th year, the history of the Dragons is even richer and should receive due recognition during the Rugby League Centenary in season 2008.
A happy St.George’s Day to all!
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