Forget plumbing the depths of “Lara Bingle and The Lost Ring”, (which sounds like a new Tomb Raider movie) – for me the biggest news story concerns some other birds and a beachside Sydney suburb which may, or may not cough up said ring. I read that the Sydney Roosters NRL team is considering changing its name.
Like many a long-suffering time supporter, I’ve been strapped into that tri-coloured, clichéd emotional rollercoaster. We’ve seen it all – the halcyon days of the 70’s with back to back premierships including the exalted 38-blot plastering of Graeme Langlands’ white boots led Dragons, legends (in no particular order) such as Beetson, Coote, Harris, Brass, Hastings, Walters, Mayes, The Count, Peard, Fairfax, Schubert, right through to the Freddie Fittler and Fitzy inspired grand final victory in 2002.
Then the plan kind of fell to the ground– the 2009 season bottoming out with Nate Myles mistaking a hotel corridor for a dunny. Then wooden spoon.
The forecast is shaping up a bit like a footy version of the opening scene of Macbeth –a forlorn winter’s afternoon at a windswept Sydney Football Stadium, cold as a witches’ teat (I actually have no personal experience how cold that really is) watching the red, white and blues trudge off the field after another soul-wrenching defeat. The solution? Change the name to the “Bondi Roosters”. Sorted. Thanks mate, just whack the 2010 trophy on the shelf over there.
Sorry, that name sounds like somewhere you’d pick up dinner on the way home. “Can you stop at Bondi Roosters and get some takeaway? I’ll have a Freddie Fittler pack with extra chips, and Trevor wants the upsized Beetson Burger but hold the Myles sauce. Ta.” The Roosters aren’t the only team heading down this path. The Bulldogs have gone back to the future next season with a name change to “Canterbury-Bankstown”. Will other teams follow – will that red and white team become the Bexley-Dapto Dragons? How about the Lidcombe-Lillyfield Tigers? Where do you stop?
I realise the hard-core, league tragics want the game to revert to 1973 – only Sydney teams, Frank Hyde playing the teams’ theme songs, the boys on Controversy Corner handing out the Patra orange juice and Viking Sauna voucher (etc), splinter-inducing suburban grounds… which reminds me of being at Cumberland Oval on a Sunday arvo hearing the Chook Army belting out “We hate Ray Price and we hate Ray Price… we are the Ray Price Haters.” At least it had more lyrics than a Britney song.
But I digress, I understand the Chooks want to pretend 2009 neverhappened and move forward, but I’m not sure if “Bondi Roosters” is the way to do it. The concept has certainly opened debate. I just hope it doesn’t become a mass-debate.
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