But, if there’s not something like “the Roosters’ way”, as is often mentioned by them, then why are they so damn gritty, tough, resilient, brave and competitive? If it’s just a matter of a golf game with Uncle Nick paying out losing bets to players from the sombrero stash, they wouldn’t be like they are.
I think there is more to it about being a “Rooster” than you suggest and that can only be described in a story or narrative or shared-belief that guides the staff and players in how and why they do things the way they do them. And, it’s brought them a lot of success and respect.
Because Roosters buy up the best talent they can afford both as juniors and as seniors. The juniors they cook through their own systems - and they are good systems, I won't begrudge them that. But they spend a fortune on these developments and keep them locked in, then they go out and buy market-best players to top it all off.
Roosters take very good financial care of the players and their families. When Joey Manu was a teenager, Roosters used to fly him over from NZ on weekends to play in the Roosters junior teams. No surprise Joey Manu has loyalty to the club.
And how can anyone possibly overlook that the Roosters signed Luke Keary, James Tedesco and Cooper Cronk within the space of 12 months? That would be like Tigers going out and signing not just Tommy Turbo, but Cody Walker and Nathan Cleary for seasons 2022-23.
So if you look by comparison at top-tier football clubs like Man City or PSG, they are very very good sides, but they are good because they are stacked with elite-class players, and yes they have a drive and desire to win, but the club also supplies the best facilities, best rewards, best coaches. A contrast would be a club like Atalanta - very small budget and ordinary home facilities compare to the giants like Inter and Juventus, but they can truly claim to having a close-knit winning culture and a highly successful academy.
I think Melbourne Storm are much more the "gritty, brave, competitive" club you are talking about. Storm have to source 99.9% of players externally because they have very little local rugby league. Storm have excellent junior talent identification but they also take punts on developing-up fringe first-grades. For example Nicho Hynes is already 25, cut from Manly NYC and plucked from obscurity playing up in Mackay. Jahrome Hughes was signed by the Titans from the Roosters SG Ball, but only managed 2 FG games for Titans and Cowboys over 4 seasons, before picked up by Melbourne. Now both are two of Storm's most reliable spine talents.
Just look at the Roosters top-tier players:
- Tedesco - Camden and Tigers junior, pinched at his peak
- Luke Keary - Oakhill College rugby product, growing up in and being signed from QLD by Souths, playing 64 matches including a winning GF, before getting into a massive blue with Rusty Crowe and signing on with Roosters.
- JWH - Kiwi rugby product, schooling out of QLD and scouted by Manly, before being pinched by Roosters.
- Joey Manu - born and bred in NZ but scouted and brought over by Roosters
- Joseph Suaalii - long-term Souths prodigy who basically reneged on Souths then was courted by Roosters, who managed to secure exemptions to allow him to play early (and how surprising he got injured for the season).
- Angus Crichton - young rugby talent who actually played lower grades at Roosters, before being signed by Souths and coming to prominence with them; purchased by Roosters as a proven product.
- Taukeiaho - Kiwi product pinched from Warriors as a replacement for SBW.
- Lindsay Collins - Brisbane born and bred, pinched by Roosters from Broncos NYC.
- Sam Walker - 100% QLD product; his Dad never played for Roosters (one of his uncles did) but Broncos botched the deal that would have kept Walker in QLD.
- Victor Radley - legitimate all-Roosters product, from start to finish. There is one!
- Daniel Tupou - another arguable Roosters product, though they signed him after 2 years in Eels NYC.
So I do see a "Roosters Way". That "way" is to buy up everyone else's best players, then refine the product, releasing the ones that don't work out, until you have an emerging group of talent, on top of which you purchase the best few talents going around. You buy a very good coach and support him with the best talent and facilities that money can buy, and put him and all his players in touch with all the business heavies you can associate with, to bulk-up the Roosters "experience" where everything is taken care of for you, by people unofficially connected to the club.
Soulless. It has nothing to do with the old Easts that my grandmother followed, raised in Paddington, a fairly poor area but a club built on key foundational local players and administrators like Jersey Flegg, Dave Brown and Dally Messenger. Roosters aren't even "Easts" any more, they are just an oil-baron-style financial club who buy the best of the best from other areas.
