The Sydney Roosters have a history that stretches back from the birth of rugby league football in Australia in 1908 to the present day. It is the only remaining club to have played every season of top-tier football in Australia's history.
Foundation years The New South Wales capital city Sydney has had numerous football teams known as Sydney F.C. or similar, dating back to the first such club founded in 1865 who played their matches on Hyde Park. The city's first grade rugby union premiership in the late 1890s included at various times a Sydney F.C., Randwick F.C. and a Paddington F.C., then in 1900 under a new districts club scheme the Eastern Surburbs DRUFC was established.
On 24 January 1908 Eastern Suburbs decided at a meeting held at Paddington Town Hall to leave behind its Union counterparts and enter into the NSWRL. Bringing with them their local playing strip as worn during the rugby union days consisting of red, blue, and white, the Eastern Suburbs District Rugby League Football Club was born. The Eastern Suburbs District Rugby League Football Club, as it is still officially known today, was formed according to its articles of association with the NSWRL, to propagate the game of Rugby League in the eastern municipalities in the Sydney metropolitan areas, including the City of Sydney, Paddington, Darlinghurst, Vaucluse, Woollahra, Waverley and Randwick local government areas.
With the NSWRL being able to sign Union crowd favourite Dally Messenger, Easts were handed his services due to rule stipulations regarding players playing for their local area. Easts were led out for the first time by Captain Henry "Jersey" Flegg and started off their existence with a 32–16 victory over Newtown in front of a crowd of 3000 at Wentworth Park. The "Tricolours" would remain competitive throughout the entire season even without star player Dally Messenger at the beginning of the season due to representative commitments.
The Tricolours fielded a lineup including Dan Frawley, Lou Jones, Sandy Pearce, Larry O'Malley, Albert Rosenfeld, Dally Messenger, and captain Jersey Flegg and lost only one regular season match that year. Although without several star players due to the 1908 Kangaroo Tour, Easts were able to defeat North Sydney to earn the right to face Souths in the final. In a highly contested match, Easts were close to snatching victory in the final minutes with a try in the corner. Trailing 14–12, the Tricolours were unable to make the conversion to force a re-match, and the inaugural premiership went to the Rabbitohs.
In 1909 Easts showed early signs of improving on the previous years' efforts. However a five-game, losing streak toward the back end of the competition saw the Tricolours bow out of contention. However, in 1910, the team was inconsistent and eventually missed out on a semi-final berth.
In 1911 Easts finally reaped the full benefits of Dally "The Master" Messenger, who declined to tour with the Australian team. Defeating Souths for the right to challenge minor premiers Glebe for the premiership, the Tricolours took Glebe on with the knowledge that a victory would entitle them to a re-match for the premiership. Winning 22–9 in the first of the two games, Easts prevailed 11–8 after a come-from-behind victory to take out their maiden premiership. Messenger was instrumental in the win, scoring a try, converting two others and kicking a field goal to help the Tricolours in their performance. During the season Messenger was involved as John "Dinny" Campbell in a match against Newtown kicked the last ever soccer-style field goal in premiership history.
In 1912 a rule-change was implemented, with the minor premier automatically declared premiers. Backing up with their previous year's performance, both the Tricolours and Glebe remained the two stand-out teams throughout 1912. With both teams suffering only one loss during the lead up to their match, it was anticipated that although four matches would remain after their clash, the winner would more than likely take out the premiership. In front of an approximate crowd of 25,000 at the Sports Ground, Dally Messenger once again proved the difference kicking a field goal minutes before full-time to lead the Tricolours to victory 6–4 in a close rain-soaked and muddy game.
In 1913 Easts again proved dominant, losing only to Newtown and Glebe. Easts finished atop of the ladder and were handed the 1913 Premiership. Completing their first premiership treble, Easts would also become the first team to ever win three premierships in a row. The 1914 season showed signs of promise from the Bondi-based team. However key losses in their final five games saw the Tricolours finish third for the end of the year. The following years showed little sign of improvements, as Easts did not finish higher than 5th.
With the introduction of the "first-past-the-post" era, where teams finishing on top of the ladder remained unchallenged, Easts had to settle for runners-up in both 1919 (Balmain) and 1921 (North Sydney). At the end of the 1923 season, both Easts and Souths finished equal first, resulting in a Grand Final between the two inner-Sydney clubs. The result was a 15–12 win by Easts in which captain Harry Caples proved the difference by scoring a late try to seal victory. The win gave the Bondi-based team their 4th premiership.
The Golden '30s
The 1930s would provide one of, if not the most successful era of the Eastern Suburbs club. The decade started well for the Tricolours, with Arthur Halloway returning in 1930 as the team's new coach. The former Australian international had earlier been part of Easts' premiership winning teams of 1912 & 1913. His arrival sparked the Tricolours to finish second after the regular season in 1930, before losing a semi-final to St George. The following season, with the team, under the captaincy of Norm Pope finished minor premiers, but the team suffered a loss in the final. In 1934, the team finished joint minor premiers to the more experienced Wests team but went down to Wests 15–12 in the final.
The Tricolours finally made amends in 1935. By this stage, Easts had developed a stellar roster. Chief among them were Jack Beaton centre Dave Brown, halfback Viv Thicknesse, prop Ray Stehr, second rower Side "Joe" Pearce and lock Andy Norval, all of whom were named in the Roosters' team of the 20th century, as well as Ernie Norman and wing Rod O'Loan. In a 16-game regular season, Easts surpassed 50 points on six occasions. The chief destroyer for the Roosters was Dave Brown, whose records remain unbroken to this day. In Easts 87-7 defeat of Canterbury, Brown scored a record 45 points (5 tries, 15 goals), and scored 38 tries in the season. In the return match against Canterbury, Brown would score 38 points (second highest in history), including six tries. O'Loan scored 27 tries in that season, including 7 against University, which is still the second highest for an Australian rugby league first grade game. Finishing eight points ahead from their next opponent, Easts progressed into the Grand Final by defeating Wests in the major semi-final 15–10. The only team capable of stopping the mighty Easts failed to do so in the Grand Final, with Souths going down to the eventual premiers 19–3 in front of 22,106 spectators.
The Tricolours went the following two seasons undefeated, the only occasion that a first grade rugby league club would achieve two seasons undefeated in Australian history. Easts would retain the premiership in 1936, winning 13 games from 15 (with two drawn), defeating Balmain 32–12 to claim their 6th premiership. Celebrating their 30th year of existence in 1937, Easts completed their second premiership treble by finishing minor premiers in a shortened season due to a Kangaroo Tour, which saw them automatically handed the premiership after finishing the eight-game season with 6 wins and two draws. All up, Easts had a 35-game undefeated streak during this time, 11 head of their closest rival (Balmain - 24 games undefeated between 1914 & 1916).
Feeling the strain of representative commitments having supplied eight players for the Kangaroo Tour, it would only be towards the back end of the 1938 season that Easts would show shades of their previous winning formula. Easts defeated Souths in the minor semi-final to take on Canterbury, who three years before were torn apart by the Roosters in an 87-7 defeat. However the turn-around was evident when Canterbury took out the premiership with a 19–6 win over the Tricolours.
The war years, and more premierships
It would only take two years for Easts to exact revenge on the Canterbury-based team. Meeting them in the 1940 Grand Final after taking out the Minor Premiership, Easts prevailed 24–14 to claim their fourth premiership in six years. The following year Easts once again were able to make the Grand Final, but a determined St. George outfit won 31–14. Taking out their seventh Minor Premiership in 13 years, Easts headed up the 1945 Grand Final against fourth placed Balmain. With three tries and five goals by Dick Dunn, Easts took out the premiership 22-18 and moved up to second on the list of most premierships, only three behind Souths.
Birth of the Rooster For much of the first half of the 20th century, the Eastern Suburbs club was known colloquially as the "Tricolours" after the club colours of red, white and blue. Occasionally, the club was also referred to as the "Beachsiders" or the "Seasiders". In the 1960s, adopting a new playing strip that consisted of a V-shaped design similar to that of the popular French teams who also wore red, white, and blue, the Eastern Suburbs club became known as the Roosters. This was due to the similarities of the French team jersey, which displayed a cock badge on their jersey.
However it is contested by fans of the day that the rooster was associated with the football club decades earlier. This claim is strengthened by newspapers in the 1930s depicting photos of a rooster-top weather vane pointing eastward when publishing articles on the Sydney Roosters. The explanation given being that Eastern Suburbs being in the east, is where the sun would rise hence where the rooster would crow first. The football club itself has neither confirmed nor denied both origins of the rooster mascot.
The Roosters were able to make the 1960 Grand Final, but their opponents were St. George who were in the middle of a dynasty that lasted eleven premierships. The Jack Gibson-captained side was to be no match for the Dragons, with Easts defeated comprehensively 31–6. However, after this, the Roosters consistently finished at the bottom of the table and made history in 1966 by failing to win a single a game. In 1967, however, the Roosters finished in fourth place under the guidance of rookie coach Jack Gibson.
The glory years
The 1970s would become a successful decade for the Roosters, competing in three Grand Finals, two in which they went on to become premiers. Reaching the Grand Final against Manly in 1972, Easts led early on before a series of mistakes and lost opportunities saw a comeback by Manly, who went on to win 19–14.
With the introduction of Easts Leagues Club, the Roosters brought Jack Gibson back to the Bondi-based club, along with a team including Mark Harris, John Brass, Bill Mullins, Russell Fairfax, Johnny Mayes, John Peard, Ron Coote, Ian Schubert and captain Arthur Beetson.