I have been pretty quiet because frankly I don't agree with a lot that is being said on here.
I used to get easily offended on here and quick to defend when baited for responses (Coxy can attest to this) and now I don't really care. If you hate us for a warped reason, then that is your opinion and right to have.
I just find some of the comments slightly hypocritical as for a supporter of a team with such a rich history in your short time. Many here don’t understand failure or failure of normal teams. Let alone a team with such a shit past 20+ years as us. Then push on their own successes as a right to be deemed more important.
I just want to clear a few things up.
“The pride of the league” tag dates back to the 30’s. If any other team had it, I bet their fans would be using it as well. Whether you like it or not - Souths and our very history are deep etched in Rugby League and the local community of Sydney. Does that mean we deserve any special treatment? No. If anything, we have had to work twice as hard to earn it, even more so after getting kicked out. It took some stubborn people to take on the “big boys” and win. As far as I can recall, we never received any favours from the NRL after that. IMO the NRL wanted us to just die a slow death or relocate, with both almost happening which would have solved some of the NRL's problems (at the time).
I remember a board meeting with Richo addressing all the admin staff and he said how bad we were financially; pretty sure some payments had been missed and bills were extended. Basically, we were told that we might not be able to field a team the next year. We took a fair few games to different grounds so we would make money from gate takings, without having to go to the Central Coast; permanently. I think in that time they asked Russell for money. Then ANZ stadium offered us the huge carrot of $100K a game to play out there, that gave us some security that SFS didn’t.
Let me rewind a bit. If you didn’t know, the club was poorly managed from the 80’s til we got kicked out. The reasons are simple; we were run by ex-players who wanted to hold on to their glory days and not move forward and change with the times. Money was becoming a huge part of the game and they ignored it, thinking it would stay the same. So we ultimately fell behind (atleast 10 years IMO).
It has been alleged that Piggins used football club money to prop up the leagues club. So we had a lot of internal issues for a long time and we were very bad, on the field and off the field. It finally took the 75.8% voting rights members or 2982 to change the future of the club and let PHAC and Russell save the club and finally bring some new age professionalism. They have done that and then some but it has been a bumpy road and a reason to why I no longer work for the club. Plus there have been some negative aspects of this in the leagues club building taking over 4 years to be redeveloped. With the Leagues club trading as Souths on Chalmers for a few months before clothing is doors again. Either way if you want to know more about the leagues club building fiasco and regarding the assets, then a few Google searches can give more info on that.
I don’t know why people hate Russell Crowe that much for his involvement in rugby league. The only reason I can gather is because he doesn’t love you club and doesn’t put his money or use his media attention to bring attention to your club. He has done a lot of good for rugby league in general and if it grows our brand (Souths and the NRL) then that can’t be a bad thing.
The “Souths wankfest” on channel 9 at the moment, IMO is because we are a ratings winner in both markets due to our huge supporter base. The Broncos only really rate in the QLD markets. Plus the fact that we have been playing the best football in years also gives a bit more attention.
“Everyone’s 2[SUP]nd[/SUP] team”. Frankly this statement means “We can’t hate Souths because they suck so much and we feel sorry for them and their supporters. We would hate to be them”.
This has now changed, due to the fact that we are no longer shit and we continue to grow our culture into a successful one. As we become more successful, we will continue to get more hate from the NRL community and someone else will be replaced as that “loser team” everybody feels sorry for.
The statement above is also repeated with the phrase “When South Sydney are doing well, Rugby League is doing well.” Rugby League has been doing fine without Souths doing well for years. With us doing well though, it brings out a lot of supporters who have been disinterested, pissed off and ashamed for many years. Frankly, I still see it nothing more than a negative comment in regards to our poor form in the last 20+ years.
At the end of the day as a club, we have been shit and we got kicked out because of it. As someone who didn’t follow rugby league at the time or was anti a lot of stuff (being your average teenager, I was getting into NFL instead). So I didn’t understand what my dad was feeling. To see your dad cry over his football club didn’t make sense to me. I just saw a shit team that got beaten almost every week. I didn’t march with my parents; I refused (something I regret every day). I didn’t join up to become a club member when even my brother (a Raiders supporter) joined up when they got back in (something else I regret). I just didn’t understand or care at the time.
This was until I met my girlfriend Bree or Playboy bunny. I still to this day get teased by her for saying “Why do you spend every weekend at the footy to watch your team get beaten? When we could be out doing other things”.
It wasn’t until I attended that first game as an adult (I had attended a few games as a kid but, it is different). This is 2004 and to this day I can still remember that moment of hearing “Glory Glory” for the first time as the team ran out at SFS. The goosebumps filled my entire body and in that moment, in those 80 mins I finally understood everything my dad had been saying for years - about the club, the history and their fans. I was hooked and have been ever since. I really wish my dad wasn't a truck driver and had those chances to take me to more games as a kid. I probably would have been hooked a lot sooner. Either way he originally planted the seed and thank him so much for that. He was SSTID and he will be forever after.
While I originally intended this to not be a long winded rant, I do expect a few TLDR comments about it and sorry about that but had to vent a little.