The Eastern Suburbs District Rugby League Football Club, better known as the Sydney Roosters, are an Australian National Rugby League (NRL) team predominantly based in the Eastern Suburbs of Sydney, New South Wales. As of 2023, they are the only team to have appeared in every season of the top tier of Australian rugby league.
📜 Sydney Roosters History
Formed in 1908, the club reached the first grand final of the New South Wales Rugby League (NSWRL) Premiership - a forerunner to the NRL - but lost-out to South Sydney. The Eastern Suburbs side would however triumph in 1911, winning their first of 3 consecutive titles with a side most strongly associated with dual code legend Herbert Henry "Dally" Messenger.
Throughout the 1920s, 1930s, and 1940s, the Eastern Suburbs were finals regulars, and they picked up 6 further premierships throughout the 3 decades. Between 1946 and 1973 the club would only appear in 1 grand final - a loss to St. George in 1960 - but in 1972 they claimed another title, and added another in 1980.
In 2002, the Roosters won their 12th premiership, and they then won again in 2013, before securing back-to-back titles in 2018 and 2019.
The Roosters' traditional home colours are red, white, and blue. The franchise's association with the rooster can be traced back to1952, when the Australian national team toured France: Eastern Suburbs players were involved in the tour, and, as their club side already had a long-standing association with the "tricolour" (or tricolore), they simply took in one step further, adopting the French cockerel which appears on their national rugby league crest.
