Australian Rugby League

[Richie]

Here we can talk about the Australian Kangaroos, State of Origin, the NRL senior and junior Rugby League, as well as interstate and regional competitions.

I have been a life long (fanatic) supporter of the St George Dragons. I first began following the club in boarding school because I liked the striking white with red v jersey plus it gave me a distraction from the draconian existence at the Mason- run school set on the outskirts of Sydney.
The club formed in 1921 has had its ups winning 11 consecutive premierships which I believe is still a world record for contact sports, perhaps even all sports and its lowest ebb for us diehards, when the club ceased to be a stand alone entity in 1999 by merging with another club. That day we sold our soul and image because we needed a larger player nursery and our partners Illawarra needed ready cash to stay alive. It would have been easy then to sever ties with the club but I stayed loyal to the REDV jumper for what it represented.. arguably the most famous sporting team to have existed.

The Origins of the St George District RLFC | St George District RLFC

One of the first games of club football in the St George district occurred at Kogarah in 1886, when a local team — described by the Daily Telegraph as ‘newly formed’ and the ‘red and whites’ — welcomed a side from West Sydney. The contest took place under the laws of what the paper called...

stgeorgedragons.com.au

 

[Sharkman84]

Lifelong Cronulla Sharks fan here. My parents moved to the Shire when I was 2, grew up watching the Sharks through the lean years of the early 90's. Moved to SA in 2015, the 2016 Grand Final will forever be the greatest of all time for me.

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[Richie]

True story Sharky. About a year after I started as a St George supporter I told my brother during holidays that I wanted to start a Dragons scrap book but wanted more than paper clippings of their matches. I wanted player signatures. My brother suggested we go and see the Saint's skipper Norm who owned an electrical store in the Saints district where we lived. When we arrived at the store I put fear aside and walked up to the giant man.. and said '' Mr Provan I am starting a scrap book of the club and want your and other player's autographs". Expecting to be brushed off like a pesky insect.. he put his giant hand on my head and replied.. "Of course I will Tiger. Always happy to help out a Dragons supporter" (or words to that affect). There happened to be two other players in the store at the time one was Monty Porter .. forgotten the other one. Then Mr Provan told me that if I was to leave the scrap book with him he'd see that all the other Saints players would sign my book. The future Immortal was true to his word as I found out when we returned the following week. I aslo hit the jackpot that day as Billy Smith, Johnny Raper and Kevin Ryan happened to be in the store at the same time. To this day I have wondered if big Norm arranged it that way so I could meet my heroes in person.