Sydney Roosters Juniors

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The Sydney Roosters Juniors base has a colourful and extensive history. Forming in 1907, the foundation clubs of the New South Wales Rugby League in Sydney, Australia were given boundaries aligned to local government areas. The Roosters boundaries included but were not limited to the suburbs of Bondi, Coogee, Paddington, Darlinghurst, Waverley, Woollahra and Randwick.

Today the Roosters junior base has been restricted to more than half of its original territories and competes within the South Sydney Juniors competition, now a separate entity to that of South Sydney Rugby League Football Club.

[edit] Turf wars

When the Sydney Roosters first entered the NSWRL competition as Eastern Suburbs in 1908, the tricolours would become neighbours to fellow city counterpart, the South Sydney Rabbitohs. Anzac Parade separated the territories for both inner-Sydney clubs when the boundaries were first established the previous year.

The original boundary line. The blue boundary line separates Roosters and Rabbitohs territory.

The areas would remain unchanged for nearly half a century until the early 1950s when the NSWRL decided to re-allocate club boundaries. In this re-allocation the Roosters would lose a large proportion of their territory to South Sydney Rabbitohs. Rabbitohs stalwart S.G Ball was a dual adminstrator within South Sydney Rabbitohs and the Australian Rugby League at the time. The Rabbitohs were in a highly successful period and had established South Sydney Juniors Leagues club in Kingsford, Roosters territory in recent times.

Debate still continues as to how and why Eastern Suburbs territory was given to South Sydney. Some Roosters fans still consider the decision to be unexplained and unjustified.

The new boundaries set out in the early 1950s.

This was not to be the end of struggle for junior territory. In the 1980s several junior clubs within Roosters territory became dissatisfied with Roosters management and affiliated with South Sydney. These included the Coogee Dolphins, Moore Park Magpies, Coogee-Randwick, Coogee Wombats and the Paddington Colts.