Sunshine, lollypops and scandal: NRL’s oldest rivalry still breaking new ground

3 months ago 28

Brandon Smith stood on stage on Sunday alongside Rabbitohs teammates and helped give away the keys to a shiny new hybrid sedan.

South Sydney fans cued the length of their plush Heffron Park training paddock to get photos with Alex Johnston.

Out the front of the club’s $24 million Maroubra base, Latrell Mitchell doubled down on the same clamour from supporters, selling sausages, steaks and various cuts from his own Winmarra Family Meats caravan trailer.

The Bunnies biggest names swanned about on a certified Sydney stunner for the club’s member and fan day with all the trimmings - face painting, fairy floss, and one brave kid riding past on an electric bike, fittingly, in a Roosters jersey.

A harbinger on wheels of the latest Roosters clash, and the week to come.

The game’s oldest rivalry and South Sydney’s ‘Book of Feuds’ have been referenced so regularly now that they’ve become rugby league’s own unique cliches.

But it’s hard to recall the enmity between the Rabbitohs and Roosters boiling on so many fronts all at once.

The Allianz Stadium turf battle. The Matraville High turf battle. The poaching raids that have seen Latrell Mitchell, Angus Crichton, Luke Keary, Joseph-Aukuso Suaalii, Smith and countless others skip across Anzac Parade in both directions.

Rabbitohs officials began the week bullish that he did not deserve to be stood down by the NRL and felt vindicated when chief executive Andrew Abdo took the same view.

Radley’s police summons, and subsequent reporting of the June long weekend golf trip he and six teammates were on when the drug supply offences allegedly took place, have the Roosters fuming.

Brandon Smith and Victor Radley during their time together at the Roosters.

There is no suggestion of wrongdoing by Radley or those teammates.

But chairman Nick Politis’s “zero tolerance” stance on drug use was seen by some at Souths as a potshot over their handling of Mitchell’s white substance scandal last year.

And now there is a game-wide fascination with what an on-field collision looks like between Smith and the club he called home until just a few months ago.

Meanwhile, the Rabbitohs are still pushing to reclaim hosting rights at the $828 million Allianz Stadium, with the Roosters still vehemently opposed.

Souths responded in kind with a formal application to the NSWRL to have the Tricolours booted from Matraville Sports High - whose alumni includes Adam Reynolds, Boyd Cordner, Dylan Walker and Josh Addo-Carr - arguing its their turf.

The current state of Roosters-Rabbitohs affairs is not yet at the heights of recent animosity that reigned after Mitchell broke Joey Manu’s jaw in an on-field incident in 2021.

We’re not at the ‘all hell breaking loose’ stations from the following season - when a year’s worth of tension exploded in a record seven sin-binnings and the most chaotic game of the NRL era, taking the Roosters 2022 campaign with it.

But we’re not done yet either. And we’re light years away from the honest assessment of Roosters utility Connor Watson, who in April told ABC Radio that “there was more said about the rivalry” when he was coming through the club’s junior ranks than now.

“Our under 20s coach would try and fire us up to go out there and bash them,” Watson said.

“There’s definitely a different energy, but internally, I don’t think we really speak about it that much … we don’t really talk about how much you hate them anymore.”