Sellout Anticipated When SBW Runs On With The Roosters

HE HAS been cast as a mercenary and a villain by many, but there cannot be any doubting his pulling power. Sonny Bill Williams, who was accused of selling out on the Bulldogs, may now sell out Allianz Stadium, giving the NRL a record start to this year's season.

NRL and Sydney Roosters officials are hopeful the club's round-one season opener on March 7 against South Sydney, Williams's first match for his new team, will be sold out.

The hype around Williams's debut already had ticket sales tracking well, but the performances of the two sides in their final trials over the weekend - the Roosters' 28-16 win over Wests Tigers in the Foundation Cup and the Rabbitohs' 28-10 victory over St George Illawarra in the Charity Shield - have officials expecting a further surge in ticket sales this week.

 

 "Ticket sales are tracking along very well" ... chief commercial operating officer of the Roosters, Ted Helliar. Photo: Getty Images


''Ticket sales are tracking along very well,'' said the chief commercial operating officer of the Roosters, Ted Helliar. ''They've been extremely positive so far.

''I'd love nothing more than to put the sold-out sign up. It's probably a little too early to tell whether it will be. This time next week, we may have a better idea.''

A sellout would mean a crowd close to the stadium's capacity of 45,500, and a record for the Roosters in a home-and-away match.

Their SCG match against St George Illawarra in 2010 drew 37,994, a record for Roosters non-finals matches.

''It would be great to see a sellout,'' an NRL spokesperson said. ''It's the first match and the first round, and there's the Sonny Bill factor. But you can never make those sorts of predictions.''

It remains an unknown how supporters will respond to a Thursday night match but the television ratings for trial matches show the appetite for the start of the NRL season is
significant.

Friday night's Charity Shield match was the highest-rating contest over a busy weekend of televised sport on pay television, drawing 240,000 viewers.

The Foundation Cup - featuring an impressive Roosters side, without Williams but including other new signings James Maloney, Michael Jennings and Luke O'Donnell, dispose of the Tigers - drew 173,000, although the crowd at Allianz Stadium was small largely because of poor weather.

In comparison, Israel Folau's Super Rugby debut with the Waratahs against the Reds drew 174,000 viewers, giving rugby union the equivalent, perhaps appropriately, of a win by a late penalty goal over the NRL trial, screened on the same night.

The strong ratings for the Foundation Cup came despite the fact that Williams, who controversially walked out on the Bulldogs in 2008 to play rugby union, was sitting on the sidelines. Roosters coach Trent Robinson erred on the side of caution with the star signing, deciding to give him more time off the field as he recovers from a pectoral injury.

Robinson remained confident Williams would be fit to play the Rabbitohs.

The Roosters emerged relatively unscathed from their final hit-out before round one; Daniel Mortimer required eight stitches to a cut under his right eye, but is not expected to be in any doubt for the season opener.

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2012 NRL Grand Final Jackpot for Canterbury Bulldogs' lucky Charm Sam Perrett

BY rights, Bulldogs winger Sam Perrett could have been joining his ex-Roosters teammates on an end of season trip to the US about now. 

Instead, the reborn Kiwi flyer bagged a double in the grand final qualifier last night to help his new club Canterbury-Bankstown into the final weekend of September.

Perrett's second try was sheer brilliance, picking up a looping ball from team mate Greg Eastwood before dancing along the sideline and crossing in the corner.

As the replays showed, there was a matter of millimetres between Perrett's boot and the white stripe of the touchline.

But like everything Perrett has touched since his mid-season switch from Bondi Junction to Belmore, it turned out to be pure rolled gold.

"It was a huge atmosphere. You couldn't hear a thing out there between each other but somehow we managed to all be on the same page and execute what we wanted to," Perrett said.

"The move has been chalk and cheese. I felt like I absolutely needed that and it's been an absolute blessing from the moment I first spoke to Des and the club up until now."

On his dance down the sideline for his second try after some brilliant lead-up from Greg Eastwood, Perrett said: "I remember a young, nippier Greg Eastwood back in his school days was able to do that.

"I wasn't sure if he still had it in him so it was good to see that he's still got it."

On the prospect of beating the Storm, Perrett said: "I've got all the belief in this team but we're going to have to work really hard. It's going to be our biggest challenge absolutely."

Aside from the performances of Perrett and Eastwood, another unlikely star for the Bulldogs was fellow mid-season convert Krisnan Inu.

Having previously tasted grand final defeats with Parramatta and the Warriors, Inu, who landed four goals and picked up a try, said the Bulldogs could go one better.

"No disrespect to the last two teams I've played with but we've shown we've got the team to be in the grand final," Inu said.

NRL: Only Victory Will Satisfy Warriors' Mateo

It's not the getting there that counts.

That's the message Feleti Mateo will be drumming into his team mates this week as the Warriors prepare for the club's second NRL grand final. Mateo knows all too well the hollowness that comes with a grand final defeat, describing his last visit to Homebush on the final day of the season as a "shattering" experience.

The ball-playing Tongan captain also knows that some teams head into the big day intent on winning, while others are happy just to be there.

In 2009, Mateo's Parramatta side staged one of the great NRL surges, riding a staggering wave of form that took them from 14th on the ladder after 14 rounds all the way to a grand final showdown with Melbourne.

There are echoes of that run in the Warriors' remarkable journey this season. They lost their first three games, dropped another four in a row mid-season, and were then belted out of sight 40-10 by Brisbane in their opening finals match.

Having recovered to topple the Tigers and Storm in thrilling fashion, the Warriors might be forgiven for thinking they have already achieved plenty.

They will, however, be a long time forgiving themselves if that mentality proves their undoing.

"I had a lot of people come up to me and say 'we don't care about the GF, as long as you beat the Bulldogs'," said Mateo of 2009, when the Eels beat their arch rival in a hugely hyped Battle of Sydney grand final qualifier.

"We all wanted to win it, but I guess there was a feeling it was a good thing getting there. We have spoken about that. We don't want to be happy to be there. We think we are good enough to win it."

Coach Ivan Cleary didn't think getting his team to switch from being desperate to reach a grand final to desperate to win it would be difficult.

"I have no interest in coming second," Cleary said.

"It is not hard to work out when you get up every morning where you want to finish - that is not in the grand final, it is winning it. But we never set it out as a particular goal, we have just arrived here based on what we have been able to do.

"It is absolutely fantastic to get the opportunity to experience all this but, really, it is about having the opportunity to become champions, not a side show."

Despite a transtasman surge of support the Warriors are still firm underdogs.

"No one expected us to beat the Tigers and no one expected us to [beat the Storm]," Mateo said. "Let them keep doubting us."

Having joined the Warriors after the Eels' 2010 campaign, Mateo never doubted the move - not even after those three season-opening defeats.

"Never mate. Those first three games, we didn't win them but we played some good footy. And looking at the squad the club had, it was really promising."

The Junior Warriors and feeder club Auckland Vulcans also contesting grand finals on Sunday supports his view the club is stocked with talent.

Often described as a special player for his prodigious offloading and line-breaking ability, Mateo insists there is, in fact, nothing too special about this Warriors team.

"It's just been dirty, ugly footy. Going forward, completing sets and taking our opportunities when they come. That is what we have been doing for the last two weeks and, hopefully, we can do it again this week.

"Manly are a great team, they have got strike across the whole field. But it is just another game you have to grind out. They have some hard heads in that pack and they will get even harder with Glenn Stewart coming back.

"But if we just worry about ourselves, play our brand of footy and keep level headed, then I think we can win it."