One at a time

[Guest]

Again I agree with ALMOST everything, but.......I guess I must be full of shit......because to say the game was fixed is an insult to our club and every player on the field, and I just dont believe it, especially with Fitzy there in his last game............there are plenty of games this year and last year where sides come back from 16 down......are they all fixed??? ............was it fixed for us to beat Manly after being 14 down to come back and win by 16.....???

Roosdaman - I really do hope that you are right and I am wrong. To think that could happen in Fitzy's last game defies logic. But there was something very smelly about that game. Sorry mate, may have been a bit strong with my language, didn't mean to imply you were full of shit.

[Guest]

I have very high hopes that we can somehow go all the way. But whatever happens this has been one of the greatest and fastest turnarounds in the history of the game. Last year was depressing. I'm sure no one here needs to be reminded of the long list of shameful events - the ****ing spoon, Friend's incidents, that fool Sa going crazy, Myles humiliating himself and lets not forget the last game of the year against the Cowboys. Anyone who says the fix wasn't on is full of shit. That was a ****ing disgrace. However, one year down the track and we are the feelgood story of the year. Carney, Myles and Friend have all redeemed themselves. Coach Smith has changed the culture of the club and it is a very exciting time to be a Roosters supporter. I want us to go all the way and will curse and complain bitterly if/when we lose. However, kept in perspective this has been a fantastic year no matter what happens over the next few weeks.

I'd be interested to know what makes you so certain about that

[Guest]

I'd be interested to know what makes you so certain about that

Just my feeling and what I saw. I don't have any inside information. I wasn't even in Australia at the time. My father was at the game with my 10 year old nephew and he was convinced something was off. He is not a Roosters supporter either. I tend to think it as well. Like I say, I hope it was not true.

You work at the Telegraph - what was the feeling amongst the sports journalists? There must have been some strong suspicions/rumours going around. What was going on with that brothel?

In any case that game was just the final nail in the coffin of the worst year I can recall in the club's history. I am very glad we have moved forward.

[Guest]

Come on guys da roosters are tops chance dis year!

I think they can make it to da top 2

[Guest]

Just my feeling and what I saw. I don't have any inside information. I wasn't even in Australia at the time. My father was at the game with my 10 year old nephew and he was convinced something was off. He is not a Roosters supporter either. I tend to think it as well. Like I say, I hope it was not true.

You work at the Telegraph - what was the feeling amongst the sports journalists? There must have been some strong suspicions/rumours going around. What was going on with that brothel?

In any case that game was just the final nail in the coffin of the worst year I can recall in the club's history. I am very glad we have moved forward.

well, it's kind of embarassing that you say that anyone who doesn't think the game was fixed is "full of shit" - when you're obviously unsure yourself

but regardless, the following is a piece that was published on a betting website (punting ace) at the time, and then removed due to the threat of legal action by brothel owner and Andrew/Matthew Johns mate Eddie Hayson.

It's long, and most on here will have already read it...

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“Phoenix” has been around the game a while. She is what most punters would call “a little world weary” but she has the street smarts lacking in her younger, more attractive rivals and she is considered a fun girl, a goer who doesn’t play the sad pumpkin and generally has a bit of sass about her. She knows her time at 'The Brothel' and probably any other similar establishment that would refer to itself as high class is coming to an end. She is approaching the crossroads and her options aren’t pretty. The choice between street walking and regular work after the “high life” of being a call girl is not a pleasant one and one most straight-laced folk couldn’t really comprehend in any meaningful away.

Those clients walking into 'The Brothel' on a Saturday morning, sometime around 3am, aren’t choosing Phoenix with the same regularity as two years ago or a year ago or even six months ago. Age is a cruel mistress, particularly for a hooker in tough economic times. She only seems to get the call when most of the other girls are off earning a buck or when she pulls a day shift and her competition isn’t nearly as strong. Even an ever-extending repertoire of new tricks hasn’t stopped the decline. The fork in the road is drawing near.

She still has her regulars though and that is what keeps her punching her card at the factory. Two of those regulars just happen to play for the Sydney Roosters. Phoenix doesn’t follow rugby league but she knows that the Roosters **** for free and that the man upstairs, Easy E, will make up the difference. One Rooster is only young and has a thing for rough sex with older women. The other has been around the league awhile and has few peculiarities despite his talking big when teammates are around, his bluster bigger than his bite. The latter is usually finished pretty quick but sees out the hour as he enjoys the companionship and is actually quite lonely, a man of many associates but few friends.

Phoenix has few problems with the latter but considers the former a misogynistic pig, even by the standards of brothel clientele. “He is always drunk. He is a degenerate gambler who is always broke. He calls all the girls sluts. He sent one to hospital when he slapped her around just a bit too much. We didn’t see her again but the sheets were covered in blood there was a hole in the wall. It was a real mess.”

Both of her Rooster regulars came by 'The Brothel' twice in the first week of September. The first time was on the Wednesday after a day at the track to honour retiring legend Craig Fitzgibbon. The two regulars and a few other Roosters came by, drunk and rowdy, sharing some beers and some girls after meeting with Easy E. The mood was celebratory despite the fact the Roosters were headed for the wooden spoon and had embarrassed the club all season with displays of ineptitude and stupidity on and off the field. The second was after the Roosters final game of the season, a dramatic 32-16 loss to the North Queensland Cowboys. Again the mood was surprisingly celebratory.

The Roosters had led 16-0 just before half-time and it appeared as if legend Craig Fitzgibbon would be sent out a winner. He may have not heard the rumours that a few key Roosters would be running dead in the second half. He may also have been oblivious to the huge sums of money wagered on the Cowboys to win the match by thirteen or more. The NRL certainly seemed oblivious or at least apathetic about the odd amounts of money coming from a source close to the Roosters and his bowlers being bet on the Cowboys touching up the Roosters.

Those at NRL head office may have paid little heed to the inordinate amount of cash coming for the relatively minor betting option coming from a man known colloquially as colourful but Phoenix certainly wasn’t. She is no footy fan and gambling has never been her go but she was prepared to head down to her local TAB on the Thursday afternoon before the match and have $1,500 on the Cowboys to win thirteen plus. After some pillow talk, the older Rooster worded her up the night before. It was Phoenix’s third bet in three weeks, all of which were against the Roosters. Her $1,500 on the Cowboys was her biggest ever wager.

North Queensland ended up winning by sixteen but only after scoring three tries in the last eight minutes on the back of a Roosters team that completed only 44% of their sets in the second half and missed 22 tackles in the final 40 minutes. All in the game that the Roosters were bidding farewell to one of the greatest players to ever pull on the club jersey. Any viewer who was aware of the betting that had gone on before the match seemed to think that the Roosters were running dead.

The post-match accusations played out as expected, aside from the fact the story has gained legs in the mainstream media and has reached the point where the NRL has been asked to give an explanation of the match, the betting and the integrity measures in place by the Victorian Commission for Gambling Regulation. Usually these stories die out before they reach any sensible conclusion. The Roosters front office was furious that such allegations could be levelled at the club. The NRL, predictably, dismissed the charges naively, ignorantly saying that they can’t launch an investigation every time a bookmaker losses money. The Sydney Morning Herald have kept on the hammer of the story suggesting they know more than they are letting on and that this is far from over. Bookies have kept a calm head about things, alluding to the suspicious nature of the match without claiming outright that the game was fixed. It was the same song and the same dance that always gets a run when smoky suspicions of match-fixing reach the public domain.

Phoenix knew the score though. And so did any decent bookmaker worth their salt. The game was as hot as a car thief in Cairo. At the very least the match was worthy of investigation. Bookies lose big sums all every weekend and rarely cry foul. They only scream shenanigans when something does not seem to be on the up-and-up.

A number of Roosters showed up at 'The Brothel' after the final match of the year, ready to party with girls. The word from above is that the players could **** as many girls as they liked for free, no questions asked, no trouble given. Those who were missing tackles and dropping balls and giving away penalties and throwing stupid passes decided to get naked with a cadre of free whores rather than drown their sorrows with their teammates, the greatest of whom was walking away. It is believed that sometime after the match that accusations from one of those not running dead was levelled at another who supposedly was. The straight-up player was prepared to stomp a hole in anyone who had shown such a great disrespect for the club and the game that they were prepared to set matches up for gamblers. A wedge was driven through the club.

[Guest]

Embarrassing?? Listen you ****ing copyboy ****ing poser - I am entitled to an opinion. As you know opinions are just like arseholes, everyone has one. But nonetheless I am entitled to say what I feel. If you have info to prove I am wrong then please present it. If not go and polish Rothfield's veined shiny red nob.

[Guest]

Embarrassing?? Listen you ****ing copyboy ****ing poser - I am entitled to an opinion. As you know opinions are just like arseholes, everyone has one. But nonetheless I am entitled to say what I feel. If you have info to prove I am wrong then please present it. If not go and polish Rothfield's veined shiny red nob.

you don't know for sure yourself if the game was fixed (hence why you're asking me if the telegraph journalists have an opinion)), but anyone who thinks the game wasn't fixed is "full of shit"

that means you're "full of shit"

you stupid freak

[BUDDY]

I'll wait for a certain player to finish his career in the ESL and then come out with his memoirs, "I'm A Big Willy". I'm sure the truth about the two last round Roosters vs Cowboys games, albeit a little stretched, will come out then.

[Guest]

Edited

If even half of what was written is true then we were right to get rid of that particular forward.