Rivals

[Red Bear]

Sorry for ignorance, probably comes from being born a few years after you guys left the top flight

Talking about RL rivalries on a different board got me wondering, who were the Bluebags/Jets main rivals in their days in the top flight? Was there anything like the obvious Norths/Manly, Easts/Souths, Balmain/Souths ones? I realise it would've changed somewhat these days of course due to the whole, non-first grade side, but which were the derbys?
Cheers, Jack

 

[Jeffles]

Col Murphy told me once that the Jets used to get really fired up in the 1970's and 1980s when they played Canterbury. I think that was because of the player exchange. It's hard to pick one rival. Newtown's district was bordered by Cantebury, St George, Souths, Balmain, and Wests. There's no geographic obviousness.

 

[bluebag43]

The local Derby was definitely against Canterbury. No matter where we were on the table in the 70's and 80's we would always lift for those clashes.

Newtown won a huge game against Canterbury at Belmore in the 70's and it was known as the "Battle of Belmore".

 

[Red Bear]

Ahhk, cheers for that
Re the bordered by so many districts, i spose thats what brought about the demise as a top grade entity in the end, similar to Fitzroy in the AFL, simply didnt have the area or the support anymore compared with the surrounding clubs. Shame really but at least your club does a great job at its current level.