Bondi boys enjoy place in the sun
September 29, 2003
The Roosters are feeling relaxed and ready for their shot at back-to-back titles, writes Jessica Halloran.
There were a whole lot of girls in bikinis on the beach, and a couple of footballers strolling along Bondi promenade munching on corn yesterday. One kid was so excited at the sight of the champion team that he dropped his scooter, ran to his family car, and thumped the window. "That's the Roosters, mum, the Roosters," he cried with a twinge of delirium.
And the Roosters, in their unofficial uniform of designer T-shirts, cool board shorts and cooler wraparound sunnies, swaggered on in the sunshine.
The team was recovering from its preliminary final win over the Bulldogs by winding their way down Bondi's famous strip, down a walkway choked with Sydneysiders trying to burn away some of their winter whiteness.
As kids in wetsuits and red Speedos, emblazoned with their surf club's name, ran up to Brad Fittler, and tried to pat the captain on the back, Craig Wing dealt with an overwhelmed teenage girl, pretty in pink, uncontrollably gushing about him.
"I really love you, I think you are great," she told him over and over again.
Wing took it all with a shy smile.
Up ahead, a couple of Wing's teammates were busy buying corn, an essential part of recovery, Chris Walker said jokingly.
"You've got relax after a win like that, or else you'll get carried away with the week ahead," he said.
Walker ate his corn quickly. Luke Ricketson teased him for being a guts. "Have a look at the pace you've set," Ricketson said, pointing at his own half-eaten cob.
Walker then lost his grip and dropped his cob, sending Ricketson and Chris Flannery into fits of laughter.
Up ahead with Anthony Minichiello, Craig Fitzgibbon walked along chatting to his teammate, his left thumb thick with bruising and a little deformed because of the break. That won't matter though, the second-rower wouldn't let a tiny broken bone stop him trying for another premiership.
"It's not too bad," Fitzgibbon said. "A couple of pain killers and it will be right." He said his knee was going better than he thought, adding, "I can't be happier, I'm lucky to be back playing".
And this year will be different to last year when the Roosters defeated the New Zealand Warriors. For most of the team the feeling of being part of grand-final week won't be as new.
"It happened so fast last year, and this year we can sit back and soak it up," Fitzgibbon said. "Whereas when you are in a grand final for the first time, there's so many commitments, and things going on, and all the hype and everything.
"But because we've been there last year, all the boys can sit back and relax."
