The 'Premier' Premiers...

[RABK]

With Johns in our side, our 2001 side could beat any of those other sides. The man is that damn good.

 

[anjado]

all of those sides could beat one and other
penrith had a good side there entire team are rep playes except Luke Swain

 

[brokendigit]

comparing teams from different eras is pointless

Sheesh RiotAct, things must be crook 'round Bankstown if you can't have a bit of fun thinking about it...

I'd better not catch you 'wondering' what will happen IF the Dogs make the Finals, because at this stage, that'd be hypothetical, wouldn't it? ;-)

 

[brokendigit]

With Johns in our side, our 2001 side could beat any of those other sides. The man is that damn good.

I don't think so...

A Champion Team will always beat a team of Joey's... ;-)

 

[RABK]

It was a champion team.

That Parra side was statistically the greatest side of all time. Smashed record after record and none look like been broken for a while yet.

They lost 4 games all year, 2 were to us.

 

[Ilya]

People don't seem to rate the roosters of 2002 just because of the dogs scandal, and that's inevitable but unfortunate as well. If you look at that side, it had 15 former, current, or future representative players in the side, at test or state of origin level, maybe more, but i wasn't sure of a couple of those players. Now the dogs throughout the season were more than likely the best side, but no one can deny that the roosters were simply unstoppable in that run to the finals, and were not going to lose to any past or present team during the grand final.

Team: Roosters squad: Luke Phillips, Brett Mullins, Shannon Hegarty, Justin Hodges, Anthony Minichiello, Brad Fittler (c), Craig Wing, Luke Ricketson, Craig Fitzgibbon, Bryan Fletcher, Peter Cusack, Simon Bonetti, Jason Cayless. Interchange: Adrian Morley, Andrew Lomu, Chris Flannery, Michael Crocker, Chad Robinson, David Kidwell, Todd Byrne (Three to be omitted)

 

[RABK]

Roosters wouldn't have won if Johns didn't go down with the back injury.

 

[stoodamire]

The 96 Manly team would've come close to being unbeatable.

1) Matthew Ridge
2) Danny Moore
3) Craig Innes
4) Terry Hill
5) John Hopoate
13) Nik Kosef
7) Geoff Toovey
17) David Gillespie
9) Jim Serdaris
10) Mark Carroll
11) Steve Menzies
12) Daniel Gartner
8) Owen Cunningham
Interchange:
6) Cliff Lyons
14) Neil Tierney
16) Des Hasler
19) Craig Hancock

16 of those players played representative football. Never looked like being beaten. One of the most dominate defences ever in 1996.

Maybe the Raiders of 94 would've matched them.

94 Raiders v 96 Eagles. What a showdown.

 

[Big Panther Cool]

Here's a great 'hypothetical' match up

1991 Penrith vs 2003 Penrith

Both teams had great attacking skills but the defence of the 1991 team was outstanding. The Panthers had the best defence & best attack in 1991.

1991 Panthers in a close one.

 

[Tommy Smith]

Roosters wouldn't have won if Johns didn't go down with the back injury.

LOL. Not biased are we?

Fact is we were unstoppable towards the end of that year. We won 9 games in a row, ALL against top 8 sides. We revolutionised defense and were brilliant in attack which was underestimated.

Here's the list of our incredible run:

Rnd 22 - Brisbane 18 - ROOSTERS 28
Rnd 23 - Canberra 12 - ROOSTERS 38
Rnd 24 - ROOSTERS 44 - Warriors 0
Rnd 25 - ROOSTERS 26 - Dragons 10
Rnd 26 - Conulla 18 - ROOSTERS 30
Q.F. - ROOSTERS 32 - Cronulla 20
S.F - ROOSTERS 38 - Knights 12
Prelim - ROOSTERS 16 - Broncos 12
G.f - ROOSTERS 30 - Warriors 8

For - 282 (Ave 31.30 : Against - 110 (Ave - 12.2)

It truely was a great side that had all the components needed. A brutal forward pack with aggression (Morley), endurance (Fitzy, Ricko) and skill (Fletcher). A brilliant backline who were all at peak form - Phillips, Mullins (awesome player, so underrated), Hodges at his best, Hegarty and ofcourse Minichiello. A dynamic halfback in Wing who nearly won the DallyM and ofcourse one of the most important ingrediants of any great team - a true all-time great in Brad Fittler. And on the bench we had rep players like Crocker, Flannery. Hell, even Bryan Fletcher had to settle for a bench spot in the GF.

Im not saying its the best, but just giving reasons why it is certainly up there. The revolutionary, gang-tackline defense would certainly give this team an X-factor.

 

[RABK]

S.F - ROOSTERS 38 - Knights 12

Ws 6-6 all with 19 minutes to go. With Johns in our side we would have won that game, we would have already been ahead by a fair margin.


Though we were up 6-0 after 3 minutes against the dragons the week before, had Johns not gone down we would have gone on to win that game and already be in a preliminary.

Case of what if though....Roosters are the deserving 2002 premiers. Certainly Johns going down did aid your cause emmensly though.

 

[Tommy Smith]

Ws 6-6 all with 19 minutes to go. With Johns in our side we would have won that game, we would have already been ahead by a fair margin.


Though we were up 6-0 after 3 minutes against the dragons the week before, had Johns not gone down we would have gone on to win that game and already be in a preliminary.

Case of what if though....Roosters are the deserving 2002 premiers. Certainly Johns going down did aid your cause emmensly though.

But if Johns was fit we would have actually turned up to play in that game.

Every year the Premiers are generally aided by the bad luck of opposition teams. Hence why the fittest quality team has a good record of winning comps.

In 2003, the Roosters smashed Newcastle by 20-30 points with Johns playing...only a year later. The result would have been the same IMO in 02, although with a closer scoreline. And you cant just say the magic of Johns would have got you home because it didnt in 2000...or 98.

In the end you're right in saying that its all hypothetical or 'what if'. But really it all comes down to bias. I think no-one would have beaten us, you as a Knights fan think otherwise. Fair enough either way.

 

[RABK]

Johns leading into that game had played two dominant games against the Roosters, smashing them both times. I'm fairly confident he would have continued that. Don't mention injuries in the 2002 game either because the 2003 game you mentioned we had 9 players out.

But on your last point i totally agree.

 

[Tommy Smith]

Johns leading into that game had played two dominant games against the Roosters, smashing them both times. I'm fairly confident he would have continued that. Don't mention injuries in the 2002 game either because the 2003 game you mentioned we had 9 players out.

But on your last point i totally agree.

Which games were they? The two dominant games? Hopefully one of them wasnt the Rnd 4/5 game because if you want to mention injuries we had 15 players out. And was the other the semi in 01? That was before we became such a dominant defensive team. We used to leak 40 points a game back then.

You might be confident he would have continued his good form, but i on the other hand would have been confident that Freddy would have lead us to another great win on our unstoppable run. Who knows, he may have even thrown in another intercept try off a Johns pass for old times sake ;-)

 

[RABK]

I did say don't bring injuries up, because i knew you would. As i said the 03 game we had it just as bad.

Perhaps Freddy would have taken an intercept or perhaps Johns would ahve set up another 7 tries in a Roosters game? ;-)

 

[dice]

If you are twisting my arm, I would say:
2001 Newcastle
2002 Roosters
2004 Bulldogs
2000 Broncos
2003 Panthers

Oddly enough I think Roosters 03 and Parra 01 were a class above all of them but just didn't fire when it counted.

 

[lockyno1]

The best two sides by a country mile are the Broncos 98' and the Raiders 94'. On the tier below would be the Knights 01' and the Panthers 91'. I rate those as the top four sides I have seen.

 

[stoodamire]

What about Manly 95,96,97?

 

[Phillips]

Ws 6-6 all with 19 minutes to go. With Johns in our side we would have won that game, we would have already been ahead by a fair margin.


Though we were up 6-0 after 3 minutes against the dragons the week before, had Johns not gone down we would have gone on to win that game and already be in a preliminary.

Case of what if though....Roosters are the deserving 2002 premiers. Certainly Johns going down did aid your cause emmensly though.

*shakes head*

 

[richie8u]

People don't seem to rate the roosters of 2002 just because of the dogs scandal, and that's inevitable but unfortunate as well. If you look at that side, it had 15 former, current, or future representative players in the side, at test or state of origin level, maybe more, but i wasn't sure of a couple of those players. Now the dogs throughout the season were more than likely the best side, but no one can deny that the roosters were simply unstoppable in that run to the finals, and were not going to lose to any past or present team during the grand final.

Team: Roosters squad: Luke Phillips, Brett Mullins, Shannon Hegarty, Justin Hodges, Anthony Minichiello, Brad Fittler (c), Craig Wing, Luke Ricketson, Craig Fitzgibbon, Bryan Fletcher, Peter Cusack, Simon Bonetti, Jason Cayless. Interchange: Adrian Morley, Andrew Lomu, Chris Flannery, Michael Crocker, Chad Robinson, David Kidwell, Todd Byrne (Three to be omitted)

if u are going by that, look at 03 panthers
wesser(SOO)Lewis(INT)Girdler(INT)Whateria(INT)Rooney(INT)Campbell(Country origin)Gower(INT)Sattler(SOO)Galuvao(INT)Puletua(INT)Lang(SOO)Priddis(INT)Clinton(INT)Bench Ross(SOO) Waterhouse(INT)Rodney(City Origin) Swain

so that is a rep team, only one of the top 17 hasnt played rep footy