Woooooooooooooooooooooooow !

[Jason Maher]

Laying the boot into Illawarra is a way of congratulating a couple of gracious Parra fans? Can you teach me some more of this interesting Redfern logic!

 

[Rabbit Ron]

Laying the boot into Illawarra is a way of congratulating a couple of gracious Parra fans? Can you teach me some more of this interesting Redfern logic!

Perfect example of the way your dictatorship works.

When even the slightest hint of difficult questioning arises regarding the so called 'merger', rule one of the dictatorship is to divert the attention back towards the conquered in Illawarra.

If the dragons are losing its because of the Illawarra jumpers or the playing of games in Wollongong. And of course as you so proudly indicated the Steelers had no success until the great dictator dragons come to their rescue.

How about answering why the club was not called the Illawarra st george dragons?

I am sure the Steelers would have been delighted if such a concillatory gesture was put forward.

Pathetic.

If there is karma in this world then the Steelers will find their own benefactor and rid themselves from the chains of these dictators.

Go the Storm this weekend.

 

[Jason Maher]

Mate, you're talking to a Steelers fan. I accpet the St. George dominated merger because it has a resulted in a year-by-year competitive football team representing the Illawarra, and a much better pathway for the young players from the region (indicated by the number who have gone on to play for NSW and Australia post-merger compared to pre-merger). It has also brought premiership succes to the region, and very nearly did so instantly in 1999.

I bear no anger toward St. George for the virtual demise of the Steelers. Without them, we would have nothing. The anger I bear is toward News Limited and the clubs who jumped into bed with them, especially Brisbane, Canberra, and Melbourne (bastard child of superleague that they are) a sentiment I'm sure a Souths supporter would understand intimately.

 

[Rabbit Ron]

Mate, you're talking to a Steelers fan. I accpet the St. George dominated merger because it has a resulted in a year-by-year competitive football team representing the Illawarra, and a much better pathway for the young players from the region (indicated by the number who have gone on to play for NSW and Australia post-merger compared to pre-merger). It has also brought premiership succes to the region, and very nearly did so instantly in 1999.

I bear no anger toward St. George for the virtual demise of the Steelers. Without them, we would have nothing. The anger I bear is toward News Limited and the clubs who jumped into bed with them, especially Brisbane, Canberra, and Melbourne (bastard child of superleague that they are) a sentiment I'm sure a Souths supporter would understand intimately.

No problems if you choose to support this takeover but surely you don't fall for the line that Illawarra could not have survived without st george, because it is not true. The Steelers were offered a lifeline by Murdoch and SuperLeague.

The Illawarra is rugby league heartland and even though the bend over chiefly done by Millward and the decision not to go to Murdoch probably helped greatly in the ARL surviving and thus Souths surviving, the question remains why did the Steelers get so little recognition from the so called merger.

I ask you again, why was the team not called Illawarra st george?

 

[Jason Maher]

Mate the merger was preferable to extinction, which was infinitely preferable to lubing up for Rupert. I think the supporters of a number of teams who did so would confirm that (Reds, Cronulla, Cowboys, Penrith in particular).

Why did we get so little recognition out of the merger? Because we were broke, and St. George were never going to bend over the St. George Dragons name and the Red V. We could have pursued a merger with another team, but Millward is on record as saying we never considered anyone other than St. George, due to the common colours and the strong historical links between their team and our region. As for the name, St. George-Illawarra sounds more natural than the other way way around, in my opinion. I picked that name as my preference long before the merger became official and the name was picked.

I'll be frank, I was pissed off for a long time that we couldn't include even some red stripes on the sleeves as a nod toward the Illawarra side of the merger, but I'm being totally honest in saying that it no longer bothers me. I've embraced the Red V as my team's jersey, and these days we have the old Steelers jersey as our alternate anyway. There are a few die hard St. George fans who begrudge us even that much, but I think you'll find they're very much in the minority. I'm not going to let the fact they can't move on prevent me from doing so.

Mate, when it all boiled down to it, as much as some aspects of the merger pissed me off, as soon as that game against Parramatta kicked off in 1999, I realised that emotionally I was 100% on board, and could never support any other team.

 

[Rabbit Ron]

Mate the merger was preferable to extinction, which was infinitely preferable to lubing up for Rupert. I think the supporters of a number of teams who did so would confirm that (Reds, Cronulla, Cowboys, Penrith in particular).

Why did we get so little recognition out of the merger? Because we were broke, and St. George were never going to bend over the St. George Dragons name and the Red V. We could have pursued a merger with another team, but Millward is on record as saying we never considered anyone other than St. George, due to the common colours and the strong historical links between their team and our region. As for the name, St. George-Illawarra sounds more natural than the other way way around, in my opinion. I picked that name as my preference long before the merger became official and the name was picked.

I'll be frank, I was pissed off for a long time that we couldn't include even some red stripes on the sleeves as a nod toward the Illawarra side of the merger, but I'm being totally honest in saying that it no longer bothers me. I've embraced the Red V as my team's jersey, and these days we have the old Steelers jersey as our alternate anyway. There are a few die hard St. George fans who begrudge us even that much, but I think you'll find they're very much in the minority. I'm not going to let the fact they can't move on prevent me from doing so.

Mate, when it all boiled down to it, as much as some aspects of the merger pissed me off, as soon as that game against Parramatta kicked off in 1999, I realised that emotionally I was 100% on board, and could never support any other team.

Jason, you appear to be from your posts a sensible person and even if I would feel a lot different about what happened to the Steelers if I was in your shoes, I wish you nothing but good fortune in supporting your team through the highs and lows.

You obviously have a great passion towards your club, just as people such as myself have a great passion towards my club, Souths.

Maybe you might understand now why I and other people respond in such a way as in my above posts to people who deride our club on a South Sydney forum.

Have a nice day.

 

[BranVan3000]

Mate the merger was preferable to extinction, which was infinitely preferable to lubing up for Rupert. I think the supporters of a number of teams who did so would confirm that (Reds, Cronulla, Cowboys, Penrith in particular).

Why did we get so little recognition out of the merger? Because we were broke, and St. George were never going to bend over the St. George Dragons name and the Red V. We could have pursued a merger with another team, but Millward is on record as saying we never considered anyone other than St. George, due to the common colours and the strong historical links between their team and our region. As for the name, St. George-Illawarra sounds more natural than the other way way around, in my opinion. I picked that name as my preference long before the merger became official and the name was picked.

I'll be frank, I was pissed off for a long time that we couldn't include even some red stripes on the sleeves as a nod toward the Illawarra side of the merger, but I'm being totally honest in saying that it no longer bothers me. I've embraced the Red V as my team's jersey, and these days we have the old Steelers jersey as our alternate anyway. There are a few die hard St. George fans who begrudge us even that much, but I think you'll find they're very much in the minority. I'm not going to let the fact they can't move on prevent me from doing so.

Mate, when it all boiled down to it, as much as some aspects of the merger pissed me off, as soon as that game against Parramatta kicked off in 1999, I realised that emotionally I was 100% on board, and could never support any other team.

Yes its preferrable to extinction, but Souths fans have every right to find pride in the way we fought for our unique identity through some really tough times. We could have merged but it was never an option. We fought for who we were, you guys buckled