Background

Founded in 1908 as Eastern Suburbs, the Sydney Roosters are one of rugby league’s longest standing clubs. Playing out of Allianz Stadium, the Roosters (or Easts or City or Tricolours or Chooks) are one of the NRL’s success stories, having won thirteen premierships and nineteen minor premierships in their long history.

More recently, Easts have been one of the most successful of the Sydney based clubs, winning three minor premierships in a row from 2013 through 2015, including a premiership in 2013, and were a powerhouse in the early 2000s, winning the premiership in 2002. The club has attracted a large number of stars over the years, including Brad Fittler, Adrian Lam, Arthur Beetson, Ron Coote, Anthony Minichello, Craig Fitzgibbon, the original immortal Dally Messenger and some gronks like Mitchell Pearce and Todd Carney.

Sydney maintain a close rivalry with Souths that is the subject of the Ron Coote Cup.

Class

Using the Eratosthenes system, we measure the long term class – their structural competence – of NRL clubs.

The Sydney Roosters’ current rating is 1553, which is the fourth highest in the league, behind the Melbourne Storm, Brisbane Broncos and Cronulla Sharks. The Roosters have had an average class rating of 1540 since 1998. Only the Broncos, Bulldogs and Storm have a better average rating.

Over the last decade, the Roosters’ average rating was 1510. This puts them behind the Broncos, Bulldogs, Sea Eagles, Storm and Dragons at the sixth highest average in the league.

Easts peaked at a maximum rating of 1665 during the 2004 finals series. This is the second highest peak of any team, behind the Storm. Looking at just the last ten years, the Roosters’ peak of 1620 is better than the Broncos, Raiders, Bulldogs, Sharks, Titans, Knights, Cowboys, Eels, Panthers, Warriors and Tigers.

The Roosters’ lowest ever rating was 1433, most recently reached after round 25 in 2009. The only teams that have a better record in this regard are Brisbane, Melbourne, Canterbury and St George Illawarra. If we look at just the last ten years, we can add Manly to that list.

NRL Honours

• Premierships – 2 | 2002, 2013
• Runners-up – 4 | 2000, 2003, 2004, 2010
• Minor Premierships – 4 | 2004, 2013, 2014, 2015
• Finalist – 13| 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2008, 2010, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2017
• Wooden Spoons – 1 | 2009

Record (rd1/1998 – rd26/2017)

• Games 519
• Wins 288 (55.4%)
• Draws 4
• Points For 11,879
• Points Against 10,275
• Net F/A +1,604
• Pythagorean expectation 56.8%

Form

Using the Archimedes system, we measure the short term form of NRL clubs.

The Roosters have averaged a form rating of 1595 over this season. Their current rating is 1656.

Easts’ highest rating over the last twenty-six rounds was 1666 after their round 21 win over North Queensland. The lowest rating in the set is 1500 at the start of the season.

Record (last 26 rounds)

• Finished 2017 in 2nd
• Games 26
• Wins 17 (70.8%)
• Draws 0
• Points For 500
• Points Against 428
• Net F/A +72
• Pythagorean expectation 57.3%

Stocky Projection

We use the Stocky to predict what might happen in the season ahead. Given the point in the season, we can summarise with this graph.