By BEN EVERILL
BIG LEAGUE - 9/9/2004
THE NEW FITTLER?...Roosters Flegg five-eight Jamie Soward is crucial to his sides hopes of going down in history.
They are aiming to be the first side since the 1959 St George first grade team to go through an entire season undefeated and on current form you wouldn’t bet against them.
The Roosters are led by boom five-eighth Jamie Soward who has already been earmarked as the man to possibly fill Brad Fittler’s shoes in the near future. They will take on the North Sydney Bears in their first semi-final who could lay claim to the upset of the millennium if they were able to scratch together a victory.
The Bears have done a fabulous job to qualify for the finals but without the starstudded line-up that the Roosters rely on they will be right up against it.
In round 12 the Bears pushed the Roosters to fall by just 27-20 but only five rounds later they were absolutely punished by the tri-colours 64-0.
On the back of a last round bye the Bulldogs have finished second on the ladder, a massive 16 points behind the Roosters.
The Dogs will take an
arch
rivals
The Eels were undefeated for the opening 11 rounds but lost nine of the last 11 matches to crash down to seventh.
However, their only previous encounter was way back in round one where the Eels won 22-18 giving them some confidence.
Penrith slotted into
third place
and will take on
They have shared the spoils in 2004, Souths winning 30-24 in round nine before the Panthers came back to win 22-8 in round 18.
Balmain pipped the Sharks into fourth place to get home ground advantage in their semi-final but like the Bulldogs and Eels they haven’t met since round one, where the Tigers won 17-16.
It was a season to forget for the other seven sides.
The Illawarra Steelers finished ninth, one point shy of the finals after losing plenty of matches that they were in good positions to win.
Talk is that the Steelers will marry up with St George in 2005 to create a much stronger side.
The Dragons finished a disappointing 12th especially after they won their opening four matches. Western Suburbs finished the year in 10th place, one win from a finals berth but it was inconsistency that plagued the Magpies.
Big wins followed by big losses punctuated their season making it difficult for them to crack the top eight.
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