The Sydney Roosters are proud to announce the formation of the Sydney Roosters Heritage Committee as a means of acknowledging, celebrating and promoting the history of the Club, which is preparing for its 117th season in 2024.
To reinforce the importance of the Sydney Roosters’ History, the Club has taken the initiative to form a Heritage Committee that is tasked with ensuring a focus is continually maintained on all matters that relate to preserving and honouring our history. The Committee acts as a working and advisory group that reports to the Board of Directors.
The Committee, to be chaired by Roosters Director Peter Newton, will add structure and support to the Club’s strategic plan, and in particular ‘Honouring Our History’ which is one of four key pillars.
The Committee was carefully selected to provide the balance of oversight to this strategically important aspect of our Club, with a goal to elevate it amongst all those stakeholders including all staff, current and former players, as well as Members and supporters that have an attachment with the Sydney Roosters.
Amongst many of its responsibilities, the Committee will take management control of heritage events, and functions, with the aim to become a key resource in providing heritage content for the Club’s digital and social media channels.
The Club is proud to announce the following inaugural members of the Sydney Roosters Heritage Committee:
Peter Newton
A Sydney Roosters | Easts Group Director since 2001, Newton is Chairman and majority shareholder of All-States Finance Pty Limited. He is also the co-founder and current Chairman of Metals X Limited. He has been a proud Sydney Roosters supporter since 1961. In 2021, Newton was appointed the Chairman of the Sydney Roosters Foundation.
John Quayle
Former Roosters player and Australian rugby league international, Quayle, a former senior official at Easts Leagues Club, became the NSWRL’s first General Manager in 1983, before becoming the ARL’s General Manager in 1988, when it took over the running of the game, and remained in that position until late 1996. The events manager for SOCOG at the 2000 Summer Olympics, Quayle has sat on the Board of Venues NSW since 2012 and is regarded as one of Australia’s finest sporting administrators.
Joe Kelly
One of rugby league’s leading administrators, Joe Kelly has been Chief Executive Officer of the Sydney Roosters | Easts Group since 2017. Prior to this, he held senior executive roles with the Manly Warringah Sea Eagles (Chief Executive Officer, 2014-16), the South Sydney Rabbitohs (Chief Financial Officer, 2007-14), and Chelsea Football Club (Financial Controller, 2002-07). He also currently holds roles as a Director of the NSW Rugby League and NSW Leagues Club, since 2023.
Jarrod Johnstone
Jarrod Johnstone is the Chief Operating Officer with the Sydney Roosters, a position he has held since 2017. Prior to that, he was the Club’s Head of Commercial Operations. He has more than 17 years’ experience in the NRL across three Clubs, encompassing roles from Membership, Match Day Entertainment, Merchandise, Stadium Operations, Commercial Operations and Senior Management.
Trent Robinson
The longest-serving Head Coach in Club history, Trent Robinson became the first to reach 250 games with the clipboard in 2022.
Robinson made an immediate impression in his first season in 2013, taking out both the Minor Premiership and NRL Premiership with the Club, and has since gone on to claim more silverware including multiple Minor Premierships (2013-2015, 2018) and an Auckland Nines title (2017), as well as becoming the first coach in the NRL era to coach a side to back-to-back Premierships in 2018 and 2019.
Having played in the Club's lower grades in the late 1990s, Robinson is a Rooster through and through, with a deep passion for the history of the Club and the eastern suburbs.
Mitchell Aubusson
Mitchell Aubusson is the Chief Executive Officer of the Sydney Roosters Academy, a position he has held since its inception in 2021. He retired from the NRL in 2020, not only a one-club player, but as the most-capped player in Roosters history, having featured in 306 NRL games.
A three-time Premiership winner (2013, 2018, 2019), he was headhunted to play for the Club by legendary player, coach and talent scout Arthur Beetson as a 16-year-old and often filled the role of Mr Fix It for the Roosters without fuss during a terrific 14-season career.
Aubusson's leadership is revered by the Roosters, having taken up captaincy on multiple occasions, and is a three-time recipient of the Club’s James Mathews Clubman of the Year Award (2011, 2015, 2016).
Cathy King
A generational supporter of the Sydney Roosters, King celebrated her 30th anniversary of working at Sydney Roosters | Easts Group in 2023. Throughout her tenure, King has held a number of positions in administration and human resources, while making history in 2010 as the Club’s first female Football Manager. Her knowledge of and passion for not only the Roosters but also the local eastern suburbs are makes her a highly-valued and respected figure within the Club.
In November 2023 it was announced that King will become the Sydney Roosters’ first-ever female Life Member.
Terry Murphy
Terry Murphy played five seasons of first grade (1977–1981) at the Sydney Roosters and was a member of the 1978 Roosters Amco Cup winning team. The long-time proprietor of a highly successful office supply company, Murphy now plays a vital role for the Club in fostering and maintaining relationships with past players as convenor of the Roosters Old Boys.
Alan Katzmann
Alan Katzmann is a Football Club Life Member who recently served on the Roosters Hall of Fame Committee and is known as one of the Club’s most dedicated supporters for close to sixty years. A Roosters Junior League Board member, he brings to the Committee a deep knowledge and understanding of Rooster history and plays a key role in the preservation of the Club’s historical data.
Heritage committees and societies are relatively common amongst sporting organisations with long histories. In Great Britain, you’ll see them amongst English Premier League clubs such as Everton, county cricket teams such as Lancashire as well as famous rugby league clubs Wigan and St Helens. In rugby league in Australia, the only other club with a heritage committee is the Western Suburbs Magpies, which was formed in 2013.
As the only club to play in all 116 seasons of professional rugby league in Australia, the Sydney Roosters Heritage Committee will ensure those responsible for “digging the well” will never be forgotten.
The Committee will strive to educate the public on the extraordinary history of the Club and to celebrate the achievements of all those that have made the Club what it is, since its formation on 24th January, 1908.
