HAPPINESS AMOUNTED TO TEARS FOR BOYD
RUGBY LEAGUE: An emotional Boyd Cordner broke down in tears in the arms of his teammates just after the siren sounded on Sunday night.
The Roosters co-captain became blurry-eyed as he struggled to digest the magnitude of what he and his teammates had achieved.
“The whole effort you go through to go through the season makes it such a big year,” Cordner said.
“I won a grand final in 2013 when I was young at the start of my career.
“Time has gone on and we’ve pulled up short a couple of times at the preliminary finals and I’m starting to think how hard it is to make a grand final let alone win a premiership.
“All that hard work – you didn’t want to come all this way and pull up short. The performance we put in was unbelievable.
“The emotion all came out at the end when the siren went. There was an instant rush of emotions.
“You can’t hold yourself back. Then once you get yourself together, happiness kicks in. Every single emotion under the sun gets to you.”
Cordner was just 21 when he was part of the Roosters’ 2013 premiershipwinning side after he rushed back from an ankle injury to play in the decider against Manly.
On Sunday he joined fellow co-skipper Jake Friend on stage to lift the NRL trophy. It capped a remarkable season for Cordner, who also led the Blues to victory earlier this year.
“As a kid I just wanted to play first grade,” Cordner said. “Then to be captain of my state and to win an Origin series earlier this year and to captain this proud club and win a premiership as captain, I don’t know how to put it into words.
“I’ll be able to put it into words in the next few days. At the moment I’m just riding this high.”