NAPA PREMIERSHIP PLAYER BOOTS ‘N’ ALL
DYLAN Napa’s strut down Oxford Street in his full playing kit the morning after the grand final was five seasons in the making.
It has been almost five years to the day that the Sydney Roosters hitman was unceremoniously cut from premiership-winning side back in 2013 to make way for Boyd Cordner and Luke O’Donnell.
So when the full-time siren went at ANZ Stadium on Sunday night, it dawned on Napa he’d finally lived out a lifelong dream. He’d just played and won and NRL grand final. The enforcer wanted to savour the moment for as long as he could.
That meant partying into the early hours of the morning in his premiership outfit, boots and all.
It was also a nod to his teammates, who kept his title ambitions alive during September as he sat on the sidelines serving a threeweek suspension.
Napa’s style is reminiscent of Chris Heighington at the Sharks two years ago who said at the time he wasn’t going to take his premiership jersey off for three days.
We are not sure if Napa is going to emulate the Sharks forward but he is showing a similar level of commitment so far.
He was still in the get-up at 11am when he arrived the for the Roosters fan day at Allianz Stadium yesterday morning.
That was 14 hours and counting.
And while most of his teammates hid their weariness under their sunglasses, Napa wore his dark circles like a badge of honour.