After the Roosters lost quite a few marquee players in the off-season and had to rebuild the club’s enthusiasm, and not having an over-admirable pre-season, they showed some promise for the first official game of the year.

The Roosters jelled well in sections of the game and managed to keep their heads up when the Simba side opened the account midway through the first half with some pretty fancy footwork.

But Kurri managed to return the favour when Brenton O’Donnell unleashed the right foot of fury and nailed an equaliser in the top right corner, taking the game to a nail-biting 1-1l at half-time.

The second half kept the healthy crowd entertained with both teams playing some good football.

Ben Canavan took a free kick from 30 metres out and sneaked through the Simba keeper’s legs, making the score 2-1 to the Roosters.

Then with 25 minutes left the highly-skilled Simba broke through the Roosters’ defence and put away the equaliser, giving both sides a share of the points.

Ref’s choice for man-of-the-match went to O’Donnell, who had a strong game in the midfield.

Reserve grade managed to keep Simba scoreless in the first half, even after Robbie Anderson brought down a player in the box, forcing the ref to award Simba a penalty only to be beautifully saved by Roosters’ keeper Peter Graeber.

In the second half, Simba scored from a defensive error bringing the score to 1-0.

The Roosters were unlucky not to be awarded an equaliser from a Brad Corcoran shot that went through the keeper’s hands and crossed the goal line, but was not seen by the out-of-position linesman, leaving the final score at 1-0.

The Roosters will travel to Ray Watt Oval this Saturday to take on University.