NEWTOWN legend Brian "Chicka" Moore once remarked: "I came to this club expecting nothing and after all these years it hasn't disappointed me."
Chicka's right, of course. Newtown have never had much money in the bank, just rich with love and admiration for the royal blue jumper.
Yet this afternoon the Jets may finally have something when they play Wentworthville in the NSW Cup grand final at ANZ Stadium.
Could there be anything more fitting than a foundation club - the first club - triumphing in the game's centenary season?
"The players are aware of the history of this place," coach Greg Matterson says. "We've drummed it into the players, especially this year. We had our centenary dinner earlier this year and they met the older players. They heard from Col Murphy and Chicka Moore.
"They saw the emotion of the former players so there is a sense of history in the place. It's an important day for the club: the first club in rugby league and we're here on grand final day."
Newtown have endured many incarnations since they were formed on January 8, 1908, at Newtown Town Hall - a fact that is the subject of debate about whether that was the actual date and if Glebe were, in fact, the first rugby league club created. "There's no debate, mate," Matterson says, "not as far as we're concerned."
In their present life form the Jets are a feeder club for the Roosters but they represent far more than that. Strip it down and it is essentially what the game is all about.
"We survive on passion," says Dennis Yates, who joined the club as a conditioner in 1972. "It's because of people who go above and beyond what they are supposed to because they want the club to be as professional as possible."
The team is a blend of emerging players from the Roosters system and others hanging on to the dream.
Captain Sean Rudder won a premiership with the Knights in 2001 but earlier this year the carpet ride that is a football career had him playing rugby union for Southern Districts.
"I love it here," Rudder says of Newtown. "[Director] Terry Rowney came in last week and said before training how good it would be to be the only foundation club on grand final day.
"I don't think anything will beat that 2001 grand final with the Knights - but this will be special if we can win."
The side to play Wentworthville - the defending premiers - contains Roosters first-graders Shaun Foley, Mickey Paea, Anthony Cherrington, Shane Shackleton and Jake Friend.
The link with the Roosters has been successful in recent years and has strengthened since last season when coach Paul Young joined Brad "Freddy" Fittler's coaching staff.
"I think we've been good for them," says Matterson, whom many at the club credit for the work he has done this year. "Freddy has commented through the year he's never had a player come back to him worse off from playing with us."
The side also has players who've been reborn. Take lock Hep Cahill. Originally from New Zealand, he was discarded from the Roosters after playing in SG Ball and Jersey Flegg sides. This season he has become arguably the form back-rower of the NSW Cup. The Roosters may be tempted to re-sign him. "We're like the Betty Ford Clinic," Rowney says. "We rehabilitate people. If you've come to Newtown to earn money you've got the wrong address.
"Why does this club keep going? Because we haven't lost our connect with our fans. It's a land of equals at Newtown."
There are the players who sandwich football with trades and families but they turn up to training just as determined as the full-time player next to them.
During its early years the club's team sheet would've read like a Dublin telephone directory, such was the Irish Catholic influence. The current side reflects the change that's occurred in the inner-west. "We've got a couple of Lebanese players," Rowney says. "We've never eaten so many kebabs."
The Jets breezed through last week's semi-final against fellow foundation club Western Suburbs 36-22 but will find it tougher against Wenty. They've won one game each from two matches this season.
Newtown won Metropolitan Cup deciders in the 1990s but some Jets stalwarts believe this is the club's biggest game since the famous 1981 grand final loss to Parramatta.
"We celebrate that too often," Yates says. "It's not about getting there. It's about winning one."