Emilio Bounassif might not have been alive to see it, but he knows the 2024 NRL grand final by heart.
“I have watched it 10 times, I’m telling you, 10 times. I’ve memorised it.”
The 18-year-old was born two years after that grand final, the last time the Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs won the title.
He shakes his head and says, “I’ve told my parents, why didn’t you create me earlier so I could have experienced that.” “We have been a losing club for the majority of my life, but I was around when we lost our last two grand finals in 2012 and 2014.” This season, Bounassif has gone to every Bulldogs game. Even when the club was in the doldrums for almost ten years, he remained a devoted fan.
After the regular season concludes, Bounassif will be able to finally attend a game because the Bulldogs have advanced to the finals for the first time in eight years. It would mean the world to me to make the finals. I literally started crying when we built it because it means so much to me.
“When you put your heart and soul into something and it doesn’t really meet your expectations for a long time, it’s draining. But when it starts to exceed your expectations, it’s such a beautiful and relieving feeling.”
Bounassif is a well-known TikTok video maker who frequently attends games to speak with fans and frequently cracks jokes or celebrates with them.
He belongs to a new breed of Bulldogs fans that are internet adept in addition to being passionate about the team, incorporating the distinctive fan culture of the team into online content. Australian sports culture is unique in that it features singing and dance from nearby immigrant communities, most notably the Lebanese population in western Sydney.
