It’s no secret that James Graham loves the Bulldogs – but the legendary English forward has taken an extreme step to prove his loyalty to the club.
After a long stretch without featuring in the finals, Canterbury has become the surprise packets of the competition this year under head coach Cameron Ciraldo.
Rising from 15th spot to the top-eight has seen the club’s long-suffering diehard fan base begin to find some light at the end of the tunnel, with the streets of Belmore and their home ground at Accor Stadium packed with blue and white this year.
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But ahead of the side’s elimination final showdown with Manly on Sunday afternoon, Graham has publicly revealed a selfless act to give back to his former club.
Speaking on The Bye Round, the retired enforcer revealed he spent $10,000 on tickets to give away to Bulldogs supporters looking to attend the game.
”I had a chat with Campbell Graham about life and purpose … bringing joy to people and putting smiles on people’s faces and giving them experiences,” Graham said.
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“On the [Triple M Radio show] Sunday Sin Bin, they were winding me up on the group chat and saying the Dogs fans are in the fetal position after the loss against Cowboys.
“If Manly had beaten the Sharks, the Dogs would have had to go to Brookvale and I said the Dogs fans were gonna go there and take over. I was gonna buy some tickets for Dogs fans, so we can make sure we’ve got a decent allocation.
“That doesn’t end up happening, so we’re playing at Accor and I’ve got to put my money where my mouth is. They were continuing to wind me up, so I bought $10,000 worth of tickets for the Dogs fans – we’ve got about 230 tickets.
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“This is out of my own pocket because the wave of support from Dogs fans is so important and it’s gonna be the difference.
“Hopefully it’s people that can’t afford it or price of tickets is an issue and we get some real passionate Dogs fans who were on the fence about going.”
In less than 12 hours, all of the tickets Graham purchased had been distributed to Canterbury supporters.
Graham played 135 games for the Dogs, including two grand final appearances, before moving to the St George Illawarra Dragons and St Helens to finish his career.