George Rose won't be able to share his big day with all the people who helped get him there.
There's a chance his mum, Cherie, will make it to ANZ Stadium, but only if she can find someone to relieve her of canteen duty during the Aboriginal Rugby League Knockout tournament the family has organised in Bathurst this weekend. But as much as he wishes it were so, his dad and his pop - who also proudly carried the George Rose name - won't be. However, they will be there in spirit.
''I was nine when [Dad] passed,'' Rose told The Sun-Herald. ''From a football perspective it was him, he was the reason I started playing footy and wanted to play footy. He was reasonably fit, he had a heart attack playing touch footy. There was a lot of things he achieved in his time. He died young, which is really sad, but he had a great name.
He was achieving things, he was the first Aboriginal manager of the CES at the time. He created a lot of opportunities for people in the area.''
And then Rose's voice trails away.
''It was pretty sudden how it happened, I guess. It's um, yeah.''
And then there is George Rose the first. Another proud Aboriginal man, a Kamilaroi member from Walgett. A political activist who fought many battles for his people, including the right for ex-servicemen to be allowed to drink alongside their white counterparts in RSLs in the mid-1960s.
''Everywhere I go, I meet people who knew Pop or Dad,'' Rose said. ''I've always had big shoes to fill. Everyone I meet played or knew Pop or Dad, or Pop and Dad did something to help them. I do hope they are watching. I still manage to keep in contact with a lot of my dad's old mates. They're all like uncles, great people to me. One of his close mates passed recently too, Trent Walford, and he was someone I had a lot to do with. He sort of kept that bond of knowing what my dad was like, knowing what sort of person dad was.
''Hopefully they'll all sitting up there having a laugh and enjoying the footy on Sunday. I do hope I do them proud as well as all of my family now.''
The Rose family is a tight-knit bunch. George is one of four children, including three footy-mad boys. Cherie said her eldest, Matthew, had ''taken over the role of the father of the family and done a damn good job of it''.
''The kids were 13 down to five, so I was left on my own to raise four kids,'' she said of the passing of her husband. ''I'm just glad I had the four kids because they've kept me going too. That's been great. Just having their support has been good for me too.
''If his father would have been alive today, he'd be doing exactly what I'm doing, giving support. Every game I go to I just wish he'd have been around to watch them. That sort of makes you a bit upset,'' Cherie added, choking backing tears. ''He'd be very proud this weekend too, obviously.''
The Manly prop admits it wasn't easy in the early years. ''She had it tough because we were bad kids,'' he said. ''I know a lot of people used to say how bad we were. It would have been tough to have four wild little kids that she had to keep in line but she did a great job. I think we've all gone on to be great people.
''I know they're all supporting me and I want to do them proud.''
Before he died three years ago, George Rose the first went to Brookvale Oval to watch his grandson play first grade for the first time. ''They treated him like royalty, Manly, which was fantastic,'' Cherie recalled. ''It was a proud moment for George to see his grandfather sitting there with his hat on. It was beautiful.''
Like his father, and his father before him, George Rose is attempting to make a difference. The former Walgett Dragon works for the David Peachey Foundation and makes countless trips to remote communities or back to his home towns of Walgett, Bathurst and Narrabri to help disadvantaged children.
The former Roosters prop has overcome every obstacle put before him. Homesickness, a badly broken leg and the subsequent battle of the bulge - at one stage he tipped the scales at 127 kilograms - have all been conquered. Also, in 1998, The family home in Bathurst burnt to the ground and had to be rebuilt. Just two years earlier, that same house was flooded. ''That's why we're so close, those experiences brought us together,'' Cherie said.
The message George tells young people is you can be anything if you really want it. ''I played my first game on the No.1 Oval at Walgett barefoot and now I'm here about to play in an NRL grand final,'' he said.
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