I think quite a few of us 'supported' the NE more out of loyalty to the Manly part of that abomination than anything else. We'd had our team taken away from us and this was the next best thing I guess.
Thankfully sanity prevailed in the end and Manly came back.
I still question who "won" the Super League war though. Sure the SL lost the Adelaide Rams and Hunter Mariners (big deal really, though a team in Adelaide would have been ok), plus the Western Reds and the Crushers had a quick death, but not one of the teams that went to SL was ever forced to merge with another team, unlike a few from the ARL side. Balmain, Western Suburbs, St George and Illawarra all basically lost their identities really (though you could argue that St Merge is much more Dragons than Steelers). Plus we merged with Norths to make the Northern Eagles and although we were able to re-emerge as the Manly we know and love....Norths are now a NSW Cup team and a feeder club for Souffs.
Other than those I mentioned (Rams, Mariners and Reds), every single club who played in SL in 1997 still exists as the same club in the NRL. Brisbane, Canberra, NQ, Penrith, Canterbury, Cronulla and NZ (who were still Auckland back then) were all SL clubs. Melbourne never actually played in the SL, though they were owned by News Ltd., but unlike the SARL who stupidly signed with SL in 1995 (I should point out that this was actually against the wishes of the SARL clubs, but the league saw $ signs when Ribot came calling), the VRL had stayed ARL loyal, thus Melbourne was kept at the Rams expense.