There is nothing in the world, or in rugby league, like going fast and the NRL has plenty of quick players, but there's something different about the really fast guys.
Those ones who make the crowd rise and the commentators scream the second they hit even a little bit of space, have the same swagger as cowboys in an old Western.
They blow into town without warning, leaving dust in their wake. The saloon goes quiet when they come in, because they have got a special weapon and they're not just willing to use it, they're dying for an excuse to do so. They're fast and they're dangerous and they know it.
Sometimes they have other names, ones that make them sound like dangerous, glittering prizes, names like the Fox, or Chariots, or the Pearl, or the Hammer, or the Jet, and more than anything, we want to see them duel somebody in the centre of town at high noon, so we know who has the quickest draw and who is truly the fastest gun in the west.
That's what the good people of Tamworth will be after at Scully Park on Saturday when James Roberts returns to first grade for the Tigers against the Sharks.
They'll want to see him put the rubber to the road, put the pedal to the floor and go as fast as he can with nothing but country air in front of him. That's all anyone wants when they watch James Roberts, because there's nothing else like it.
It's been a while between drinks for Roberts. He's played just five NRL matches this year and only 20 since the start of 2020. In that time he's only crossed for four tries, three of which were simple finishes on the wing. It's been a long time since he ran so fast he ripped the sky open.
But it almost doesn't matter how long it's been since we've seen Roberts open up the motor; as long as he plays we'll be waiting for him to do it again because he is still James Roberts, and no matter what James Roberts has been through during his long and winding career, he's always had the true quickness.
Being the top gun speedster of his era, maybe even the fastest man who pulled on a pair of boots, has saved Roberts over and over again and he was someone who needed saving.
He's spoken openly about the demons that have nearly ended his career more than once. A player of lesser gifts wouldn't have gotten as many chances as Roberts has landed, but there has always been another club willing to take a punt on him because even among the gunslingers, Roberts was different.
When Jason Saab, Josh Addo-Carr or Hamiso Tabuai-Fidow hit top gear it almost looks like they're gliding. Roberts could never glide, he just flew, even when he was still a kid at South Sydney all those years ago and he made his name scoring tries that still defy belief.
His speed was driven by power, by coiled muscled instead of easy grace, and Roberts ran like a predator chasing down it's prey. His breaks were a joyous explosion, but he ran like he was angry at the defenders who were trying to catch him, like he was angry at the ground he was covering, like he was angry at the world around him that was so slow by comparison.
And everybody else always was, even the other fast ones. Roberts has left plenty of slower men grasping at nothing but air through his career, but his masterpiece came when he did it to Latrell Mitchell back in 2018 as part of an absorbing back-and-forth battle between the pair.
Roberts won the day with an incredible try from his own end, where he moves like he's barely human en route to a 75-metre face-melting four-pointer that nobody else in the game could have scored. Moments like that are when the true gunslingers make their legend.
We'll never know if Roberts was actually the fastest, because we're likely never going to get that mythical race between rugby league's true speedsters.
We'll have to make do with VB Hard Work Indexes and Telstra Trackers and other science machines with sponsors' names slapped on them to tell us what we could learn in a little over 10 good seconds on 100 metres of grass.
Roberts would still merit an invitation to such a race out of respect for duels won in the past, but it's been a long time since he flew. His career hit a tailspin midway through 2019 when he shifted to South Sydney from Brisbane and it's never really recovered.
Hamstring injuries, off-field issues and age have all caught up with him. The last few weeks he's been in reserve grade, playing like he's going through the motions with little of the fire or explosive intensity of his glory days and almost none of the pace.
Roberts is still a young man at 29, but if you've seen a Western you know not many gunslingers get to grow old. These last four games are his final trip to the last-chance saloon, a place he knows well, and he's hanging out for one more chance to prove he's still quick on the draw, to show he's not just the guy who used to be Jimmy the Jet.
Off contract at season's end and with the ground shrinking underneath him, we're at the point where every time we see Roberts in the NRL could be the last time, unless he makes one more team believe he can fly enough for them to take a shot on him.
The high-flying Sharks aren't exactly an easy target, but there might not be a better place for Roberts to summon the old ways than Scully Park in Tamworth. There's room to run out there, to run and run and never stop.
And maybe, one last time, Roberts will find a bit of space and he'll fly, and he'll leave somebody slumped on the ground behind him wondering what the hell just happened, and all of Tamworth will rise and gasp and roar when they see it, because there's nothing in the world like going fast.
