I'd say it has something to do with being from the "east" - (as far east as you can get, right?) so it's staring down all the teams west of Sydney. Much like West Coast and Adelaide facing east.Interesting decision to have the bird looking leftwards [to our eye] with the modern trend in sports logos to have the emblem looking 'forward'
. The Newcastle Knights, for example, a couple of years ago flipped their historic logo to much controversy for this reason.