South Sydney Rabbitohs 

Club information
Full name	South Sydney District Rugby League Football Club
Nickname(s)	Official Rabbitohs, Souths Colloquial Bunnies, Rabbits, The Red and Green, The Cardinal and Myrtle, The Pride of the League
Colours	Red   Green
Founded	17 January 1908; 116 years ago (1908-01-17)
Website	rabbitohs.com.au
Current details
Ground(s)	Stadium Australia (84,000)
CEO	Blake Solly
Chairman	Nick Pappas
Coach	Ben Hornby
Captain	Cameron Murray
2023 season	9th
Current season
Uniforms
Home colours Away colours
Records
Premierships	21 (1908, 1909, 1914, 1918, 1925, 1926, 1927, 1928, 1929, 1931, 1932, 1950, 1951, 1953, 1954, 1955, 1967, 1968, 1970, 1971, 2014)
Runners-up	14 (1910, 1916, 1917, 1920, 1923, 1924, 1935, 1937, 1939, 1949, 1952, 1965, 1969, 2021)
Minor premierships	17 (1908, 1909, 1914, 1918, 1925, 1926, 1927, 1929, 1932, 1949, 1950, 1951, 1953, 1968, 1969, 1970, 1989)
Wooden spoons	9 (1945, 1946, 1962, 1975, 1990, 2003, 2004, 2006, 2024)
Most capped	336 – John Sutton
Highest try scorer	187 – Alex Johnston
Highest points scorer	1,896 – Adam Reynolds

The South Sydney Rabbitohs are an Australian professional rugby league football club based in the Sydney suburb of Redfern that competes in the National Rugby League (NRL). They are often referred to as Souths or the Bunnies.

The club was formed in 1908, as one of the founding members of the New South Wales Rugby Football League, making it one of Australia's oldest rugby league teams. It is one of only two NSW foundation clubs still present in the NRL, the other being the Sydney Roosters.^{[note 1]}

The Rabbitohs' traditional heartland covers the once typically working-class suburbs of inner-south Sydney. The club is based in Redfern, where its administration and training facilities are located, however it has long held a wide supporter base spread all over New South Wales. The team's home ground is currently Stadium Australia in Sydney Olympic Park. South Sydney is the most successful professional team in the history of Australian rugby league with twenty-one first grade premierships.

History

Origins

The South Sydney District Rugby League Football Club was formed at a meeting on 17 January 1908 at Redfern Town Hall^[1] when administrator J. J. Giltinan, cricketer Victor Trumper and politician Henry Hoyle gathered together in front of a large crowd of supporters.^[2] The club played in the first round of the newly formed New South Wales Rugby League, defeating North Sydney 11–7 at Birchgrove Oval on 20 April 1908.^[2][3] The team went on to win the inaugural premiership then successfully defended its title in the 1909 season, winning the Grand Final by default.^[4] During these early years Arthur Hennessy was considered the "founding father" of the South Sydney rugby league club.^{[citation needed]} A hooker and prop forward, Hennessy was Souths' first captain and coach. He was also New South Wales' first captain and Australia's first test captain in 1908. S. G. "George" Ball became Club Secretary in 1911 after Arthur Hennessy stood down from the position, and he remained in that capacity for over fifty years, only retiring a few years before his death in 1969.^{[citation needed]}

NSWRFL & ARL (1908–1997)

After further premiership success in 1914 and 1918, South Sydney won seven of the eight premierships from 1925 to 1932, missing out only in 1930. The 1925 side went through the season undefeated for 12 games.^[5] and is only one of six Australian premiership sides in history to have achieved this feat. Such was Souths' dominance in the early years of the rugby league competition that the Rabbitohs were labelled "The Pride of the League".^[1][6]

South Sydney struggled between 1940–1948. South Sydney's longest losing streak of 22 games was during the period 1945–1947.^{[citation needed]} In the 1945 season the club only managed to win one game while in 1946 it was unable to win a single game.

1950s golden era (1949–1957)

1949 would mark the beginning of almost a decade of great success for South Sydney, winning five of the six premierships from 1950 to 1955, and losing the 1949 Grand Final against St. George, and also the 1952 Grand Final against Western Suburbs in controversial circumstances. The 1951 side's point scoring feat in its 42–14 victory over Manly-Warringah^[7] remains the highest score by a team in a Grand Final and "the miracle of '55"^[8][9] involved South Sydney winning 11 straight sudden death matches to win the premiership. Players that were involved in these years included Denis Donoghue, Jack Rayner, Les "Chicka" Cowie, Johnny Graves, Ian Moir, Greg Hawick, Ernie Hammerton, Bernie Purcell and Clive Churchill. Churchill, nicknamed "the Little Master" for his brilliant attacking fullback play, is universally regarded as one of the greatest ever Australian rugby league players.

In the late 1950s Souths began a poor run of form failing to make the finals from 1958 to 1964, during this time receiving the 1962 wooden spoon.

More premiership success (1965–1971)

In 1965 a talented young side made the Grand Final against St. George who were aiming to secure its tenth straight premiership. The young Rabbitohs were not overawed by the Dragons' formidable experience and in front of a record crowd of 78,056^[10] at the Sydney Cricket Ground, it went down narrowly 12–8.^[11] The nucleus of this side went on to feature in Australian representative teams for the next six years and ensured another golden period for South Sydney making five successive grand finals from 1967 to 1971, winning four. Bob McCarthy, John O'Neill, Eric Simms, Ron Coote, Mike Cleary and John Sattler from 1965 were later joined by Elwyn Walters, Ray Branighan, Paul Sait, Gary Stevens and coach Clive Churchill to form a fearsome combination before internal strife and poaching by other clubs from 1972 onwards unravelled the star studded pack.^[12] From this period comes part of South's and Australian Rugby League folklore when in the 1970 premiership decider against Manly, captain John Sattler inspired the side to victory playing out 70 minutes of the match with his jaw broken^[13] in three places after being king hit by Manly prop John Bucknall.^[14][15]

Financial trouble and exclusion (1972–1999)

Financial problems started to hit Souths in the early 1970s, forcing some players to go to other clubs. The licensed Leagues Club, traditionally such an important revenue provider to all first grade league sides, was closed in 1973 but a "Save Our Souths" campaign ensured the club survived. "Super Coach"^{[note 2]} Jack Gibson's arrival turned the club's form, winning the pre-season competition in 1978.^[2] The club captured victories in the mid-week Tooth Cup competition in 1981^[16] and in the pre-season "Sevens" competition in 1988.^[2] The Rabbitohs made the finals on five occasions in the 1980s, including a dominant season to finish as minor premiers in 1989.^[2] The 1989 season proved to be the club's most successful in years, but was also the last time the club reached the finals until 2007. The following season the Rabbitohs finished as wooden spooners.

The club stayed afloat in the 1990s despite major financial problems. Souths' only success came in 1994 when it won the pre-season competition, defeating the Brisbane Broncos 27–26 in the final.^[2] The Super League War and the eventual formation of the National Rugby League affected the club greatly when it was determined in 1998 that the newly formed competition would be contracted to 14 teams for the 2000 season. Following a series of mergers by other teams,^{[note 3]} and a planned merger with Cronulla-Sutherland was met with staunch opposition from both clubs,^[17] South Sydney failed to meet the National Rugby League's selection criteria to compete in the competition and were subsequently excluded from the premiership at the end of the 1999 season.

Fight for readmission

In 2000 and 2001, South Sydney fought its way back into the competition following a string of high-profile legal battles^[18] against the National Rugby League and News Limited.^[19] A number of well attended public rallies took place during this time, as supporters from many different clubs got behind South Sydney's case. Upon appeal to the Federal Court in 2001,^[20] South Sydney won readmission into the premiership for the 2002 season.^[21]

National Rugby League (2002–present)

After being readmitted, South Sydney were initially unsuccessful in the premiership, finishing amongst the bottom three teams for five seasons straight including three wooden spoons. Following this, the club was taken over by actor Russell Crowe and businessman Peter Holmes à Court in 2006.^[22] In the 2007 season South Sydney played in its first finals campaign since 1989.^[23]

May 2008 saw the sudden resignation of the then current executive chairman and CEO, Peter Holmes à Court. He had been appointed to the role of CEO at the start of 2008.^[24][25] Reports suggested that Holmes à Court had been forced to stand down after his relationship with Russell Crowe had deteriorated beyond repair.^{[26][27][28][29][30]}

The South Sydney Rabbitohs celebrated its centenary year during the 2008 National Rugby League season. That year the club were named the National Trust's inaugural 'Community Icon', in recognition of the club's significant longstanding contribution to sport and sporting culture at both state and national levels.^[31]

Return to premiership success

The arrival of Sam Burgess and Greg Inglis to the club in the early 2010s saw South Sydney qualify for the finals. In April 2011, Souths announced Michael Maguire would replace retiring coach John Lang for the 2012 season, signing as head coach on a three-year deal.^[32] Following consecutive preliminary final exits in 2012 and 2013, it defeated the Sydney Roosters in the 2014 preliminary final to advance to its first grand final since the successful 1971 campaign.

Following a slim 6–0 lead in the first half of the 2014 grand final, Souths scored four second half tries to defeat Canterbury 30–6. This was South Sydney's first premiership win in 43 years.^[33] Sam Burgess received the Clive Churchill medal despite playing the entire match with a fractured cheekbone, suffered from a head clash during the first tackle of the match.^[34]

Following the premiership victory, South Sydney were presented with the Keys to the City of Randwick by Mayor Ted Seng at a presentation ceremony at Souths Juniors in Kingsford and later the same day awarded the Keys to the City of Sydney by Lord Mayor Clover Moore at a reception at Sydney Town Hall.

On 23 October 2014, Holmes à Court sold his 50% share of Blackcourt League Investments, and consequently his 37.5% stake in South Sydney, to James Packer's Consolidated Press Holdings.^[35]

After elimination early in the 2015 finals series,^[36] a nine-game winning streak in 2018 saw South Sydney return to premiership contention.^[37] This season marked the start of five consecutive preliminary finals appearances in the late 2010s and early 2020s. After losses in consecutive years to the Sydney Roosters, Canberra Raiders,^[38] and Penrith Panthers,^[39] South Sydney defeated Manly in 2021 to advance to the grand final against Penrith.

With the game poised at 8–8 in the second half, Cody Walker threw a pass that was intercepted by Panthers winger Stephen Crichton who scored untouched. Souths scored in the final five minutes of the match, but halfback Adam Reynolds missed the conversion from the sideline and a subsequent field-goal attempt, either of which would have seen the game tied. Penrith won the game 14–12.^[40] Penrith defeated South Sydney in the 2022 preliminary final, ending Souths' season for the third year in a row.^[41]

Prior to the 2022 season, Atlassian founder Mike Cannon-Brookes became a partial owner of the Rabbitohs by buying one third of the management firm alongside Crowe and Packer. Together, these three own 75% of the Rabbitohs; the remaining 25% of the club is owned by fans.^[42] South Sydney started the 2023 NRL season strongly with the club sitting second at the midway point of the year which included impressive victories over Brisbane, Melbourne and Penrith. However, the club would suffer a slump in the second half the season only winning four of the remaining 13 fixtures which saw them finish 9th on the table and miss the finals for the first time since 2017.^[43]

South Sydney started the 2024 NRL season poorly winning only one game from their opening seven matches. On 30 April 2024, head coach Jason Demetriou was sacked by the club with Ben Hornby replacing him as interim head coach.^[44]

Club symbols

Emblem

The club mascot is the rabbitoh, a now-disused term that was commonly used in the early 20th century to describe hawkers who captured and skinned rabbits and then sold the meat at markets,^[45] so named because they would shout "rabbit-oh!" around the markets and suburbs to attract buyers. The club is also informally referred to as the Rabbits, Bunnies or Souths.

Exactly how South Sydney came to be known as the Rabbitohs is unknown. According to one version of events, dating from pre-schism days at the turn of the 20th century, some of the club's players earned some extra money on Saturday mornings as rabbit-oh men, staining their jerseys with rabbit blood in the process; when they played in those blood stained jumpers that afternoon, opponents from wealthier rugby clubs did not always appreciate the aroma and would mockingly repeat the "Rabbitoh!" cry.^[46] Another version was that the term was a disparaging reference by opposing teams to South's home ground being plagued with "rabbit 'oles"; in those early days Redfern Oval was then known as Nathan's Cow Paddock.^[1] A third version claims the Rabbitoh name was adopted from that of the touring Australian rugby union teams of the early 1900s who were nicknamed "Rabbits" prior to discarding the name in 1908 in favour of the moniker "Wallabies".^[47]

The "Rabbitoh" emblem, a running white rabbit, first appeared on the team's jersey in 1959. The Rabbitoh emblem has in various forms been carried as the club's crest on every player's jersey ever since. The original "Rabbitoh" emblem design that appeared on the team's jerseys throughout the 1960s and 1970s has now been incorporated on the current jersey.^{[citation needed]}

The South Sydney Rabbitohs celebrated its centenary year during 2008. The club released a centenary emblem to commemorate the occasion. To also coincide with the centenary year, Souths opted to alter the logo by removing the red and green oval from the emblem for a solid white rabbit with the words South Sydney Rabbitohs set in uppercase type.

Colours

South Sydney has used cardinal red and myrtle green colours on its playing jerseys for the vast majority of the club's history. Prior to the establishment of the rugby league club in 1908, the South Sydney rugby union team originally wore a red and green hooped jersey. Some sources have suggested that this combination of colours was due to the local rugby union club being nicknamed the "Redfern Waratahs". The first British inhabitants had often called the waratah a "red fern" instead, hence giving the suburb its name, and ultimately the local rugby club its emblem. Red and green dominate the colours of the waratah and hence, possibly, the South Sydney Rugby League Football Club adopted these colours for its jerseys.^[47] However, the suburb of Redfern was named in honour of William Redfern, one of the first doctors of the colony, who treated convicts and poor settlers as well as the wealthy.

The club's jersey has been a hooped-styled one comprising alternating red and green, and has been used for the vast majority of the club's history.^[48] In 1945 and 1946 the club broke with this tradition and used a green design with a red "V" around the collar, before reverting to the original hoop style. From 1980 to 1984 the team played in a strip which saw the inclusion of white hoops within a predominately green design with a central red stripe and was affectionately known as the "Minties"^[49] jersey (so-called due to its apparent similarity to the wrapper design of the popular sweet). With the introduction of "away" jerseys towards the end of the 20th century, the club initially introduced a predominantly white jersey for away matches which was changed to a predominantly black one for the 2006 season.^{[citation needed]}

Before the start of the 2007 season, the club announced that the away jersey would be styled identically to the traditional home jersey, with the exception of sponsorship and the rabbit emblem, which has been styled similarly to the one that initially featured on jerseys in the 1960s.^[50] For season 2009, the rabbit emblem is black for home matches whilst the emblem is the original white for away matches.^[51]

The playing shorts worn were historically black, though in the late 1970s the club adopted green shorts with a red vertical stripe. This was then superseded by the white shorts of the "Minties" outfit. When the club subsequently reverted to the traditional playing strip, the decision was made to wear black shorts once more. In 2008 the Rabbitohs wore white shorts to match the white stripe running down the side of the jersey.

• South Sydney Rabbitohs – Jerseys
• 
  1908
• 
  1909–1944, 1947–1958
• 
  1945–1946
• 
  1959–1964
• 
  1965–1974
• 
  1975–1976
• 
  1977–1979
• 
  1980–1984
• 
  1985–1993
• 
  1994–1996
• 
  1997–1999

Reggie the Rabbit

Reggie the Rabbit is the Rabbitohs' mascot. The mascot first appeared in lifesize form in 1968 after celebrity fan Don Lane brought back a suit from the US in time for the 1968 grand final against Manly Warringah Sea Eagles, won by the Rabbitohs 13–9. Perhaps the most notable of the early Reggies was the club's groundsman Reg Fridd. Standing just over four feet tall, the Rabbitohs lured the diminutive New Zealander from a touring production of Snow White and the Seven Dwarves, the same troupe that had yielded the second Reggie, Roscoe Bova, killed in a car accident in the early 1970s. Most teams in the National Rugby League maintain mascots. During 2000 and 2001, when Souths was excluded from the NRL, Anth Courtney was Reggie Rabbit appearing at the second Town Hall rally and at games at Redfern Oval as well as being active in travelling extensively around the state to attend fundraisers as Reggie Rabbit.^{[52][53][54][55]}

Geographic area

The South Sydney District Rugby League Football Club (precursor to the current corporate entity) was formed, under the original 1908 articles of association with the NSWRL competition, to represent the Sydney municipalities of Alexandria, Botany, Mascot, Waterloo, Redfern and Darlington and the southern parts of the City Of Sydney.^{[citation needed]} It additionally represents southern parts of the eastern suburbs of Sydney, including the suburbs Coogee, Kensington, Kingsford, and Maroubra.^[56]

Souths have a proud history of Indigenous players from the local district clubs including La Perouse United, Redfern All Blacks and Indigenous recruits from Country NSW.

Stadium

During the early years of the New South Wales Rugby League premiership, "home games" were not assigned very often. However, South Sydney played most of its games at the Royal Agricultural Society Ground (Sydney Showground) from 1908 until the club's departure in 1920. From 1911 onwards, the Sydney Sports Ground was also used interchangeably with the Agricultural Ground over a decade for hosting matches.^[57] In 1947 the club played its final season at the Sports Ground, before relocating to Redfern Oval in 1948.^[58] It was here that team played in the heart of the club's territory and played the vast majority of its allocated home matches.

In 1988, the club began to play in the Sydney Football Stadium,^[59] just built upon the former Sydney Sports Ground and Sydney Cricket Ground No. 2 Oval. The side continued to play here up until 2005, with the exception of 2000 and 2001 when South Sydney was absent from the premiership. During 2004–2005, when the Rabbitoh's contract with Sydney Football Stadium was about to expire, new home grounds were investigated at Gosford, North Sydney Oval and Telstra Stadium. Eventually the decision was made to relocate to Telstra Stadium at Sydney Olympic Park. The move was generally not well received by the fans,^[60][61] but provided considerably more income for the club, which was several million dollars in the red at the end of 2005.^[62]

In 2006, the club relocated home games to Stadium Australia in Sydney's west (known as Telstra Stadium until the conclusion of 2007). In February 2008, the Rabbitohs renewed its partnership with Stadium Australia (which was then known as ANZ Stadium) to play NRL home games and home finals at the venue for the next 10 years, commencing season 2008.

During 2008, the City of Sydney Council^[63] completed a $19.5 million upgrade and renovation of Redfern Oval. From season 2009, the upgraded Redfern Oval provided the Rabbitohs with training facilities and a venue for hosting pre-season and exhibition matches.

In 2023, the Rabbitohs relocated its headquarters and first team training facilities from Redfern Oval to the Heffron Centre,^[64] a $58M community sporting complex in Maroubra owned by Randwick City Council.^[65] The South Sydney Rabbitohs’ $26M Community and High Performance Centre provides training facilities for the NRL, Women’s and NSW Cup teams, as well as facilities for the administrative, commercial and Souths Cares staff members.^{[citation needed]}

Supporters

The South Sydney Rabbitohs continue to have a large supporter base in its traditional areas of South-eastern Sydney, despite having moved from Redfern Oval two decades ago, while also enjoying wide support throughout other rugby league playing centres around the country.^[66] The official South Sydney supporter group is known as "The Burrow".^[67]

South Sydney at one stage had the highest football club membership in the National Rugby League, with membership exceeding 35,000 as of June 23, 2015. That member number also included more than 11,000 ticketed members, the highest of the Sydney-based NRL clubs. Following the conclusion of the 2021 NRL season, new figures showed South Sydney to have the second highest membership of Sydney NRL clubs behind Parramatta.^[68] Zdroj:https://en.wikipedia.org?pojem=South_Sydney_Rabbitohs
Text je dostupný za podmienok Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License 3.0 Unported; prípadne za ďalších podmienok. Podrobnejšie informácie nájdete na stránke Podmienky použitia.