NRL: Journeyman is saving his Best until last

Colin Best. Photo / Getty Images

If ever there was a classic journeyman's tale, Colin Best's is it.

A clean-out here, a salary cap squeeze there, a trip to England in-between - the South Sydney centre has seen it all.

The 31-year-old will play his 200th NRL game against one of his four former clubs - the one where the relationship ended with a "misunderstanding" - when the Rabbitohs travel to Canberra today.

Before Souths and the Raiders, there was St George Illawarra, Hull and Cronulla.

"I've moved around a little bit. The salary cap hasn't helped. I think if the salary cap wasn't an issue I would have still been at Saints," he said.

"In Canberra there was a little bit of a misunderstanding ... it was just little falling outs with contract negotiations, just business things.

"I've achieved things that I've wanted to achieve in my career, I wanted to play in England, that was a goal. I wanted to play for my local team, Cronulla, and I also followed the Raiders as a kid so I was happy to play for them as well.

"The only thing left is I want to win the premiership so hopefully at South Sydney I can do that."

Best's move to England for two seasons came early in his career after five years at the Sharks.

"I was probably thinking I was going to play all my career at Cronulla and then when they let me go I wasn't very happy so I didn't really want to play for anyone else and I decided to go to England," he said.

"My last year at Cronulla was a mentally pretty tough year for me and the way the English take their rugby league over there, and the way the game's played over there, I just really started to enjoy the game again."

Best, who is off contract at the end of 2010, has begun talks with Souths about ending his career there.

"I know that this could be my final contract so I'd love to stay at the Bunnies, I know there's a great future here and I want to be part of it."

The Rabbitohs will take to Canberra Stadium as slight outsiders after their hiccup against Parramatta last weekend ended a three-game winning streak.

The Raiders have won the last four clashes between the clubs and Souths haven't won in Canberra since 2005.

The Bunnies will still be without captain Roy Asotasi (knee) and tough forward Michael Crocker (hamstring), but welcome back Eddy Pettybourne from a broken jaw and Ben Lowe from suspension.

Canberra have replaced halfback Josh McCrone (neck) with Adam Mogg, while another No7, Marc Herbert, has been named on the bench.

- AAP