League: Souths conjure up millions

Joe Williams’ Souths are no longer the NRL easy-beats they once were. Picture / Fotopress

The Rabbitohs that come to Ericsson Stadium this weekend are a vastly different outfit to those regarded in recent seasons as something of an easy-beat NRL opponent.

The administration behind the new-look South Sydney ensures they will be more than competitive into the future because they are shaping as the biggest spenders of the next player transfer season.

Souths have just signed a deal to shift all their home games from the Sydney Football Stadium in Moore Park near the city to the Olympic Stadium at Homebush in Sydney's west.

The change in arrangements will return around A$1 million ($1.08 million) extra a year net to the club each year, said chief executive Shane Richardson. That comes via an increase in share of gate takings and merchandise sales, which at Aussie [Sydney Football Stadium] was 10 per cent.

"When more people come through the gate at Aussie Stadium and they buy more merchandise it's a win/win for the stadium but it's not a win/win for us," Richardson said.

The new deal gives the Rabbitohs greater control, plus it puts an incentive in front of the stadium management to help grow Souths crowds.

"We will be the only club in Sydney that can stand on its own two feet," he said, the others relying on grants from associated leagues clubs financed essentially by pokies.

"Absolutely," is Richardson's quick and enthusiastic answer to whether Souths will be active in the player market ahead of next year as a result of the expected extra income. There are "eight to nine" players off contract including captain Bryan Fletcher. Of their intention regarding Fletcher, Richardson said "I'll be discussing that with Bryan Fletcher, not you."

"We're not looking to have a clean-out at all, we're looking for players to step up and be a top NRL side. We can't be in a wooden spoon position every season."

Souths has taken the premiership more times than any other club, 20, and has been runner-up 12 times.

But after a start that included the wharfies and wool store workers among its members fundraising by selling rabbits as cheap meat in the working class suburbs where they had support - hence the Rabbitohs logo - the licensed club that supported Souths got into financial trouble in the early 70s.

Then followed a raid on players including Ian Roberts, Mark Carroll and other internationals. Their last success was in 1989 under ex-international George Piggins who coached them to the minor premiership but failed in playoffs. Since then the playing record has been dismal.

Coaches including Steve Martin, Alan Jones, Craig Coleman, Paul Langmack and Arthur Kitinas have come and gone.

The likes of the Bulldogs' Braith Anasta who is Piggins' nephew and the Roosters' Craig Wing were Souths juniors but the club couldn't hold them and had trouble attracting others, especially while there was management wrangling, financial difficulty and the threat of continued expulsion from the competition.

That's all about to change.

Reaction to the move west at Souths' headquarters and among long-term supporters has been mostly positive, Richardson said. "About 10 to one, there's a couple of people with personal agendas."

They haven't been as loud or active as previous white-anters within the club, clearly, because the signals out of Souths - after seasons of discontent, wrangles for board control and coaching changes - are of a unified club. A sign of that is stalwart Piggins' backing of the arrangement to shift games to Homebush.

"We are unified," Richardson said. "You can't go forward if you are not united."

Richardson came in mid-2004 from Penrith and brought Shaun McRae back from England, where he had coached at Gateshead and Hull. McRae won the Challenge Cup with St Helens in 1996 and '97, was Great Britain assistant coach in '97 and had been at Hull from 2000 to 2004.

"He's a great communicator," Richardson said of his mate who is commonly referred to as "Bomber", though no one knows why - McRae won't reveal how he got the nickname.

"What we're trying to create is a supportive but accountable environment."

This week Souths were trying to make one of their fans accountable for hurling a full softdrink bottle at ref Jason Robinson during last Monday's game against the Raiders.

Richardson has asked club members to identify the person and called on the young man who was wearing Souths' gear to turn himself in and face the consequences.

"We have to give the refs our backing. They are sacrosanct. I've seen the way some parents carry on on the sidelines at junior league and we need to re-educate them from there up.

"Bottle-throwing won't be tolerated at Souths and once we find out who this guy is he won't be going to any NRL games," Richardson said.

Only 20 per cent of Souths' season ticket holders live in the club's catchment area.

Iconic fan Russell Crowe is one such absentee supporter, as are numerous celebrities who have attached themselves to the club because of its history as a foundation member of the Australian league competition, the "battler" image of the working-class that started it and carried it into the 1970s as well as its recent underdog status because of the wrangle with News Ltd after Super League.

While the club was fighting the expulsion imposed on it by the NRL, Crowe paid A$42,000 for a bell that was used to signal the start and finish of each half of the games in the early days and he brings it - and rings it - when he is in the stands.

While out of the NRL in 2000 and 2001 before a court-ordered readmission, Souths was denied their of the NRL television monies which is close to the A$3.25 million salary cap for each club.

It also lost any attraction for players and has since had to pay over the odds to get what talent it can.

But with an extra A$1 million income each year from the stadium deal signed last week and with at least eight players off contract, Souths will have around A$2 million to go into the player market with when the anti-tampering deadline comes off on July 1. 

SOUTH SYDNEY Foundation club of the Australian premiership 1908

20 first grade titles: 1908-09, 1914, 1918, 1925-29, 1931-32, 1950-51, 1953-55, 1967-68, 1970-71.

35,316 attended their "first game back", round one 2002 after they were denied a licence in 2000 and 2001.

Legends: Benny Wearing, Jack Rayner, Les Cowie, Eric Simms, Bob McCarthy, John Sattler, Mario Fenech.

62 Australian internationals, four test captains: Arthur Hennessey 1908, Clive Churchill 1950-55, John Sattler 1969/70, Bob McCarthy 1973.