The Troubled 1990s and Exclusion
More troubles hit Souths in the 1990s where they went from minor premiers in 1989 to wooden spooners in 1990. It was tough times but led from the front by George Piggins, Souths again just did enough to survive in the competition but much of the time made up the bottom of the ladder. They played some enterprising footy at times and in 1994 took out the pre-season competition defeating two-time premiers Brisbane 27-26 in the final.
In 1996 Souths played their last ever first-grade match at Redfern. They beat the South Queensland Crushers 48-16.
However, lack of funds saw Souths unable to keep their top players (including captain Mario Fenech, Les Davidson, Mark Carroll and Craig Field) and a lot of talented young juniors were lost and went on to represent Australia from other clubs (these included Jim Dymock, Ian Roberts, Jim Serdaris, Terry Hill and later Craig Wing and Braith Anasta when the club was excluded from the competition).
The outbreak of the Super League war was going to affect the future of Souths with the vision to cut Sydney sides with Souths in the firing line. Refusing to merge or drop out, the National Rugby League (a merger of Super League and ARL) cut South Sydney from the premiership for the 2000 season. The NRL set a bar of 14-teams and with 15 applicants, Souths were the team to miss out(due to a critera that many claim was specificially tailored to exclude South Sydney). Souths were finally starting to show some promise(being strongly involved in the race to the 1999 finals series, before faltering late on - many say the 7 week suspension of their on-fire halfback Darrell Trindall was the turning point in their season) and strong management in 1999 when the cut came.
Every great sport needs its tradition and its culture. You can't just dump 92 years of Sydney's sporting history because you've lost money on a business venture or because a club refused to jump into bed with you, for old-fashioned moral reasons. That's not what the glory of the game is about.
— Ray Martin, 1999
Read more about this topic: History Of The South Sydney Rabbitohs
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