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On a night when John Sattler was at the ground to cheer on South Sydney in their bid to break a 43-year premiership drought, it couldn’t have been more fitting that a Rabbitoh player should produce an heroic performance despite a painful injury and steer the team to victory.
That player was, of course, Sam Burgess, who fractured his cheekbone in the first play of the grand final, hitting the ball up after the Canterbury kick-off and clashing heads with Bulldogs hard man James Graham.
As Burgess reached for the right side of his face it was only natural to think the injury might be about to force him from the field, but he ended up playing the entire 80 minutes to mark his exit from rugby league with an exclamation mark.
Toughness was the Sattler trademark, highlighted by when he played most of the 1970 grand final for Souths against Manly with a broken jaw, but now the Rabbitohs have another example of courage under fire that is worthy of a place alongside the effort by the great “Satts”.
Burgess obviously knew he risked being hit in the face by an opposition player’s head, shoulder or stray arm whenever he charged the ball forward in that typical style of his, but he never went looking for soft options.
The Englishman ran for 199 metres and made 35 tackles, plus one tackle-break and three offloads. It was a superb performance, as inspirational to his teammates as it was damaging to the opposition.
But not far behind Sam Burgess was his brother, George, who didn’t play for as long but still recorded exceptional statistics. In his 55 minutes, George also ran for 199 metres and made 27 tackles, five tackle-breaks and one line-break. Plus, he scored a try.
It was a fascinating and entertaining grand final to watch, for a variety of reasons.
One, it was brutally tough. The collision between Burgess and Graham to open proceedings set the tone for an evening in which looking after one’s own welfare, even for a second, wasn’t remotely a consideration.
Two, the smell of history hung heavily over the game. Were Souths going to finally consign that drought to the dust? Shots on the stadium screens of Sattler sitting next to fellow Souths great Bob McCarthy in the crowd added to the atmosphere.
Three, the Bulldogs may not have been good enough to win, but they were brave and it was a great effort to hang in there for as long as they did. The dam wall had looked like bursting for some time in the second half, but it didn’t until the game was inside the last 10 minutes.
Canterbury were still a chance on the scoreboard until then, even though they were barely hanging on.
And, four, we all had something to celebrate in the end. Souths were kicked out of the competition in 1999, but they refused to go quietly and won their way back in through the courts. Now they’re on top again. It is a magnificent story.
I wasn’t a Sam Burgess fan until this year. The grubby stuff he sometimes got up to on the field put me off. But he clearly had a big change of attitude going into this season. His conduct has been exemplary, matched only by the quality of his football.
Usually, when a big-name player leaves league for another code and people talk about how much the game will miss him, I think it’s an exaggeration. But I don’t think you can underestimate how much the game will miss Burgess.
It will survive, of course. It always does. But there will be a hole left that is going to prove very hard to fill.
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