Souths’ torch bearer
Crowe reveals Sattler’s hidden impact on Bunnies
THIS is the emotional image of two South Sydney greats – John Sattler and Sam Burgess – that prompted Rabbitohs coowner Russell Crowe to declare: “You can’t get a more South Sydney image than that.”
Crowe, who owns Souths with James Packer and Mike Cannon-Brookes, has paid a moving tribute to Sattler, who died in a Gold Cast retirement village on Monday, aged 80.
And the moment when Sattler embraced Burgess after South Sydney’s 2014 grand final win will forever be etched into Crowe’s red-and-green memory.
“For so long, John Sattler has represented the cultural torch bearer of the club,” Crowe said. “The glory, the struggle, the belief.
“A great player and a great ambassador.
“He will be missed, and I count myself lucky to have got to know him just a little bit.
“There’s a photograph of him and Sam Burgess together post-game on that same October day in 2014, Sam wearing the Clive Churchill Medal, and the scars of his mighty effort.
“The old warrior and the young warrior. How things change and how they stay the same.
“You can’t get a more South Sydney image than that.”
Crowe revealed how Sattler helped privatise the club in 2006.
“I’d shaken John Sattler’s hand briefly once at some gathering, but it wasn’t until 2006 and the ‘Yes’ campaign had begun that I talked at any length with John,” Crowe said.
“I wanted to talk to John to gauge his level of support for the takeover.
“The first thing he did was sing me a song, and then lament over the lack of melody in team songs post-game these days. He had a very pleasant singing voice.
“We had a good conversation. I told him my principal reason for taking this idea on was to protect the legacy of players like himself, and to ensure the club lived on. He was a gentleman.
“As time went on, and the vote went our way, John stayed very close to the club, came to games, joined in the Return to Redfern touch football and certainly loved the success we started to achieve.
“Seeing him sitting next to Bob McCarthy on grand-final day in 2014, big grin, his eyes sparkling. It was a wonderful moment for me, and it validated all the effort.”
Sattler – who played the 1970 grand final with a broken jaw – had inspired Burgess.
When the Englishman suffered a fractured cheekbone in the first tackle of the decider, then-Souths coach Michael Maguire ordered his trainer to “run out and tell him: ‘John Sattler’.”
“John will be remembered for his heroics when he broke his jaw and led his team to victory,” Burgess said on Tuesday.
“There is a hole in many people’s hearts.”