Souths set sights on Hallie to be club’s next big bopper
He is arguably the best young front-rower in the Far North, and now Jason Hallie has confirmed his future as a South Sydney Rabbitoh.
Hallie will move from the family home in Tully to Sydney to join the cardinal and myrtle at the end of the year, where he will join the Black Rabbits Elite Player Development program.
It’s not an NRL contract yet, but the opportunity is there for Hallie to become the Bunnies’ next big-bodied middle forward in the vein of hulking English international veteran Thomas Burgess and 112kg wrecking ball Davvy Moale.
Hallie was at the centre of a tug of war between two Sydney clubs which were serious on locking up the tall, powerful Innisfail Leprechauns prop, but he opted to join Souths on a one-year deal.
“I feel pretty privileged, it’s not a small club, Souths,” Hallie said.
“I’ve talked to a couple of clubs, but only two Sydney clubs were serious in wanting me. Souths, the way he sold the program to me sounded better for my type of style.”
Hallie has long been considered a player to watch in the Far North but made headlines earlier this year when he scored four tries for the Northern Pride in the Mal Meninga Cup clash with the Capras.
That eye-catching performance was one which turned heads at Souths.
The Rabbitohs have been on the lookout for a big-bodied middle forward to join their pathways program.
Head of elite pathways and player development Joe O’Callaghan revealed that through analysing various performance metrics from both Queensland’s Mal Meninga Cup and the SG Ball Cup in NSW, which marry up to the way Souths want to play the game, Hallie’s name constantly appeared.
“We need a big-bodied middle coming through our system,” O’Callaghan said.
“Thomas (Burgess) has one more year then he’s coming towards the end of his career, we’ve been strategic with how we’ve brought Davvy Moale along through our system over the past few years.
“In our current pathways system, we don’t have a similar big-bodied middle who ticks those boxes. It was a position we wanted to fill.
“We track and watch both competitions play out, SG Ball and Mal Meninga Cup, not just the visuals but statically, the players who were dominant, and Jase’s name kept coming up on our system.”
O’Callaghan was part of the Pride’s staff when now-Rabbitohs coach Jason Demetriou steered them to the Queensland Cup-NRL State Championship double in 2014.
Former Pride CEO Brock Schaefer is also the COO at South Sydney.
Their familiarity with the Far North, including the standard of the A-grade competition and the representative program, revealed to them that Hallie was the real deal.
But they won’t rush him to Redfern, with Hallie to play out the year in FNQ.
“We believe that getting relocation done well is really important to success down the track,” O’Callaghan said. “We’d prefer him to continue playing in an A-grade competition we believe in, he’ll get just as much out of that than rushing down here to play 21s.
“When you’re 18, handling yourself in that competition and playing Foley Shield – because we know the level of that comp, we knew where he was coming from.
“He’s more than ready to play Jersey Flegg, but that’s a short term thing.
“If we rush him and get it wrong – Tully to Sydney is a big adjustment.
“We’d rather get it done really well, hopefully that sets him up to be successful over a few years.”
Hallie’s dad and coach at Innisfail, Leon, praised his son’s work ethic.
“It’ very pleasing, me and his mother see how hard he works behind the scenes,” he said.
“He’s not the type of kid who needs to go out and train in front of people and let them see it, he’ll do it when nobody is around. He deserves everything he gets.”
Hallie is testing himself against NRL-calibre talent.
He came up against former Rabbitohs bookend George Burgess in Innisfail’s loss to Brothers last week, and on Saturday could square off with former Cowboy Scott Bolton.
The young gun’s goal is to finish off the season strongly – and, hopefully, with a premiership alongside his dad.