The South Sydney Rabbitohs will pay tribute to one of Rugby League’s greatest people, the late John Sattler, when the Rabbitohs take on the Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles at Accor Stadium at 7:35pm on Saturday 25 March.
The Rabbitohs will welcome the Sattler family to the match at Accor Stadium, led by John’s wife Barbara and his son Scott, as guests of the South Sydney Football Club.
The Rabbitohs will wear a John Sattler Tribute jersey throughout the match, which features the famous ‘torn rabbit’ logo as worn by Mr Sattler in the 1970 Grand Final, a game that has gone down in Rugby League folklore due to the heroics of ‘Gentleman John’ playing 77 minutes of that game with a shattered jaw. The jersey is a replica of the 1970 jersey featuring the full cardinal red and myrtle green hoops, as well as a white collar.
On each of the players’ chests will be a tribute to Mr Sattler including his Rabbitohs first grade player number – 515. The Rabbitohs will also wear black armbands throughout the game.
The Sattler family will be joined by Rabbitohs officials in forming a guard of honour as the current team takes to the field, and a minute’s silence will be observed before kick off.
At the 13th minute of play, Rabbitohs supporters group The Burrow will lead the crowd in a round of applause, paying homage to the number 13 jersey worn by Mr Sattler in his four Premiership victories as captain of South Sydney in 1967, 1968, 1970 and 1971.
Throughout the pre-game period the Rabbitohs will feature highlights and tribute videos on the big screens at Accor Stadium, and interviews with former team mates.
“It is very important that we pay tribute to one of the greats of not only our Club, but of the game, in John Sattler and it just so happens that we are playing Manly-Warringah, a Club with which John had a long and storied history,” Rabbitohs CEO, Blake Solly, said.
Blake Solly, Rabbitohs CEOThe outpouring of emotion and the heartfelt tributes for John over the past few days have been amazing for everyone at the Club and for John’s family.
“We encourage all Rabbitohs Members and supporters, as well as any Rugby League or sports fans that respected the great man, to come out to Accor Stadium on Saturday night and be part of this wonderful night honouring one of the truly great advocates for the South Sydney Rabbitohs and the game of Rugby League.”
The Rabbitohs, in conjunction with Classic Sportswear, are also producing a commemorative t-shirt of John Sattler which will be sold exclusively by the Club for $19.70, with all money raised going to Souths Cares, the charity selected by the Sattler family. The t-shirt will be available at the game on Saturday or available to order online at the Rabbitohs Online Shop from Saturday evening at 7:35pm. The Rabbitohs wish to thank Classic Sportswear for donating the t-shirts, enabling all proceeds to be donated to Souths Cares, as well as their stellar work in producing the game jerseys for this week in a very short timeframe.
“Dad always loved being part of the community and always enjoyed seeing the life changing work done by the people at Souths Cares,” Scott Sattler said.
“When discussing this with the family, we thought Dad would love to see any money raised going to Souths Cares to help those people in the South Sydney community make better lives for themselves and their families.
South Sydney meant so much to Dad and our family believes there’s no better place for this money to go than to the people that Souths Cares and the Rabbitohs support every day.”
Mr Sattler is written into South Sydney folklore as one of the greatest leaders the Club has ever had, playing in six Grand Finals, captaining the team in five of them, and leading the Club to four premiership-winning first grade titles in 1967, 1968, 1970 and 1971.
Mr Sattler played 195 first grade games for South Sydney between 1963 and 1972, scoring 12 tries for 36 points. He only ever played first grade for the Club.
He played four games for New South Wales in 1969 and three games for Queensland in 1973 in the interstate series, as well as playing four Test matches for Australia between 1967 and 1971. He captained his country in one Test match against Great Britain in 1970.
