NRL Grand Final 2021: South Sydney’s Brisbane rejects hit the jackpot
They’re the trio of rejects who hit the jackpot – and while Brisbane spent another season circling the spoon, they’ll instead have premiership glory in their sights.
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Jaydn Su’A was heartbroken. Dane Gagai calls it a blessing. Jai Arrow remembers the moment like it was yesterday.
These are the South Sydney Broncos – Brisbane’s rugby league rejects who are now on the cusp of NRL premiership glory.
The Rabbitohs will field four former Broncos players (including Benji Marshall) in Sunday’s grand final against Penrith at Suncorp Stadium, with coach Wayne Bennett watching over from above.
Bennett was the coach behind all six of Brisbane’s premierships and will be gunning for his eighth top grade title (also won 2010 with the Dragons), this time at the helm of South Sydney.
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Su’A, 23, was one of Brisbane’s brightest back-row prospects and earned comparisons to dual-code star Sonny Bill Williams before he was shown the door by the Broncos midway through 2019.
Now a Queensland Origin player, Su’A was told he had no future at Red Hill under former coach Anthony Seibold and sought a lifeline with Bennett at Redfern.
“I was heartbroken, I was pretty distraught,” Su’A said of his Broncos axing.
“All my family are here and I was at the club since I was 14. No one likes hearing they’re not wanted.
“It might have had something to do with the salary cap and they needed the money for someone else.
“Everyone knows Wayne and I have a good relationship. He gave me a call one night. I was driving home from training and he asked what was going on. Next thing I knew I was putting on a South Sydney jersey.
“I was upset but I’m very grateful and thankful it happened. If it didn’t happen, I might not have been able to play Origin or heading to an NRL grand final.
“It’s funny how it works. I’ve moved past that, it’s in the past. I’m looking at the positives.”
Gagai’s Broncos brushing feels like it was a lifetime ago.
The Mackay product was one of Brisbane’s brightest young talents when he burst on to the NRL scene in 2011 under Anthony Griffin.
But he found himself at the Red Hill exits not long after, sacked by the Broncos for disciplinary reasons following just six games.
Like Su’A, Gagai found himself under Bennett who was then coaching Newcastle in 2012. He has developed into a 19-game Origin star for Queensland and will make his 226th NRL appearance on Sunday.
“I was playing for Redcliffe Dolphins and playing good footy but struggling to make weight,” Gagai said.
“That was the problem. Anthony Griffin wanted me to be heavier and I just struggled to put on the weight. I was struggling to perform under that type of pressure.
“Once they let me go, I went back to Queensland Cup and I thought I knew I could play NRL again and then I had a meeting with Wayne.
“The first time I met him I felt comfortable and I said ‘if I sign with Newcastle, do I have to worry about how heavy I am? He looked at me and said ‘Gags, I don’t give a shit what you weigh, as long as you turn up to training on time, put in the effort and play well, I couldn’t care what you weigh’.
“He shows you so much respect as a coach and you don’t want to break that respect that he gives to you. You don’t want to break his trust. He lets you be your own man and be an adult.
“I guess it was a blessing in the end.”
Arrow was struggling to find his place in a star-studded Broncos team.
He made 24 appearances for the Broncos in 2016-17 but only three of those were in the starting side as Josh McGuire held a mortgage on the No. 13 jersey.
With an opportunity on the Gold Coast, Arrow was released from his Broncos contract by Bennett, who gave him a guarantee they would reunite.
“I remember the meeting pretty vividly,” Arrow said.
“It was pretty daunting going in as a 22-year-old kid telling Wayne you are going to leave the club.
“The Broncos had offered me another two years and there was no guarantee I was going to be playing week in, week out. The Titans offered me three years and pretty much told me they wanted me in the team week in, week out, so for myself it was a no-brainer and I remember telling Wayne that.
“He said ‘there’s a better opportunity for you down there and I understand you taking it’. But he said ‘one day I want to get you back’ and it’s funny how things work out.
“I’m very thankful for the opportunity to come to such a proud club. It has panned out pretty well.”
With his career at a crossroads, Marshall was handed a lifeline by Bennett at the Broncos in 2017. They reunited at Souths again this year, once again with Marshall’s career on the line.
Prop Patrick Mago has played 11 games for the Rabbitohs this year after playing 12 matches for the Broncos under Bennett in 2018.
ROOKIE ‘FREAK’ READY TO MAKE HISTORY
Sydney Roosters reject Blake Taaffe is the Energizer Bunny who has been ordered to slow down by South Sydney fitness chiefs and has no fears about being peppered by the Panthers.
Taaffe will become the least experienced starting player in NRL grand final history when he runs on to Suncorp Stadium on Sunday to face Penrith in this year’s premiership decider.
In what will be just his eighth NRL game, Taaffe will be tasked with defusing Panthers halfback Nathan Cleary’s towering bombs and keeping the Rabbitohs’ defence in line from fullback.
At 22 and deputising for suspended superstar Latrell Mitchell, Taaffe has a mountainous task ahead of him to help Souths clinch its first NRL title since 2014.
But the South Sydney junior is ready for the challenge and has proven he is not out of place in the NRL arena.
Taaffe is such a fitness freak and effort player that he has been told to tone down at training because of the extraordinary statistics he is producing in GPS data.
“I do a lot of k’s out there. I have a lot of high-speed efforts on the GPS,” Taaffe said.
“As a fullback, that’s what I’ve got to do. I’ve got to be everywhere and I do my best to do that. If I have to run 10km then so be it.
“I was having around 70 high-speed efforts in a training session. They had to bring me down and told me to save it for the game instead of training.
“I think I’m naturally fit. I come in every pre-season a bit overweight but the fitness is always there. I think it’s in my bloodline.
“I get my fast genes from my mum and the toughness and grit from my dad. He was a bit of a roughnut when he played, I’ve heard.”
Taaffe has excellent rugby league bloodlines.
A La Perouse product, his great uncle Kevin Longbottom played more than 100 games for the Rabbitohs during the 1960s alongside South Sydney legends like John Sattler and Eric Simms.
Taaffe grew up idolising the Rabbitohs and always dreamt of playing for the club.
But he was signed by the Roosters as a junior while living on the Central Coast, much to the dismay of his family who were overjoyed when South Sydney came knocking.
“I was a diehard Souths supporter growing up,” Taaffe said.
“My family was a bit angry when I signed with the Roosters but it was a dream to play NRL and I would have played for whoever I got the chance with.
“I couldn’t get a start with them which made me want to go home. I wasn’t in their sights and they didn’t think anything of me. I couldn’t even get a crack in the under-20s team.
“I had a good chat with my dad and said I wasn’t happy, I want to go home. At the start he didn’t want me to go home, he wanted me to keep going.
“I did think that (my NRL dream was over) but I went home and found another pathway. I came back and played a couple of local first grade games for Birkdale Panthers and it came back to me that I didn’t want to be doing this, I wanted to be playing NRL.
“I ended up getting a call from a bloke named Willie Leyshon who brought me down for the rest of the year for the Bears under-20s. I played five games and was fortunate enough to get signed by Souths.
“I was very stoked and grabbed it with both hands. I haven’t looked back.”
Taaffe is now looking up — towards the sky for the bombs that will be coming his way on Sunday night.
He spilt one early in Souths’ week one win against the Panthers but hasn’t faltered since in what has been a sensational finals series for such an inexperienced player on the big stage.
“I heard that fact (least experienced grand final player) but it doesn’t mean anything unless I win. I’m not really fussed, I just want to win,” he said.
“I don’t mind catching bombs, it’s my job, I’ve got to catch them.
“If he (Cleary) does it then he does. I’m not going to sit here and tell him not to.
“I knew if I dropped any balls I had to forgive and forget about it. You can’t sit there and dwell on it because it’ll carry on throughout the game.
“The quicker I got over it, the better I was. The boys got around me and I got back to my job.”
Filling in for the mercurial Mitchell was always going to be a tough task but Taaffe has passed with flying colours so far.
The indigenous flyer doesn’t have the same presence of Mitchell but coach Wayne Bennett has no concerns about him handling the pressure in a grand final.
“There‘s no doubt about Blake’s talent,” Bennett said. “I’m not concerned about his inexperience. The key is that Blake is in a good team with a good group of men around him.
“You only have to look at Corey Allen last year when Latrell got injured and everyone said our season was finished. Corey was great for us last year in the finals and it’s the senior leaders that make the team.
“Blake is doing a wonderful job for us but he is also in a strong team with players who help him enormously.”
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Originally published as NRL Grand Final 2021: South Sydney’s Brisbane rejects hit the jackpot
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