NRL 2021: Adam Reynolds, Dylan Edwards prove fitness at captain’s run
The Panthers and Rabbitohs have completed their pre-grand final captain’s runs and there’s updated injury news from both camps.
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South Sydney’s grand final chances have received a boost with skipper Adam Reynolds expected to kick goals in Sunday’s decider while Penrith fullback Dylan Edwards is set to take his place in the Penrith line-up.
Reynolds struggled with a groin injury in the preliminary final win over Manly, with rookie Blake Taaffe taking all shots at goal, but after the veteran playmaker came through the captain’s run with flying colours he’s set to take the tee at Suncorp Stadium.
“I’m pretty sure he will be (kicking). I didn’t see anything in training that said he wasn’t 100 per cent,” said Rabbitohs assistant coach Jason Demetriou.
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“We’ll wait and see how he pulls up tomorrow, but based on training today he’s ready to go.
“The boys got through what they needed to get through, nothing changes for us.”
The Rabbitohs are expected to be 1-17 while Penrith coach Ivan Cleary said Edwards (left) was set to shrug off an ankle problem and take his place in the side.
“Dylan’s fine – he’ll be right. He’s started the week on crutches and a moon boot for the last three week – it’s just to take weight off the foot,” Cleary said.
“He was one of our best last week, he’s very important to our team. I’m sure both teams that are carrying injuries, we certainly have.
“But we have had that for some time. I just marvel at the resilience of these boys and the courage they show each week. They just refuse not to play and they just keep turning up.”
Cleary would not confirm or deny if backrower Viliame Kikau would once again be switched to the bench.
Halfback Nathan Cleary has been carrying a shoulder problem through the back half of the season, but Demetriou said the Rabbitohs would not go out of their way to target the Panthers co-captain.
“We just play our game and if that lands on Nathan that lands on Nathan. It’s not something we’ve spoken about in targeting him personally,” Demetriou said.
“We have to get at him in terms of his kicking game and putting pressure in that area. But we have our systems and structures that have got us to this point, so there’s no need to change now.
“We’re going to have to go another level again tomorrow. It’s a grand final, there’s a lot at stake here and there’s no tomorrow for us.
“It’s about going after the result and doing whatever it takes to get it.”
SOUTHS BOSS REVEALS WHY REYNOLDS HAD TO LEAVE THE BURROW
Broncos-bound Adam Reynolds says he has no bad blood with the Rabbitohs amid revelations a long-term extension for the halfback could have cost the club Souths superstar Latrell Mitchell.
On the eve of Sunday’s grand final against the Panthers at Brisbane’s Suncorp Stadium, South Sydney CEO Blake Solly has rejected claims the Rabbitohs botched the retention of their premiership skipper and halfback.
Rabbitohs junior Reynolds had hoped to finish his career at Redfern, but will instead sever ties with Souths after the grand final to embark on a new chapter at the Broncos after being snapped up on a three-year, $2.4 million deal.
Reynolds’ departure represents one of the most controversial exits in Souths’ recent history, but it is understood the Rabbitohs faced a big-name player exodus if the club matched Brisbane’s offer for the 31-year-old.
A big-money extension for Reynolds would have had dire repercussions for Souths’ attempts to keep marquee trio Cody Walker, Damien Cook and Mitchell.
Walker is off-contract next year and can field formal offers from November 1, while Cook and Mitchell are secured at Souths for a further 12 months until the end of the 2023 season.
Souths will have to outlay more than $2 million to retain the matchwinning triumvirate, leaving the Rabbitohs hamstrung under the salary cap in a tug-of-war for Reynolds’ signature.
“We wanted Adam to stay,” Solly said. “But we also appreciated that we couldn’t match the security that Adam was seeking.
“There’s no question it was sad.
“His contribution to the club was massive over the years, but we also respected what he wanted at this time of his career, which was longer-term security.
“We tried to find another year (a two-year contract) in the salary cap for Adam, but we couldn’t get there.
“It’s difficult because that is what the cap is designed to do, it’s there to equalise talent in the competition. We’ve had four years at the top and at some point we had to make a hard decision on the offers we could make.
“When the Broncos offered three years, we just couldn’t match that and we wish him and his beautiful family well.”
Reynolds will depart Redfern as the second most-capped player in Souths’ 113-year history with his 231st NRL game in Sunday night’s grand final.
Only former teammate John Sutton has played more games for the Pride of the League with 336, headlined by him captaining Souths to premiership glory in 2014.
Reynolds was Souths’ halfback conductor on the night the Rabbitohs broke their 43-year title drought and says he has come to terms with the club’s refusal to enter a bidding war with the Broncos.
“I understand how it works,” he says of his departure from Souths.
“I understand it’s a professional game. I’m happy with the decision that’s been made and I’ve put myself in a good position to do something with the group.
“I still had a job to do. I was still employed by the club and captained by the club.
“If I let it weigh on myself, I would have been letting my teammates down and the coaching staff down. For me, it was important to turn up and do my job and I want to finish on a good note on Sunday night.”
Solly dismissed suggestions the Rabbitohs were reluctant to offer Reynolds a three-year deal because he was regarded as an injury hazard after a decade of NRL service.
“Age or injury risk wasn’t really a factor,” he said.
“I don’t think Adam’s body is in any different condition to a player who has played more than 200 games at age 31.
“He manages his body well, he rarely misses games and I think he is in the best shape of his career. Our challenges in making a suitable offer to Adam were largely salary-cap based.
“His temperament is so impressive. He has had some good years but this has been Adam‘s standout year in my eyes.
“He is a great NRL professional.”
HOW REDFERN KID BECAME A SOUTHS LEGEND
—Brent Read
Take a drive along Morehead Street in Redfern and the only remarkable thing is how truly unremarkable it is. Discarded shopping trolleys line the footpath. A few dishevelled characters wander the streets.
The Grosvenor Hotel, a pub where supporters of South Sydney often congregate, is closed thanks to Covid-19. On one side of the road are the housing commission estates. On the other, houses that lack any sort of pretension.
The local playground is empty. It’s all a bit ghostly but on Sunday night, this street like all the others that surround Redfern Oval – the spiritual home of the Rabbitohs – will come alive.
This is where South Sydney captain Adam Reynolds honed his craft, a torpedo punt from the football ground he has called home for his entire adult life.
When Adam and his older brother Wayne were old enough, they would wander out of the family home with football in hand and play until the sun went down.
Sometimes it would be two-on-two in the street with their cousins and mates. Other times, they would play a game where they would pick targets and practice their kicking. Light posts, parked cars, garbage bins. They all counted.
“He was a good kid,” Reynolds’ brother Wayne tells The Daily Telegragh.
“We grew up playing footy together, running around kicking balls down hallways and stuff like that. We were pretty competitive.
“He never liked to lose. We always stuck together and always played footy. We lived in the flats across the road from Redfern Oval so we didn’t have much room there.
“We played footy down the hallway with the old man. When we moved around the corner in Morehead Street, we would use the back lanes, the street, the road, the light poles, the street signs. You name it, whatever we could aim a ball at, we would.”
Even then, Adam’s competitiveness shone through.
“He never liked to lose,” Wayne said.
“Whenever he would lose if we were playing touch footy on the road or something, he would always try to fight you if you were getting the better of him.
“He would always get the shits and try to dust you up if you were getting the better of him. We used to make up stupid games.
“Chip and chasing, aiming at things. Even with the soft footballs. Everything was just a game. Anything to do with a footy, we were just doing it.
“The more you practice, the better you get. He never used to be the best goalkicker but he practised a lot and a lot. I have been down to training a few times and he is always the last one kicking the ball and kicking goals.”
Reynolds once took Sam Burgess — his first NRL captain — on a tour of these streets. When Reynolds was in line to be appointed Souths skipper himself, Burgess wrote a column retracing that journey in support of his former teammate.
“I walked with him one day from Redfern to pilates about two or three blocks away,” Burgess says. “He took me on a route down the streets where he used to kick the ball around. I didn’t realise that was the streets where he grew up.
“It made me realise why he had so much passion.”
A STAR IS BORN
Wayne had a sense from the beginning that his brother was going to be something special.
“I remember him playing in the same side as me,” he says.
“I think I was six, he might have been four. Could have been even younger. I am pretty sure he played his first game with me.
“I think he scored a try with his very first touch of the ball. I think we were playing for St Peters and we played a game against some team out at Macquarie Fields.
“You know how you don’t pass the ball, I think he grabbed it and weaved in and out of about three or four blokes and scored.
“I am pretty sure that was his very first touch of the ball.”
He arrived on the radar of the Rabbitohs when he joined the Junior Bunnies program. Soon enough, he was playing SG Ball under legendary Souths halfback Craig Coleman.
In his second year under Coleman, Reynolds was made captain.
“He was just smart,” Coleman said.
“He was a couple of plays ahead of them at a very young age. The way he played — he ran when he had to run, he would go to the line and put guys through holes, he would throw a cut-out pass when he needed.
“He was just a smart kid … and his kicking game was unbelievable for a kid that age.”
His first grade debut arrived in the opening round of 2012, although it almost came earlier thanks to former teammate Issac Luke.
“We played against Cronulla one night,” Burgess says.
“It was a shitty night, bad weather. Issac Luke went to the wrong stadium. We were like where is Issac. We rang him and he said, ‘I am at ANZ Stadium mate’.
“We said, ‘we’re at Shark Park’. So anyway we dragged Adam off the field of the under 20s the game before and he was going to play for us.
“That was the first time I really recognised him. As it turned out, Issac made kick-off. Adam didn’t seem fazed. He was always really confident and he had a great year in his first year.”The Rabbitohs had a plan. When Chris Sandow was targeted by Parramatta, South Sydney didn’t put up a fight because they knew they had Reynolds in reserve.
The irony is that Reynolds is leaving Souths at the end of the season because the Rabbitohs have a succession plan in place. Once it was Reynolds nipping at Sandow’s heels. Now it is Blake Taaffe and Lachlan Ilias nipping at his.
“That is what the salary cap is there to do,” chair Nick Pappas says.
“It is always a choice between planning for the future and the here and now. It is always tempting to go for the here and now. But planning for the future is what allowed Adam to get on the big stage because we did that with him.”
DEAD-EYE REYNOLDS
Somewhere in storage, Burgess has the boots Reynolds wore the day he kicked three field goals to beat arch-rivals St George Illawarra in 2018.
“I used the tell Adam he is the most clutch kicker I played with,” Burgess says.
“There has been so many games he has won for us just with his kicking. He really loved that moment. He really does. I often say the one where he kicked the three field goals is crazy — I bought his boots from that night at an auction.
“They are in storage at the moment. Signed. Pretty cool. I got John Sutton’s 300th (game) boot as well. They mean a lot to me — Adam means a lot to me.
“All those moments are fantastic but I saw that every day in him. He works so hard on his kicking game.”
It’s the side of Reynolds the public doesn’t see. The bloke who devoted endless hours to his craft and has become one of the greatest kickers in the game’s history — earlier this year he became the highest pointscorer for Souths, surpassing the legendary Eric Simms.
“His kicking game is something I will always remember,” former teammate Greg Inglis says.
“I think what made him so good is that his willingness to work hard on his game, video on the opposition, and just whatever he needed to do for the team.”
His thirst for hard work started with his brother Wayne and never stopped. Even now, Reynolds is one of the last blokes off the training track.
“He has never kind of got the highlights reel that others have got, but he is as good a kicker as the game has ever seen in terms of open-field kicking and drop kicking,” Souths coach Wayne Bennett says. “He is the complete package. Some of his kicks in the three years I have been here have been remarkable.”
Former teammate John Sutton adds: “He always said he had a footy in his hand and I can believe that the way he plays and kicks the ball.
“When I was playing in the six (jersey) we did a lot of kicking. Every day off we would go and kick the ball with Kurt Wrigley.
“We used to play these little games where you get a certain amount of points if you kick it here or there. That’s when I knew his kicking game was amazing.
“He used to towel me up in those games.”
THE FAREWELL
Hearts will break in Redfern on Sunday night regardless of the result. Reynolds’ final game in a South Sydney jersey — he will join the Brisbane Broncos next season — ends a love story that began when a kid on Morehead Street started chasing a dream.
“Everyone in South Sydney is diehard — you bleed it,” Wayne Reynolds says.
“It was hard but once I talked to him about it — I knew probably a week before it was announced that he was going to join the Broncos — it was like a new challenge for him.
“It was like ‘OK, Souths don’t want me, the Broncos wanted me’ and he really said that to me. He said to me it feels really good to be wanted still.”
It seems hard to believe it is over.
“He is a great story, he really is,” former head of football Shane Richardson said.
“There is no downside to him. There has never been one day we have had a problem with him. There has never been an incident that happened and he was there.
“I have never had Adam Reynolds in a disciplinary problem once from the age of 17 onwards. He always made the point that he wanted to stay.
“He was just always a Souths guy. He was a strange character — here is a guy with tattoos from one end to the other but he is absolutely cleanskin. The old saying is you can’t judge a book by its cover. His cover is covered. He had tattoos before tattoos were cool.”
Among the tattoos of Bob Marley, Michael Jackson and Michael Jordan are tributes to his family. Wayne is there along with his parents Mark and Kim. So too partner Tallara and their four children — Nakylah, Aaliyah, Kobe and Zariyaa.
Their father has been an ornament to his club and a joy for his teammates. The sort of player every dressing room needs. Reliable on the field and annoying off it. No one is safe when Reynolds is around.
“I love Adam Reynolds, simple as that,” Oscar winner and Rabbitohs’ co-owner Russell Crowe says. “He’s on the shortlist of the greatest players South Sydney has ever produced.”
Sadly Wayne and rest of the family will be forced to watch the grand final from Sydney. Covid-19 has put paid to plans for them to attend the game.
It will be an emotional evening for the Reynolds clan as Adam attempts to put Penrith to the sword and depart Souths with another premiership ring.
“It was always a goal for one of us to grow up and play first grade, especially for Souths,” Wayne says.
“I am glad he got to do it over me doing it. I would rather him have all the success. I am super proud of him and what he has achieved in the game.
“Hopefully there is more this week and next year.”
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