Top 5 Rabbitohs Of The 2000s

There is no denying the Rabbitohs are a Club with a great history full of great players. The team at Rabbitohs.com.au have put our heads together to look back and name, in our opinion, the Top 5 Players of each decade from the 1950s to the 2000s.

Here are our Top 5 Players of the 2000s - Let us know what you think on Twitter or Facebook!

Please note: Current NRL players have been excluded

5. Scott Geddes

One-club man Geddes signed with the Rabbitohs in the 2002 season, the same year Souths were re-instated into the NRL. By 2012 Geddes was one of the longest playing current members of the Club. Although rattled with injury during his 11 year playing career, Geddes continued on with his footy, playing through the 2012 season with a ruptured right bicep after sustaining the injury in a pre-season trial against the Warriors.

4. Luke Stuart

Also part of the 2002 team marking the Rabbitohs re-entry into the competition. After winning the George Piggins Medal in 2008 he then went on to play for City in the City vs Country match making him the oldest NRL player to make their representative debut at 32 years and 73 days. A consistent performer for the side, Stuart stepped up into the captaincy role for injured teammate Roy Asotasi for the last few games of 2009.

3. Michael Crocker

Renowned for his toughness, Crocker player 13 NRL seasons, finishing off his NRL career with Souths in 2013. After being Co-Captain during 2011-12, Crocker captained the side solo in his last season, before a niggling knee injured forced him into retirement.

2. Roy Asotasi

Asotasi was an integral member of the Rabbitohs playing squad and Club both as a Captain and a damaging front row forward since arriving at Redfern in 2007.

Asotasi brought with him a wealth of experience as a leader, a seasoned campaigner and a Premiership winner, helping to create an exciting culture at the Rabbitohs built on his own unique brand of hard work, coupled with an unrivalled level of professionalism. This showed when he was awarded the George Piggins Medal in his first season.

An international front rower for New Zealand and Samoa, Asotasi became the first Rabbitohs player to captain two different Test playing nations.

1. Nathan Merritt

Merritt, who made his first grade debut with South Sydney against the Auckland Warriors at Ericsson Stadium in 2002, went on to play 237 NRL games over 13 seasons, including 218 first grade games for South Sydney, making him the second-most capped Rabbitohs player of all time behind John Sutton.

Merritt, the Rabbitohs’ George Piggins Medallist in 2011 as the Club’s best and fairest player, holds the Club record for tries scored in first grade, crossing for 146 tries for South Sydney, having scored on debut back in 2002. Merritt has also kicked 34 goals and one famous field goal at the Sydney Cricket Ground against the Wests Tigers for a club total of 653 points.