The South Sydney District Rugby League Football Club was formed at a meeting on 17 January 1908 at Redfern Town Hall[1] when administrator J. J. Giltinan, cricketer Victor Trumper and politician Henry Hoyle gathered together in front of a large crowd of supporters.

[2] The club played in the first round of the newly formed New South Wales Rugby League, defeating North Sydney 11–7 at Birchgrove Oval on 20 April 1908.

Players that were involved in these years included Denis Donoghue, Jack Rayner, Les "Chicka" Cowie, Johnny Graves, Ian Moir, Greg Hawick, Ernie Hammerton, Bernie Purcell and Clive Churchill.

Churchill, nicknamed "the Little Master" for his brilliant attacking fullback play, is universally regarded as one of the greatest ever Australian rugby league players.

In the late 1950s Souths began a run of poor form, failing to make the finals from 1958 to 1964, during this time receiving the 1962 wooden spoon.

[11] The nucleus of this side went on to feature in Australian representative teams for the next six years and ensured another golden period for South Sydney making five successive grand finals from 1967 to 1971, winning four.

Bob McCarthy, John O'Neill, Eric Simms, Ron Coote, Mike Cleary and John Sattler from 1965 were later joined by Elwyn Walters, Ray Branighan, Paul Sait, Gary Stevens and coach Clive Churchill to form a fearsome combination before internal strife and poaching by other clubs from 1972 onwards unravelled the star studded pack.

In 2000 and 2001, South Sydney fought its way back into the competition following a string of high-profile legal battles[18] against the National Rugby League and News Limited.

[21] After being readmitted, South Sydney were initially unsuccessful in the premiership, finishing amongst the bottom three teams for five seasons straight including three wooden spoons.

On 23 October 2014, Holmes à Court sold his 50% share of Blackcourt League Investments, and consequently his 37.5% stake in South Sydney, to James Packer's Consolidated Press Holdings.

With the game poised at 8–8 in the second half, Cody Walker threw a pass that was intercepted by Panthers winger Stephen Crichton who scored untouched.

Souths scored in the final five minutes of the match, but halfback Adam Reynolds missed the conversion from the sideline and a subsequent field-goal attempt, either of which would have seen the game tied.

[41] Prior to the 2022 season, Atlassian founder Mike Cannon-Brookes became a partial owner of the Rabbitohs by buying one third of the management firm alongside Crowe and Packer.

[45] The club mascot is the rabbitoh, a now-disused term that was commonly used in the early 20th century to describe hawkers who captured and skinned rabbits and then sold the meat at markets,[46] so named because they would shout "rabbit-oh!"

According to one version of events, dating from pre-schism days at the turn of the 20th century, some of the club's players earned some extra money on Saturday mornings as rabbit-oh men, staining their jerseys with rabbit blood in the process; when they played in those blood stained jumpers that afternoon, opponents from wealthier rugby clubs did not always appreciate the aroma and would mockingly repeat the "Rabbitoh!"

[47] Another version was that the term was a disparaging reference by opposing teams to South's home ground being plagued with "rabbit 'oles"; in those early days Redfern Oval was then known as Nathan's Cow Paddock.

The first British inhabitants had often called the waratah a "red fern" instead, hence giving the suburb its name, and ultimately the local rugby club its emblem.

In 2023, the Rabbitohs relocated its headquarters and first team training facilities from Redfern Oval to the Heffron Centre,[61] a $58M community sporting complex in Maroubra owned by Randwick City Council.

[66] "Group 14", a collection of club backers including businessmen, politicians, musicians and media personalities, was formed before the Rabbitohs' exclusion from the NRL in 1999.

The mascot first appeared in lifesize form in 1968 after celebrity fan Don Lane brought back a suit from the US in time for the 1968 grand final against Manly Warringah Sea Eagles, won by the Rabbitohs 13–9.

Standing just over four feet tall, the Rabbitohs lured the diminutive New Zealander from a touring production of Snow White and the Seven Dwarves, the same troupe that had yielded the second Reggie, Roscoe Bova, killed in a car accident in the early 1970s.

In 2004, Allan Caswell wrote an updated and modernised version, referencing the 15 teams in the NRL Telstra Premiership at the time, which was played at home games for several years before being replaced by the original.

The tune of the song differs by segment - the main part as still sung, according to John Sattler's version, is based on the melody of The Stars and Stripes Forever.

The Burrow also gather in their bay to sing their own version of Under the Southern Cross I Stand after Rabbitohs victories, adapted from the Australian national cricket team.

Previous choices for these have included Cochise, Kryptonite and Hail to the King, often interpolated with the "South Sydney" chant just prior to the entrance of the players.

[92] The rivalry increased further after 1950 due to conflict between junior territories and since the 1970s escalated once more as both clubs drew key players away from each other (Souths lost internationals Ron Coote, Elwyn Walters and Jim Morgan to Eastern Suburbs from its last era of premiership winning teams, whilst more recently Souths lured key forwards Bryan Fletcher, Peter Cusack and centre Shannon Hegarty away from the Roosters 2002 premiership winning side) and later Michael Crocker.

Other players to run out for both clubs include Ashley Harrison, Luke Keary, Angus Crichton, Daniel Suluka-Fifita and Latrell Mitchell.

In the 1969 NSWRFL season enmity was again fueled between the clubs with Balmain's controversial[note 4] victory against South Sydney in the grand final that year.

Manly have, since 1970, purchased many of Souths' star players including John O'Neill, Ray Branighan, Ian Roberts,[note 5] and more recently Dylan Walker.

[107] Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs – A more recent feud that primarily developed in the years 2014 and 2015, following the 2014 NRL Grand Final and a controversial Good Friday match.