News Articles

9 December 1999

South Sydney Rabbitohs lose injunction case
The World Today - Thursday, December 9, 1999 12:45
COMPERE: Well, it's now two months since the oldest rugby league club in Australia, the South Sydney Rabbitohs, were told that they no longer had a place in football unless they amalgamated, absorbed into another club. The blow was delivered by the National Rugby League, under direction from Rupert Murdoch's News Limited.
UNIDENTIFIED: Ladies and gentlemen, look, will you please keep calm here. I know this is going to be very emotional, but look, the NRL has - well, took us out of the competition for the year 2000.
UNIDENTIFIED: I mean, they will tear apart the fabric of society. What they will do to the South Sydney district is beyond comprehension.
UNIDENTIFIED: I'm really shattered. It's like losing a job, you've got this hollow feeling. I'm 50 years old, I've probably followed them for 45 years, and I'm just shattered.
UNIDENTIFIED: My father died three years ago, and that's what brings - that's what - that keeps me together with my father, and by killing Souths, it's like killing my father again. They don't understand.
UNIDENTIFIED: Well, it's been orchestrated for about five years. You know, we - you know, like we're like The Fugitive, they just couldn't catch us, so they finally did and unfortunately, you know, the inevitable happened. We knew it was going to be us they were going to shut out. Someone told them we were poor and we shouldn't be in the competition. Well, unfortunately, we think we should be.
UNIDENTIFIED: Well, we'll be back, we haven't finished yet, not by a long shot. COMPERE: Well, that emotion poured out on the streets on the following Saturday, 20,000 people marched through the streets of Sydney protesting about what the Murdoch Corporation and the National Rugby League had done to their club. They vowed to take the fight to the courts.
Well, they were in the courts this week. South Sydney was asking for an interim injunction to allow them to play for their 92nd season while the Full Case was argued before the High Court next year. That judgment has just been handed down in Sydney, and I'm afraid it's not good for South Sydney and the Rabbitohs. They've lost their interim injunction claim, and the fans aren't happy.
UNIDENTIFIED: What do you expect these people to do? [Inaudible]
UNIDENTIFIED: World War I, World War II [inaudible]
COMPERE: More emotion pouring out there at the Federal Court in Sydney just a short time ago.
Our reporter, Michael Vincent, is there at the court room. What was the decision, Michael?
MICHAEL VINCENT: John, the decision is to dismiss the interim injunction to stop the NRL from blocking the Rabbitohs from next year's competition. The Rabbitohs are out of the 2000 season, unless this judgment can be appealed, and the lawyers of the club are meeting now. Some very, very angry scenes here, John, as the News Limited and NRL people left the court room they were abused, many words I could not repeat here, and there is a lot of feeling amongst the fans, they're very, very distraught.
JOHN HIGHFIELD: How many Rabbitohs supporters were down at the court to hear that?
MICHAEL VINCENT: Well, there are several - I'd say at least 100 in the room and some spilling out of the room, the corridor outside. Lots of green and red jumpers and scarves, and there was quite intense feeling - I'm sorry, there's movement happening outside here. The crowd - the President - the Chairman of the Club, George Piggins, is coming out. There are tears in his eyes and he's trying to stabilise himself as he goes to read a statement.
During the case itself, during the hearing itself he was actually clasping a scarf, a Rabbitoh scarf, as one would clasp a Bible perhaps in church, and hoping that - hoping for the best.
COMPERE: Michael Vincent there at the Federal Court, telling us that the South Sydney Rugby League Club has lost its first legal battle in this one to play in next season's competition in its own right. An interim injunction was denied them this morning in the Federal Court in Sydney.

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