SMH

A DECADE ago, a 12-year-old boy sat in the grandstands and watched his famous club win a one-point game on a nostalgic return to the SCG, with a surprise field goal from an outside back being the difference.

Two days ago, another outside back gave the Rabbitohs another one-point win with an astonishing field goal - and the player who allowed them to level the scores used to be that 12-year-old boy.

"I used to play football with South Eastern, and the coach used to take us to all the Souths games," Beau Champion, now 22, recalled yesterday, of a 25-24 win over St George Illawarra, with centre Jason Nicol kicking a field goal. "We knew it was going to be their last season. So we went to every single game that year except for the games over in New Zealand."

It was their last season, for a period, as the Rabbitohs were excluded from the competition at the end of it, not to return until 2002. Champion refused to support another NRL team.

"I always thought they were going to get back into the competition," he said. "It was a tough time as a Souths junior, when you dream of playing for Souths, and your dream's gone. When they were reinstated, it was something real special, and the dream was alive again."

For that reason, and others, Champion kissed the heritage crest on his Souths jumper on Sunday, after the try that allowed Nathan Merritt to miraculously steal a win over the Wests Tigers.

"The club means a lot to me," Champion said. "I love the club, and it's given me a lot of things that I wouldn't have in my life if I didn't play for the club.

"They've shown me a lot of loyalty over the years. It's loyalty on both parts."