Souths’ epic blunder reversed two teams’ fates. Now Reynolds’ ultimate revenge has arrived

If you want to look at the worst recruitment and retention decisions in the history of the NRL you would be hard pressed finding one worse than Souths’ monumental Reynolds blunder.

Rewind to 2021 and Souths had made three straight preliminary finals with Reynolds, who had already led them to a drought-breaking title in 2014.

Later that year he would lead them to a first grand final since 2014 before going down to the Panthers 14-12 in the decider.

But early in that season as Reynolds went to the club looking for an extension to his expiring deal, Souths made the cataclysmic mistake of only offering him a one-year contract.

The relationship between player and club was all but over from that moment. Reynolds not only saw it as a complete lack of respect, but he felt that he could play on well into his 30s. He’s since been proven right.

Souths’ argument was they had a policy not to offer veteran’s over 30 long-term deals because of expensive payouts to Sam Burgess and Greg Inglis, who suffered career ending injuries.

It was an nprecedented policy that backfired spectacularly when Reynolds decided to sign a three-year deal with the Broncos and leave his beloved Bunnies for good.