Rugby league mourns South Sydney premiership star Kyle Turner after death at 31

Rugby league is in mourning for player Kyle Turner, a 31-year-old South Sydney premiership winner, who passed away on Friday.

Turner was a key player off the bench for the Rabbitohs’ illustrious 2014 NRL premiership squad, which ended the club’s 43-year title drought and helped them win their 21st premiership. The team defeated the Bulldogs in the grand final.

Between 2011 and 2019, Turner participated in 130 grade games with the South Sydney club, 91 of which were in first grade. Additionally, he made two appearances for the Indigenous All Stars in 2015 and 2017 and one appearance for Country Origin in 2017.

A proud Kamilaroi man, Turner’s rise in the rugby league ranks was fast and full of fairytales. Souths recruitment manager Mark Hughes first spotted he and his parents decked out head-to-toe in Rabbitohs gear at a NSW Combined High Schools carnival.

The powerful youngster, already a New South Wales Indigenous Under-16s star, was signed to the Rabbitohs from the Coonabarabran Unicorns in 2011 and made an immediate impact, winning the club’s under-20s Player of the Year award.

First grade quickly followed. Debuting in round three as Rabbitohs first grade player 1100, Turner scored six tries in 25 games in a successful season that culminated with the NRL premiership, plus the World Club Challenge and Auckland Nines titles.

Turner’s debut year at the top was also controversial. The 22-year-old rookie had suffered six concussions in just the past 12 months, only to back up and take the field for the grand final, an unthinkable stat today given the concussion protocols and Head Injury Assessment guidelines implemented so rigorously in the modern game.

Turner suffered another serious injury in 2015 playing for the Indigenous All Stars against the NRL All Stars, fracturing his neck in a Paul Gallen tackle. A long period of rehabilitation followed in which many doubted that Turner would ever play again.

But after being sidelined for the first 20 rounds of the 2015 season, Turner made an inspirational return in round 21 only to be concussed in another heavy tackle and taken off the field for the remainder of the game. His courage resonated with the Souths community and in 2016 he won the fan-voted Burrow Player of the Year.

Although Turner was slowly pushed into the lower divisions in subsequent seasons, the fans never forgot him. His sole first-grade game in 2018 was to come off the bench and inspire a 26-14 victory over the Rabbitohs’ arch rivals the Sydney Roosters.

In 2019, under new coach Wayne Bennett, Turner returned to the first grade team and made 16 appearances for Souths during the regular season as the club finished third on the table. He was released at season’s end due to salary cap constraints.

Remembering Turner fondly as “a gentle giant with an infectious smile and a crowd favourite”, the Rabbitohs CEO, Blake Solly, said Turner would be greatly missed by everyone connected with the South Sydney club and wider rugby league community.

“Kyle was an amazing human being,” Solly said. “He epitomised the country boy – a tough, uncompromising player on the field, yet a lovely, generous man off the field.

“Over his nine years with our club he contributed a lot of time to [Rabbitohs charity arm] Souths Cares and was very popular amongst his teammates, colleagues, our members and supporters alike.

“We offer our full support to his family and friends at this very difficult time, and he will always be remembered at our club as a man that delivered a premiership to the Rabbitohs, but also a man that connected deeply with his communities.

“We will hold him close to our hearts for the rest of this season and in the years to come. Vale Kyle Turner.”

Turner retired from rugby league in 2020 and returned to his home town, becoming a much-loved physical education teacher at the local high school he himself had attended. In 2021 he made a surprise comeback with the Coonabarabran Unicorns, inspiring a fresh generation of local kids and Indigenous league stars.

Turner played his final game for the Unicorns last month. “Kyle has a massive legacy in the football community,” their club president said on Saturday. “A lot of juniors admired him, looked up to him, wanted to be like him. He was such a role model for, not only them, but also us at the club and all of our players.”

The Rabbitohs will pay tribute to Turner by wearing black armbands in Sunday’s game against the Newcastle Knights. Turner’s No 15 jersey will be retired and honoured on the interchange bench during the match.