As is often the case when somebody important makes a monumental decision and nobody knows why, the Australian rugby league clique has spent the past 24 hours filling the void with their own theories about why Payne Haas would do such a thing.

Here’s another one: his dad, Gregor, is a mad Souths fan and the club might well have been on his mind for a decade.

It was 10 years ago that a 16-year-old Haas sat in a Redfern cafe with Sam Burgess and Michael Maguire, having flown with his father from the Gold Coast to meet the Rabbitohs – one of the dozen or so NRL clubs chasing a young talent destined for a big future.

Burgess, of famed facial fractures and the Clive Churchill Medal glory in the club’s drought-breaking 2014 grand final triumph, had the teenage school boy in front of him so awe-struck that, when the English forward offered to watch his GIO Cup final with Keebra Sports High in Penrith that week, Haas was just about ready to sign on the dotted line.

Except that Burgess didn’t show.

“Before the game I was looking around for him,” Haas told NRL.com in 2019. “But he didn’t come. I was a kid. It hurt me a bit. I used to love Souths. My dad’s a mad Souths fan. And Sam Burgess was someone I grew up idolising. It’s funny how things impact you when you’re young.

Sam Burgess with Russell Crowe after South Sydney won the 2014 grand final.Credit: NRL Photos

“I was pretty........

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