Bathurst's Josh Stapley backing South Sydney Rabbitohs to win NRL grand final

Mr Stapley, who has been supporting the Rabbitohs for as long as he remembers, was dressed up in his best myrtle and cardinal on Friday night, as South Sydney downed Manly Sea Eagles 36-16 in the preliminary final.

He admitted this Sunday's match won't be as easy against the Penrith Panthers but he reckons the Rabbitohs can win, in what would be South Sydney's 22nd premiership.

"They're going to take some confidence in knowing that it was only a couple of weeks ago they beat Penrith," he said.

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"The really good thing for us is that Penrith had a really physical game against Melbourne on the weekend. They'll probably carry a bit more fatigue into the game than us.

"We started to coast against Manly in the last five minutes, by taking Adam Reynolds off and you could see us switch off and let Manly run in a couple of tries.

"Penrith are just class. They've beaten us by big margins this year and we have a six-game rookie at fullback, so it'll be tough.

"It's going to be an exciting game, which is going to be good for a grand final."

Mr Stapley recalled his experience of the 2014 grand final, saying it was an "amazing" day.

"The atmosphere post-game was the most incredible thing," he said.

"I was in the Souths supporters area and after the game, when all the players came over and we met them all, the whole Burrow was singing and chanting.

"The police actually had to come and tell us to move out because it was time to close the stadium. That's how long we had been sitting in there singing. It was just amazing."

Sunday's grand final between Souths and Penrith will be played at Lang Park in Brisbane, the first decider in a united competition to be played outside of Sydney.

Sydney was unable to host because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Kick-off is expected at 7.30pm.

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