LEIGH SALES, PRESENTER: Sunday's Grand Final marks the return of one of rugby league's great teams. The once-mighty South Sydney Rabbitohs have emerged from a 43-year losing streak that even saw them booted out of the competition. Their survival is testament to the tenacity and loyalty of Rabbitohs supporters, as Adam Harvey reports.

COMMENTATOR (archive footage, 1967): And pandemonium on the hill. About 3.5 minutes to go. South Sydney two points in front.

ADAM HARVEY, REPORTER: From its gritty urban burrow, the South Sydney Rabbitohs bread rugby league's most passionate fans.

BOB MCCARTHY, FORMER SOUTH SYDNEY CHAMPION: I grew up in Redfern, so it was a tribal thing back then. Semi-tribal now, but back in those days, I mean, I'd come home from selling papers on a Saturday afternoon and if Souths didn't win, well, the old man wasn't talking, my mum weren't talking to him and a bottle of hot sauce was running down the wall in the kitchen, you know, so. Next day, you'd go to someone's house and get them to go out and play and that and then you'd see they'd have the same thing. Their kitchen wall would have tomato sauce running down it or hot sauce and you'd think, "Hello, Souths got beat again."

IAN HEADS, RUGBY LEAGUE AUTHOR: Great armies of supporters streaming across the Moore Park area to the matches at the Sydney Cricket Ground if Souths were in because they were such an attraction. But the represented the common man, I guess, Souths, the working class.

ADAM HARVEY: The heart of The Burrow is Redfern, where Souths have always had a big Indigenous following.

MICK MUNDINE, INDIGENOUS LEADER: Oh, for sure, mate. I think I wouldn't be a bit surprised - look, I think majority of the Aboriginal people in NSW go for the Rabbits or that's their second team. So, I think the Rabbits are really in the heart of Aboriginal people.

ADAM HARVEY: The last time Souths won a premiership, Bob McCarthy scored the winning try.

BOB MCCARTHY: We just went out there to score tries and just hoped we could score enough to shut them down.

ADAM HARVEY: That was 43 years ago. Rabbitohs fans haven't had much to cheer about since.

MICK MUNDINE: I think when - in that Super League come and they tried to kick them out. That was devastating. Man, I think it just tore every Rabbitohs supporter heart out.

ADAM HARVEY: In the late 1990s, big business, notably Rupert Murdoch's News Limited, fought for control of the lucrative sport.

IAN HEADS: The theory was that there were too many teams in Sydney, Sydney-based suburban teams, and Souths had struggled in the recent years. They were a victim, became a victim of that, axed from the premiership amidst great emotion and, you know, a unbelievable time in the game then.

RABBITOHS SUPPORTER: Don't kick any teams out of the NRL. We all have a right to be here.

RABBITOHS SUPPORTER II: (Highly emotional) It's my life! That's what I live for, the Rabbit! I live for the Rabbit! Now I haven't got it!

RABBITOHS SUPPORTER III: It's been my life, alright? I love the Rabbitohs.

BOB MCCARTHY: I still to this day just think it's a dream. How can you kick a side out of the comp' that had the most fans, won the most premierships?

NATALIE SAVILLE, RABBITOHS FAN: I think I was in disbelief. I think the, you know, "Unfair, how could they?" You know, I've been a Souths supporter since I was born, fourth generation. My dad played reserve grade. I couldn't even imagine - everyone's going, "Oh, pick another team." I can't pick another team. You know, red and green blood.

ADAM HARVEY: The tenacious Rabbitohs fought back.

ANDREW DENTON, COMEDIAN: South Sydney has so much to offer this game. So much to offer this game. We are so far from dead.

ADAM HARVEY: Led by former player and coach George Piggins, they were reinstated to the league.

COMMENTATOR: South Sydney, the winners of 20 premierships, are officially back.

ADAM HARVEY: But their troubles weren't over.

BOB MCCARTHY: When you've got no money, you can't buy players and I just watched George walking round the ground trying to sell pork chops to buy a player, to get a raffle going

NEWSREADER: The 66-nil win is the New Zealand team's biggest-ever victory and represents the worst defeat in the Rabbitohs' long history.

RABBITOHS SUPPORTER IV: I think they were drinking too much. Anyway, they've woke up to their self.

ADAM HARVEY: In 2006, the struggling working class club found an unlikely saviour.

RUSSELL CROWE, ACTOR: Vote yes. Let's get in bed together. I hope you respect me in the morning

MARK 'SPUD' CARROLL, FORMER SOUTHS PLAYER: When they got kicked out and banished, that was horrible, but I think these days with Russell Crowe backing these guys and there's plenty of money in there, now South Sydney are getting stronger and stronger.

ADAM HARVEY: The Rabbitohs have at last found their groove.

COMMENTATOR: South Sydney are through to the Grand Final. 43 years they've waited.

ADAM HARVEY: Finally, for the Rabbitohs long-suffering fans, redemption.

BOB MCCARTHY: It's taken six or seven years, but now we're back where we belong.

NATALIE SAVILLE: We can be definitely quite biased and one-eyed sometimes, but I think that's just the pain we've gone through. They do say that we're the pride of the league and we have a lot of pride. And we've seen heartache, we've seen being kicked out of the comp', we've seen getting beat by 66-nil. We've seen a lot. But that just builds and builds and I think you saw the emotion there on Friday night when we made - when we finally made our first Grand Final.

MICK MUNDINE: We might have waited and waited 43 years for the Rabbits to be in a Grand Final, and this it, man, we there.

LEIGH SALES: Adam Harvey reporting.