And the other 99 back the Rabbitohs. How are the Doggies expected to compete with the great Australian underdog saga that IS South Sydney? Sure, the Bulldogs, founded in 1934 with their last title in 2004, have their own fairytales. Prop James Graham, an English bulldog if ever there was one, was banned for 12 weeks for biting Billy Slater's ear in Canterbury's last grand final appearance in 2012. He always maintained his innocence. Now the best forward in the game gets his chance to atone. And last year the Bulldogs' Raelene Castle took on the job of restoring family values and discipline to a club which had lost its way in both. She is the first female chief executive to lead a club to the grand final.

But Souths? This is a team killed by Rupert Murdoch – a man as willing to change his nationality for personal business ambition as to destroy a foundation club of rugby league. No amount of rewriting history by his tabloid newspapers can erase the fact that News Ltd tried to destroy the heart of rugby league in the late 1990s. Whenever you see a Murdoch newspaper claim "we're for Souths", remember the treachery and call it hypocrisy. Souths. A team brought back from the dead by an old school forward named Georgie Piggins, the hooker in the last Rabbitohs outfit to play in – and win – a grand final. In 1971 he packed down in probably the greatest forward pack of all time – Sattler, O'Neill, McCarthy, Stevens and Coote. All were Souths juniors except O'Neill, born in Griffith but raised in Gunnedah*, and Sattler, a Kurri Kurri lad immortalised through his 1970 grand final bravery playing with a broken jaw courtesy of Manly hard-man John Bucknell. Souths won in 1971 under the guidance of perhaps the greatest player of all time, the Little Master Clive Churchill, up against a St George outfit coached by the greatest coach of all time, Jack Gibson. That victory made it 20 premierships for Souths – the greatest in the league. Souths. A team who lost their spiritual home at Redfern Oval in 1996.

Souths. Who were the only club not included in any form – including a merger or relocation – in News Ltd's original Super League plans; who were ejected under Murdoch's dirty deal with the Australian Rugby League to grab control of the game; and whose death was officially announced on October 30, 1999 – a day grown men and women cried. Souths. The club which refused to die and which Australians refused to let die. People power was unleashed on a scale never seen before or since in Australian sport. Led by Piggins and colleagues, Souths supporters yelled and screamed and marched in protest at the injustice. More than 80,000 diehards turned up at Sydney Town Hall in November 1999. The people had spoken and in March 2002 the Rabbitohs returned. Souths. A team who survive today thanks to those fighters and the likes of Russell Crowe and Peter Holmes a Court, who stepped in when all seemed lost again in 2005. Souths. Who have tried valiantly but fallen short twice in the past two years but whose time has surely come. Such is the weight of history on the Souths team of 2014 on the verge of the greatest comeback in Australian sport.

Surely the current holders of that title remain the South Melbourne Bloods – or Swans, as some knew them in 1970s, when the then Victorian Football League club had amassed so much debt and dysfunction that they, like Souths, faced extinction. It was 72 years between the Bloods' title in 1933 and the Swans' comeback premiership in 2005. They followed up in 2012 but fell short against a rampaging Hawthorn this year. History shows you cannot kill club spirit in teams such as the Swans and the Rabbitohs. Loading For all you Swans fans; for all you football tragics; for all you Australians who value tradition and bravery, undiminished hope and the underdog spirit: We are all Rabbitohs this week.

* Correction: An earlier version said prop John O'Neill was a Souths junior.