This Sunday, Souths will face the Wynnum Manly Seagulls in the annual Mitch Cronin Memorial Cup. Mitch was a young player who spent time at both clubs and tragically lost his life in 2020.
Mitch made his Hostplus Cup debut with Souths in the 2011 season before moving to Canberra to play NYC for the Raiders. Once 22, he played again in 2014 as part of the then NRL Affiliation between the Magpies and Raiders. He left a lasting impact on the club, proving his worth to the Black & White with a total of 31 games and 19 tries, amassing 76 points.
Hostplus Cup Assistant Coach Andrew Edwards played alongside Mitch in both 2011 and 2014 at Souths and regards this game as the most significant for him.
"This weekend's game against Wynnum is for our club and for myself especially, our favourite and most important regular season game of the year," he said.
For Edwards, commemorating Mitch with the current Hostplus Cup team and sharing personal memories of Mitch's qualities is a special honour.
"To be apart of such a special tribute to a much-loved and respected former teammate means a lot. I will certainly be addressing the players to speak of Mitch's qualities as a player and a person, and how we can display those same qualities to honour his legacy on Sunday," he said.
In a heartfelt tribute to Mitch, both teams will retire the number 9 jersey for the game, as the Magpies strive to win the Cup for the fourth consecutive year.
Hostplus Cup Head Coach Karmichael Hunt is feeling confident in his team's improvement this week before heading into the weekend's clash.
Hunt has expressed "The boys are looking forward to building on their performance from the weekend. Although we got the two points, there's plenty of room for improvement on both sides of the ball. We have the privilege of playing for the Mitch Cronin Cup once again, and having won it the last few years the boys are hungry to keep it in our possession."
As anticipation builds with the game just a few days away, we are eager to see how the team build on last weeks performance.
Stream all the action from Sunday's game live on Kayo, 9Now and QPlus TV.