Footy mourns giant of the game John Sattler as the South Sydney icon dies aged 80 – after becoming a legend for playing a grand final with a broken jaw
- Sattler won four premierships with Souths
- Famous for heroics in the 1970s grand final
- Son Scott revealed dad’s dementia battle
The death of iconic Rabbitohs star John Sattler has thrown rugby league fans into mourning after the legendary hard man died aged 80 on Monday.
A hard-as-nails prop, Sattler racked up 197 games and four premierships for South Sydney from 1963 to 1972 and will be forever known for his incredible heroics in the 1970 decider against Manly.
The enforcer from the NSW town of Kurri Kurri helped lead the Bunnies to a famous win despite having his jaw badly broken by a punch from Sea Eagles forward John Bucknall about 10 minutes into the game.
Sattler managed to hide the injury from the opposition and most of his teammates until halftime, when he refused to have it treated and warned his fellow Rabbits to keep passing him the ball despite the fact he was in agony.
Sattler (second from right, pictured at fellow footy legend Tommy Raudonikis’ funeral in April 2021) will go down as one of the hardest men to ever take the field in rugby league
Known as ‘Satts’, he recalled the toll the sickening punch took on him in 2014.
‘I have never felt pain like this in my life. It renders me impotent. Whatever just happened, my knees cannot withstand it. They buckle. Instinct takes hold. I think I feel blood coming from my mouth,’ he wrote for the Daily Telegraph.
Sattler explained that his jaw was broken in three places and he had to ask teammate Mike Cleary to hold him up so the opposition wouldn’t know how much trouble he was in, leaving the winger horrified when he realised the extent of the injury.
At one point his jaw collapsed as he gasped for air shortly before Manly’s Fred Jones punched him in the face while Bucknall tackled him.
Souths ran out 23-12 winners and backed up for another title the next year, with Sattler captaining the side to their last grand final victory until they took out the club’s 21st premiership in 2014.
In 2021 Sattler’s son Scott – who came up with a magic moment of his own in Penrith’s 2003 grand final win – revealed that his father was suffering with dementia after having a stroke years prior.
‘I get really emotional about it, I’ve never seen my father beaten in anything in life,’ he said.
‘But I watch him and hear him deteriorating every week, every month, dementia just beats him, it just breaks him.’
The Souths stalwart played four games each for NSW and Queensland, as well as four Tests for the Kangaroos during his incredible career – captaining his country on three occasions.
More to come…
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