Airdate: South Side Story

Russell Crowe’s football team South Sydney will feature in the new ABC observational series South Side Story.

It premieres at 8pm on Tuesday August 7.

In the series, Crowe and his business partner millionaire Peter Holmes a Court seek to lift the fortunes of The Rabbitohs.

Investing $3m in the club saw the two given four seats on the club’s board of eight.

Cameras follow the club “from the change rooms to the boardroom, from the terraces to the bar, on the training track and the playing field.”

Press Release:

The dream is straight out of Hollywood – the gladiatorial movie star and the hugely successful businessman – together they restore the faith to the legions of long-suffering fans and take their beloved team – The Rabbitohs – on to Grand Final Glory – but can the dream become reality?

Together Hollywood superstar Russell Crowe, and multi-millionaire Peter Holmes à Court, have dared to dream they can take a club that personifies the Australian battling spirit – South Sydney Football Club – the Rabbitohs – and restore it to its former glory. Having invested three million dollars the new co-owners of the bunnies have staked both their money and reputations. Russell and Peter have become the driving force of the “new South Sydney” but only the final siren will determine whether their dream was courageous, vanity or simply misguided faith.

South Side Story – produced by Beyond Productions for ABC TV – is a six-part observational documentary series that closely follows the intimate goings-on behind a famous rugby league club as it prepares to re-invent itself leading into its centenary year. From the change rooms to the boardroom, from the terraces to the bar, on the training track and the playing field, South Side Story is an in-depth look at two bold men’s attempt to transform a historical and cultural phenomenon into a superclub fit for the 21st century.

In the past 99 years Souths has made 33 grand final appearances, 20 of them victorious – no other club comes close. But their last success was in 1971 and with three wooden spoons in the past four years, every time the players take to the field they are fighting for survival.

The club itself faced extinction in 2000 when Souths was deregistered and any divisions within the club were swamped by the need to fight for reinstalment. But those divisions returned with a vengeance, when on March 11th 2006, an extraordinary meeting of one of Australia’s most famous sports clubs was held to decide its future…