The South Sydney Rabbitohs have announced the signings of five young stars.
Canberra native Zane Bijorac and Leon Te Hau, hailing from Logan have signed fulltime contracts for the 2022 season.
Additionally, the Rabbitohs have also signed Ben Lovett, Tyrone Munro and Jaxson Rahme who will progress and go through the Rabbitohs' development program.
Outside back Zane Bijorac has gone through South Sydney's black rabbits elite player development program which has assisted him in earning a top 30 contract for 2022.
Over the last few years, Bijorac has been involved with the Rabbitohs' Jersey Flegg side and NSW Cup side as well, while training with the Senior NRL squad over the 2021 preseason. A powerful runner and strong defender the Queanbeyan native has also represented Serbia U19s in the European U19 Rugby League Championships in 2018.
Te Hau another outside back, was scouted through the Rabbitohs’ South-East Queensland Elite Player Development Satellite program in 2021.
The 18-year-old has signed with the Rabbitohs until 2024 starting on a development contract and progressing towards a top 30 contract for the final two years. Earlier this year, Te Hau was named as a fullback for the Queensland U18 side and is a chance of making the Australian schoolboys team.
19-year-old Ben Lovett has re-signed for a further two seasons after already spending two years in the Rabbitohs' club pathways program. Lovett will continue to develop through the club's black Rabbits elite player development program for 2022 and then will progress onto a full-time development contract for 2023.
The youngest out of all the signings, 16-year-old Tyrone Munro is a talent who has represented the Rabbitohs in the Harold Matthews competition, where he was awarded the player of the competition in 2021.
A Souths junior hailing from the Botany Rams, Munro has earned selection in numerous representative sides such as NSW Combined High Schools in 2021 despite having one year of schooling left. Munro will continue his career with the Rabbitohs until at least 2024.
17-year-old Jaxson Rahme hailing from Ryde will be in the red and green for the next two seasons. This year, Rahme was awarded with the most valuable player award for the NSW Combined Catholic Colleges. He joins the Rabbitohs after playing the majority of his Juniors with the Tigers.
South Sydney head of football Mark Ellison is excited with what the future holds and is eager to see the signings progress over the next few seasons.
“We’re really excited to have secured the services of Zane, Leon, Ben, Tyrone and Jaxson. They are all considered elite players in their age groups and, with hard work, they will get the opportunity to progress their growth as footballers and as young men in our programs and systems,” Ellison said.
“Zane, Ben and Tyrone have all benefitted from coming through our Black Rabbits program here in Sydney, as did Leon through the South-East Queensland program.
These programs are managed, as is our whole pathways program, by our Head of Elite Pathways and Player Development, Joe O’Callaghan, and these programs are developing some fantastic young players in both our men’s and women’s squads.
“We’re also looking forward to having Jaxson join our ranks after a stellar National Schoolboys tournament. Again, with hard work, they will all have the chance to put their best foot forward at South Sydney.
“These five emerging players join a strong group of young men at our club such as Blake Taaffe, Peter Mamouzelos, Davvy Moale, Lachlan Ilias, Josiah Karapani, Tallis Duncan and Thomas Fletcher as young players to have committed to us long term and we’ve seen the opportunities that have been earned by Blake, Pete and Davvy in the NRL this year already.
“We look forward to seeing their progress over the coming seasons.”
