The rebuild that helped Souths rival Storm and Roosters as top club

One of the first things Wayne Bennett asked when he took charge of South Sydney last year was why the Rabbitohs bothered to pick 17 players each week.

"You don't use them," Bennett told Souths officials.

The previous season, under Anthony Seibold, the Rabbitohs often had interchange players who didn't see any action, including in all three 2018 finals matches.

Hymel Hunt remained on the bench in all three play-off fixtures, while Dean Britt was also not used in the preliminary final and Jason Clark received just 20 minutes of game time in his farewell appearance for the club.

Prop Tevita Tatola played just six minutes against Sydney Roosters, while Britt received 12 minutes in that match and 10 minutes against St George Illawarra the following week.

"What used to happen was that the coaches would pick 17 players but if they had two players they thought weren't quite good enough they didn't use them," former Rabbitohs GM of football Shane Richardson said.

"Wayne's philosophy since he arrived at the club has been to play those four players no matter what and spread it around to make them feel part of the team – not just give them five or 10 minutes.

"That's why guys like Liam Knight, Mark Nichols, Bayley Sironen and Corey Allan are all playing with such great confidence because Wayne has shown the confidence in them off the bench."

After just one finals appearance in the 35 seasons before 2012, the Rabbitohs have now confirmed their standing as one of the NRL's power clubs by qualifying for their sixth preliminary final in nine years against Penrith on Saturday night at ANZ Stadium.

Only the Storm have made more preliminary finals appearances and besides back-to-back premiers the Sydney Roosters, who have also achieved the feat six times, the next best performing clubs since 2012 – the Cowboys and Raiders – are well behind.

Impressively, the Rabbitohs have overcome the loss of Origin representatives Latrell Mitchell, James Roberts and Ethan Lowe through injury, while the club's past three captains – John Sutton, Greg Inglis and Sam Burgess – retired last season.

Next season the club will be bolstered by the signing of Queensland Origin forward Jai Arrow from the Titans, while Mitchell managed just 14 appearances in his first year at Redfern.

"I don't think the club has got the recognition it deserves," Richardson said. "You have got to win grand finals but there are a lot of clubs out there who I am sure would like to have played in six of the last nine preliminary finals.

"I am proud that we have done that but more importantly we have done it while making a profit every year."

However, it hasn't been all smooth sailing since Michael Maguire oversaw the end of a 43-year premiership drought in 2014, with salary cap pressure forcing the club to re-build, Seibold quitting in 2018 and the unexpected losses of Greg Inglis and Sam Burgess.

Only Adam Reynolds, Tom Burgess and Alex Johnston remain from the 2014 grand final-winning team, with Souths since losing the likes of Luke Keary, Nathan Brown, Angus Crichton, Adam Doueihi, while Inglis, Sam Burgess and Sutton retired.

After missing the finals in 2016, the Rabbitohs focused on recruiting young talent like centre Braidon Burns and winger Robert Jennings, as well as developing players through their under-20s and NSW Cup teams.

"We had salary cap problems so we had to start buying in good young players who weren't expensive, like Braidon Burns and Robert Jennings, and later on Corey Allan," Richardson said.