Family legacy to live on as final Burgess says goodbye

Tom Burgess always had a sense he'd join the South Sydney Rabbitohs one day. 

His late father Mark encouraged his sons to play in Australia if they ever had the chance and when Sam signed with the Rabbitohs in 2009, Tom knew he was destined to follow. 

It was "written in the stars" as Burgess said this week. 

What he didn't know was how much of his life he'd give to the club and how much the family would receive in return.

Fifteen years after Sam first joined South Sydney, the Burgess era will come to a close when Tom play his final game in the Rabbitohs clash with the Roosters at Accor Stadium on Friday night. 

"It's the end of an era but I'm happy to sign off on behalf of the Burgesses," he said. "This year's been a bit of a crazy year but you don't always get the finish you want in football. 

"I'll take this one. To be able to take the field one last time against the Roosters, I'm happy with where I finish."

The Burgess dynasty officially began when Rabbitohs owner Russell Crowe convinced Sam to sign with the club in September 2009. 

George arrived in 2011, with Luke following a few months later. 

Tom was the last to take the leap of faith and move to the other side of the world. Their mother Julie joined them soon after as the family established themselves in Sydney. 

While the Burgesses quickly settled in, Tom wasn't sure how long he'd last in Australia after signing a one-year minimum wage deal with the Rabbitohs. 

It didn't take him long to earn his stripes and Michael Maguire, who was South Sydney coach at the time, quickly realised the hulking prop was destined for a long and successful career. 

"It's a big transition playing the game over there to here," Maguire told NRL.com. "The one thing Tom had was work ethic. His ability to train the way he did and his desire to make it presented from the day I met him. 

"He was going to do everything possible to make sure he gave himself a chance to be successful, which all of them were. It's a family that worked hard trying to be their best and that's what they did."

After Tom made his NRL debut in Round 15, attention quickly turned to when all four brothers would feature in the same team together.

It took until Round 25, but the family achieved the feat in a 32-18 victory over the Wests Tigers at the old Sydney Football Stadium.

It was a historic moment for the sport, the first time four siblings had played together in a first-grade game since the Norman brothers in 1910. 

Maguire ensured the brothers were all on the field at the same time late in the contest, with the siblings taking four consecutive carries in a set of six. 

Alongside the premiership victory in 2014, it remains the biggest moment of Burgess's career.

"For us it was like a dream," Burgess said. "It happened in the first year, the coaching staff were really good, they knew how much it meant to us but it wasn’t just going to be given to us.

"We knew we had to work hard so when it happened it was unreal. We had a big week that week. In the game Sam got sin binned but we ended up getting the win.

"I don’t know if we played more than 10 times together with injuries and everything like that. Looking back, those years were great years and something that you only appreciate when you have to look back on it."

The family played a key role in another piece of rugby league history 14 months later when South Sydney won their first title since 1971, snapping a 43-year drought in dramatic fashion.

Sam's performance will live on in rugby league folklore, the forward playing 80 minutes with a fractured cheekbone suffered in the opening tackle of the match. 

He wasn't the only Burgess to contribute, however, with George scoring the match-turning try when he charged through the defensive line in the 55th minute and Tom charging for 193 metres in a dominant performance. 

For Maguire, it was the public result of all the work the group had put in away from the spotlight. 

"They played a massive part right through the drive to get to the premiership," Maguire said.

"Sam was the more dominant one but the brothers just fed off each other. That fed into the team and the team did that as well."

While the family has enjoyed plenty of success through the years, it hasn't all been smooth sailing. 

Sam battled a number of personal demons during his career while Luke and George struggled with injuries that limited their impact on the field. 

The last two years have not gone to plan for Tom, South Sydney missing the finals in both 2023 and 2024. 

Despite the challenging results, Burgess has ensured the side has learnt plenty of lessons from this season so they are set up for success when Wayne Bennett returns next year.