2026 Charity Shield: St George-Illawarra v South Sydney
Saturday 14 February
Win Stadium, Wollongong
South Sydney defeated St George-Illawarra 28-24 in the 43rd edition of the annual Charity Shield on Saturday night in Wollongong.
The Hansen family was particularly interested to see Jonah Glover’s form in his South Sydney debut match. The young halfback jumped over to The Burrow from the Dragons during the off season on a two-year contract.
Jonah attended Good News Lutheran School, Middle Park (Brisbane). He was in my younger daughter Eliza’s year level. Eliza’s comment about Jonah at school was: ‘he was always organising huge games of tiggy around the school at lunch time!’
My wife Heidi taught Jonah for a year during his early schooling.
I remember Jonah’s Dad Liam, who was involved in a local church, being one half of the ‘Espresso Brothers’ coffee cartel at Good News School events, providing coffee for the community. Great people, the Glovers!
When Jonah broke his jaw in the third minute of play, after a collision with the St George-Illawarra giant back rower Luciano Leilua’s shoulder, there were gasps in lounge rooms in the Barossa Valley, and in Brisbane.
The Dragons opened the scoring before Souths hit back through a try to the impressive youngster Talonoa Penitani. The Dragons regained the lead before Matt Dufty, back in Australia from the UK Super League on a NSW Cup contract, scored an opportunist try off a ricochet kick and regather off his former teammates, to make the score 12-all at half time.
This was a surprising scoreline, given South Sydney went into the game without 12 of their NRL list, including the captain Cam Murray, Brandon ‘The Cheese’ Smith, Jai Arrow, the Dragons’ 2027 recruit Keon Koloamatangi, Payne Haas’ good friend David Fifita, Campbell Graham, Jye Gray, as well as Cody and Latrell.
Wayne Bennett left the coaching of the team to assistant Ben Honrby, himself a premiership winner with the Red and Whites in 2010. The super coach appeared to be relaxed as he watched the game in the stands with Fifita, Latrell, Mark Ellison and others.
Jack Wighton and Tallis Duncan were in New Zealand preparing for the All-Stars game.
The Dragons had a NRL standard side on the field, including Clint Gutherson, Damien Cook, Jayden Su’a and the coach’s son, Kyle Flanagan.
After half-time, South Sydney seized on several St George-Illawarra errors to score three more tries, including a four pointer to another Latrell – as in Latrell Siegwalt, who certainly impressed on the night.
The energy of the youngsters was very apparent, both in attack and defence. There were impressive contributions from several rookies, including Ataata, Fletcher, Ward and the magnificently named Nazareth Taua.
Former Melbourne Storm player Bronson Garlick, son of South Sydney great Sean Garlick, proudly accepted the Charity Shield in front of the hardy group of the Rabbitohs’ faithful who had made the trip south for the fixture.
South Sydney move on to play Manly-Warringah at Gosford in the second week of the 2026 pre-season challenge.
Full time: South Sydney 28 defeated St George-Illawarra 24
South Sydney team list: Matt Dufty, Bayleigh Bentley-Hape, Talanoa Penitani, Latrell Siegwalt, Jordi Mazzone, Ashton Ward, Jonah Glover, Salesi Ataata, Peter Mamouzelos, Lachlan Hubner, Thomas Fletcher, Max McCarthy, Bronson Garlick (c)
Interchange: Jamie Humphreys, Junior Tatola, Sean Keppie, Liam Le Blanc, Matthew Humphries, John Radel, Tim Johannssen, Elijah Keung, Jay Kirk, Nazareth Taua, William Afualo, Oliver Lawry, Tayson Fakaosi
South Sydney’s points: tries: Penitani 19’, Dufty 35’, Siegwalt 43’, Bentley-Hape 45’, Mazzone 67’, goals: Bentley-Hape (3), Humphries (1)
Half time: 12-all
Referee: Gerard Sutton
Crowd: 7,100
Highlights:
2026 Witzer Pre-season Challenge | Dragons v Rabbitohs | Match Highlights | Week 2
South Sydney weekend results (all Round 2):
U17 Lisa Fiaola Cup Penrith 20 d South Sydney 18
U19 Tasha Gale Cup Penrith 26 d South Sydney 12
U16 Harrold Matthews Cup South Sydney 28 d Warriors 16
U19 SG Ball Cup South Sydney 36 d Warriors 12
BAROSSA RED WINE OF THE WEEK
2023 Torbreck Woodcutter’s Shiraz
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Russel Hansen
Has worked in schools for over thirty years – as a teacher, coach, coach educator, sports coordinator and in pastoral care roles. Whilst at Brisbane Boys’ College as Director of Athletics, he led teams to six GPS premierships in track and field, and cross country.
He has coached (athletics) at all levels from school to international. His squad at the University of Queensland (to January 2023) included Lachlan Kennedy OLY, Paris 4x100m relay runner, Australian record holder.
He is married to Heidi, a Primary school principal, and is father to two adult daughters.
Twitter: @Russel_Hansen
Based on the few highlights (lowlights) that I saw of the game, it looks like a verrrrrrrrrrrryyyyyyyyyyy long & painful season for the once mighty Dragons and their supporters.
The Bunnies, on the other hand, if they can get the 12 who didn’t play onto the field with any consistency, should breathe some fire during 2026.
Karl:
South Sydney – there was certainly much energy from the youngsters – the team to Manly in the second game of the “pre season challenge” looks completely different – Latrell (BLM to Ian Hauser!) ’11 games a season’ Mitchell really sums it up – the simple facts of the matter are: Souths finished 14th in 2025, regardless of the injury toll, 2025 was appalling, and 2024 was not much different – I still see this as Wayne Bennett’s biggest coaching challenge. There are ‘big names’ on Souths’ list – but simply, they are not on the field often enough.
St George-Illawarra: not much to add – I truly wonder about the Coach & son dynamic?
Bottom line: the Charity Shield … it’s “only a trial” in the current NRL context
Take care
RITV