- South Sydney and Kangaroos star died on Wednesday night
- Won some of the game’s biggest honours in 13-year career
Footy fans and stars are mourning Souths legend Gary Stevens after the veteran of 189 games and two premierships died on Wednesday night after a long illness, aged 81.
The Sydneysider reached the pinnacle of the game in a first-grade career lasting from 1965 to 1978, winning the 1970 and 1971 grand finals with the Rabbitohs and going on to represent his country in 11 Test matches in the ’70s.
Renowned as one of the fittest players in the competition, the second-rower struggled to break into a star-studded Souths side that won four premierships from 1965 to ’71 but once he established himself, he became one of the club’s favourite sons.
A life member with the Bunnies, Stevens also played for NSW and the City side and came through the ranks as a Souths junior after growing up in Pagewood, near the heart of the club’s territory.
He left his beloved Bunnies after the 1976 and switched to Canterbury, where he clocked up a further 26 matches before his retirement in 1978.
Despite sharing the field with Rabbitohs legends like John Sattler, John O’Neill, Ron Coote and Bob McCarthy, Stevens won the club’s Achievement Ring as the side’s consistent player in the 1970 premiership season.

The death of Souths great Gary Stevens (pictured) has robbed the club of one of its best-loved stars after he played a big role in their 1970 and 1971 grand final wins

The Bunnies stalwart passed away on Wednesday night, aged 81
He toured with the Kangaroos in 1973, playing two Tests against Great Britain, and captained the Bunnies in 25 matches.
However, Stevens didn’t emerge unscathed after playing in an era when footy was known for being far more violent than the modern game.
He struggled badly to remember the 1970 and ’71 triumphs due to problems with blood clots in his brain, and believed his memory loss stemmed from a shocking incident in a match that saw him play for Australia against Great Britain.
‘When the scrum broke I was laying face-down in the mud. It’s come back to haunt me,’ he told the Sydney Morning Herald.
‘I’ve now got a cloud of blood in my brain so I can’t remember too many things.
‘I’ve got to keep taking these tablets every day of my life to thin my blood out. I’d rather have no leg than what I’ve got.
‘I go to functions and I can’t remember people, I can’t remember stories and things like that.
‘There’s no pain involved but my memory loss is terrible.’
Those issues led to Stevens giving up the building job that saw him live comfortably after his time as a player.

Pictured: A footy card showing Stevens carting it up against Souths’ mortal enemies, the Roosters, in the 1970s
While he remained a staunch Bunnies man, Stevens did have misgivings about his exit from the club, which was struggling badly financially at the time.
He said the team was so hard-up they wouldn’t buy the stars a drink after matches, so ‘I used to take the players after a game back to my place’ to celebrate.
‘I played virtually every game and got the best and fairest but they got rid of me. Canterbury treated me like a god,’ he said.
In 2014, just before Souths won their first grand final since 1971, he said he’d be in attendance, hoping for a win that would be ‘the greatest thing that’s ever happened’.
The Bunnies beat the Bulldogs 30-6 to take the title that year, giving new meaning to Stevens’ prediction that he would ‘get some enjoyment out of it [the match], whether I remember the game or not’.
This article was originally published by a www.dailymail.co.uk . Read the Original article here. .