For one night, the oldest rivalry in rugby league didn’t matter.

South Sydney and the Sydney Roosters put their history aside as Jai Arrow was honoured for his 100th game for the Rabbitohs, in front of a packed Allianz Stadium. Arrow, 31, announced his MND diagnosis in May and medically retired in June, two games short of the milestone he’d earned over five seasons at South Sydney.

Getting him there took more than a gesture. The Rabbitohs went to the NRL, the Rugby League Players’ Association and two rival clubs to get an extra interchange approved, so Arrow could take the field for the opening seconds of two more matches. Against his former club the Gold Coast Titans, then against the Roosters.

His 99th came the week before, back at the Titans on the coast. Walking out, he told Cody Walker he was nervous. Never been nervous before a game in his life.

Walker knew what the nerves do to him now. When Arrow gets anxious, he stiffens up. So Walker offered to hold him up if he needed it.

Arrow asked to be sledged instead. Just spray me, say whatever you think. So Walker walked out behind him giving it to him, and Arrow cracked up.

Walker’s take on it: “I think that’s what he needed in that moment. Just someone to create a bit of normality and let him know everything is alright.”

Six days later at Allianz he led the team out as captain in the number 23, the 67th Rabbitoh to reach 100 games for the club. More than 100 Souths old boys formed the guard of honour, including men he’d played the 2021 grand final alongside. Ron Coote rang the Legacy Bell. You’ll Never Walk Alone played. The Roosters players applauded him too.

He was on the field for a matter of seconds. When the referee blew time on, Walker replaced him.

He held it together through all of it until Wayne Bennett put his arms out, and then he didn’t. Bennett took his hand and led him over to his family, in tears alongside a lot of the crowd.

Connor Watson said afterwards that some things go beyond football. Forward Naufahu Whyte called it a privilege to be part of it.

South Sydney won 50-20, and earned a home elimination final in the process.

Jai, we want to honour you.

Last year you won the best and fairest, the Clubperson of the Year and the Souths Cares Award, and were up for the NRL’s Ken Stephen Medal for your community work.

That’s the bloke you were before any of this happened.

Thank you for showing that being scared or nervous before something big doesn’t mean you’ve gone soft. You told a mate, you asked him for exactly what you needed, and you let the tears roll in front of a packed stadium and got a standing ovation for it.

And you’re doing it with purpose. You’ve said you want to be as visible as you can, so other people with MND can see someone up and about living a fairly normal life, and so your daughter Ayla can see it too. Your words: you have a choice. To be around, and to be a good father to her and a good husband to Berina.

You’re a true role model, Jai.

💚

To Berina, we want to honour you because none of this happens without the person who has stood beside him through the hardest year of his life. By every account you’re his biggest supporter.

And to the Rabbitohs we want to honour you for putting the man ahead of the points, ahead of the game itself. You showed everyone what it looks like when a club and a community choose to back one of their own, and put him first instead of themselves.

MND doesn’t just land on the person diagnosed. It lands on the whole family.

MND Australia has information, support and connections to local services for anyone living with it, caring for someone, or trying to work out what comes next.

mndaustralia.org.au

1800 777 175

If this has stirred something up for you, Lifeline is on 13 11 14, any time.