Jai Arrow plays 100th game for Rabbitohs amid MND battle
Arrow walked out as captain for South Sydney's final round against the Roosters, with over 40,000 fans singing as his motor neurone disease advances.
Jai Arrow played his 100th game for South Sydney on Friday night, walking rather than running out as captain in the final round of the 2026 season, his motor neurone disease now visibly advancing.
More than 40,000 fans at Allianz Stadium stood and sang Stand By Me as Arrow led his teammates out, flanked by a corridor of club legends and former teammates flown in for the occasion. The NRL changed its interchange rules to let him take part. You'll Never Walk Alone followed, the song that has become tied to his battle with the disease.
Arrow played every one of the Rabbitohs' 25 matches last season, carrying a squad stripped by injuries through much of the year. This was meant to be the traditional Rabbitohs-Roosters grudge match, 118 years of rivalry condensed into 80 minutes. Instead it was staged as a Rabbitohs home fixture at the Roosters' own ground, the first instalment of a shared tenancy at Allianz Stadium that begins in 2027.
Arrow has spoken about what drives him now that he can no longer play or speak as he once did.
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His words point to a man measuring his fight in different terms than before: not games or tackles, but time with his family and the example he sets for his daughter.
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