Jai Arrow walked out as captain of the South Sydney Rabbitohs against the Sydney Roosters for his 100th game with the club, months after motor neurone disease forced him to retire. He did not play on. The NRL gave the club special dispensation to list him as an additional man in the final two rounds, which carried him past the century.
More than 40,000 people at Allianz Stadium stood and sang Stand By Me as he came out. Former teammates and club legends had been flown in to line his route to the centre of the field. Arrow can no longer run, and he can no longer speak.
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How the night unfolded
Arrow led the team on to the field, and You’ll Never Walk Alone followed Stand By Me around the ground. He waved to the crowd and was embraced by his teammates before he was substituted off. Coach Wayne Bennett opened his arms to him, and Arrow, in tears, then held his wife, Berina Colakovic.
The Rabbitohs then beat the Roosters 50-20 in their last match of the regular season, which secured a home elimination final. Latrell Mitchell returned to lead the side, according to the Guardian.
Captain Cameron Murray spoke afterwards about the reception. He put the crowd at 42,000 and said Arrow could “feel all the love”.
What happened in May
Arrow announced his retirement on 2026-05-20, aged 30, after a diagnosis of motor neurone disease. At the press conference he could not get the words out, so the club read his statement for him. The Guardian reports he sat weeping beside Bennett while chief executive Blake Solly spoke.
He had played 178 NRL games across 10 years, for the Brisbane Broncos, the Gold Coast Titans, and the Rabbitohs, plus 12 State of Origin matches for Queensland. He made his debut for Brisbane in 2016 and joined South Sydney in 2021. At the time of his retirement he had 98 appearances for the club.
The Guardian calls his 2025 season a campaign of courage. He played all 25 of the Rabbitohs’ matches while most of the club’s senior players sat injured, and he won the club’s best and fairest award. He also took the Souths Cares award for his charity work, which included serving soup from Vinnies food vans.
What the disease does
MND attacks the nerves in the brain and spinal cord that carry signals to the muscles. Those muscles weaken and stiffen over time, and walking, talking, eating, and breathing all tend to suffer. Scientists do not know what causes it, though the BBC reports a mix of inherited traits and lifestyle factors is the likely answer.
Rugby has seen this before. Carl Webb, another former Queensland player, died of MND in 2023 at 42. Rob Burrow, the former England half-back, died in 2024, five years after his diagnosis. Lewis Moody, who won a World Cup with England’s rugby union side, was diagnosed in September 2025.
How the game has answered
The response has spread well beyond one club. During what the Guardian calls Jai July, athletes around the world mimed firing an arrow in his honour. In August the Rabbitohs stripped every crest, colour, and sponsor from their jersey and played in white shirts bearing one word: Arrow.
Arrow spoke to Triple M before the game. He said he knew his daughter would not see him play again, and that his job now was to be there for her and for his wife. He refused, he said, to feel sorry for himself.
Bennett put the club’s side in a sentence. Arrow needed them, the coach said, but they needed him too.
Teammate Sean Keppie had promised, after Arrow retired, that everything the team did for the rest of the year would be for him. With a home final to come, that promise still has games left to run.
