They have trodden very similar rugby league paths so new Rabbitohs assistant coach Anthony Seibold is understandably excited to have linked back with former Raiders teammate Michael Maguire at Redfern in 2017.
Seibold is part of a new-look coaching team at the Rabbitohs this season with Kurt Wrigley and Wayne Collins both moving on and replaced by Seibold and another former Raider in David Furner.
A member of Kevin Walters' Queensland Origin coaching team in 2016, Seibold's most recent club appointment was with Manly-Warringah but he has embraced the opportunity to work with Maguire at the Rabbitohs.
Although they never played a first grade game together, Seibold and Maguire were both part of the Raiders' squad in 1998 – as was Furner – and then narrowly missed each other in working under Craig Bellamy at the Melbourne Storm.
"We played a few games together back in 1998 at the Canberra Raiders so I've known 'Madge' (Maguire) for a long time," Seibold told Rabbitohs TV.
"We've got similar backgrounds. We're both ex-school teachers, both came out of the Raiders' system as players and the Storm's system as coaches.
"It's been good to work with him again."
With the additions of Seibold, Furner and also new high performance manager Paul Devlin, Maguire said it has been important to focus on relationships within the club and emphasising the values that the club lives by.
"There's a big emphasis on building relationships from assistant coaches and strength and conditioning staff," Maguire said.
"I see that the players have really bought in to everything that we have been doing and so have the staff.
"They understand what we are trying to achieve every day and they've committed to all the little areas that we expect of each other."
It is not only among the coaching staff where there has been significant change at the Rabbitohs with a host of new faces pushing their cases for inclusion in the team for Round 1 in the first block of pre-season training.
While Robbie Farah is the most high-profile signing of South Sydney's summer the likes of Robbie Rochow, Luke Kelly, Robert Jennings and Anthony Cherrington all bring with them NRL experience and Maguire likes what he has seen thus far.
"I don't want to single one out but I think they've all bought in to the values and who we are as a club," Maguire said of the new faces.
"I see that there is going to be a great opportunity for a lot of those players as we move forward.
"The competition on the park has been great, they've competed extremely well and we've laid a platform leading into January.
"Obviously we've got some really good competition amongst the squad at the moment and you can see that in the way that they train.
"You're always looking to raise the standards in what we're doing and I believe the players are doing that every day.
"They've been very committed to what we've been doing and it's been quite enjoyable seeing their happy faces around the place."
