Souths desperate for injured Clark to wear jersey again

Not that they need extra motivation, South Sydney are desperate to win on Saturday night against the Roosters at Allianz Stadium to give injured club stalwart Jason Clark a grand final farewell.

Clark was ruled out of the preliminary final blockbuster on Friday morning after suffering an ankle injury at training on Tuesday. 

He will be hoping his teammates will get the job done so he's able to put on the cardinal and myrtle jersey for one last occasion before jetting off to England in November, where he will continue his career in the Super League with the Warrington Wolves.

"He rolled his ankle at training yesterday and it's blown up overnight. Talking to Jason and the physio this morning, he's not going to be right so Junior Tatola will come in for him - that will be our only change to the 17," Rabbitohs coach Anthony Seibold said.

"We've got to get the job done so he can wear the jersey one more time.

"I've been to a couple of different clubs now as a player and as a coach in different capacities and he's certainly on the podium as the best club person I've been involved with.

"He's a terrific person, a terrific father with three beautiful daughters a lovely wife. He represents everything about a local South Sydney junior aspiring to play for his local club - going on to win a premiership and playing over 150 games, I just think he's a terrific role model for our community."

Another subplot to the clash is that rival skippers Greg Inglis and Boyd Cordner are the two main contenders to replace Cameron Smith for the Kangaroos captaincy.

Siebold said after Inglis returned from his Maroons campaign he had noticed a change in his leadership which has played an integral part in getting the team just one win away from the premiership decider.

"I just saw him come back with so much confidence in his leadership skills off the back of that experience that Kevvie [Walters] gave him there," Seibold said.

"He's got a presence about him and the guys feed off the back of that. When you've got Greg in your changeroom before the game it gives people confidence, there's no doubt about that."

The Bunnies will be relying on halfback Adam Reynolds to have another show-stopping performance on Saturday night after gathering all their points and kicked the match-winning field in their 13-12 win over the Dragons last Saturday night at ANZ Stadium.

Seibold said he was confident Reynolds would deliver again if needed, but Inglis, Dane Gagai, Cody Walker or Damien Cook have been practising to give their one-pointers if their first option is cornered by the defence.

"We have plenty of guys who can do the job there so we have great confidence but obviously Reyno is one of the best in the competition so we're quite fortunate there," Seibold said.

The Roosters come out on top with an 18-14 win over the Bunnies in their most-recent encounter in round 22 at ANZ Stadium.

"Our guys are really excited but also they're really focus on what our job is - we go in with great confidence," Seibold said.

"We've got a really good read on them but we need to go out there and try and action that tomorrow night. Their back three have been outstanding this year - [Daniel] Tupou, [Blake] Ferguson and [James] Tedesco.

"All three of them are in the top 10 for metres made this year in the competition - Tedesco is averaging over 200 metres, Ferguson over 200 metres per game."