The 2012 South Sydney Rabbitohs season was the 103rd in the club's history. They competed in the NRL's 2012 Telstra Premiersip under rookie coach Michael Maguire and finished the regular season 3rd (out of 16), Having made the finals for the 2nd since 1989, the Rabbitohs then came to within one game of the 2012 NRL Grand final but were knocked out of contention by eventual grand finalists the Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs.

Pre-season

The Rabbitohs played three pre-season games in 2012. The Rabbitohs were initially planned to play the Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks at the fourth annual Return to Redfern, then the Warrington Wolves in Coffs Harbour. However, due to a scheduling clash with Warrington's first season match, the games were rescheduled.
The changes meant the clash with Warrington would need to be in late January, and Redfern Oval played host to its first international match in the re-developed configuration. At the clash, in front of a sold-out crowd, the head coach, Michael Maguire announced the new captaincy arrangement, and presented the 2012 squad. On the field, Warrington held onto a late comeback by South Sydney to win 34 points to 28.
A fortnight later, at the conclusion of the annual 'Camp Rabbitoh' pre-season training camp in Coffs Harbour, the Rabbitohs played the 2011 Grand Finalists, the New Zealand Warriors, in which South Sydney were again beaten by 8 points.
In the final pre-season clash, the Rabbitohs took on the St. George Illawarra Dragons in the annual Charity Shield clash at ANZ Stadium. The match, in which South Sydney were defeated by 6 points, drew over 21,000 fans, and was again the only pre-season clash to be televised.

Date	Round	Opponent	Venue	Score	Attendance	Report
28 January	Return to Redfern	Warrington Wolves	ATP Performance Centre, Redfern	28–34	5,000	[3]
11 February	Coffs Harbour Trial	New Zealand Warriors	BCU International Stad., Coffs Harbour	14–22	5,376	[4]
18 February	Charity Shield	St. George Illawarra Dragons	ANZ Stadium, Sydney	12–18	21,398	[5]
Legend:   Win   13+ Win   Loss   13+ Loss   Draw

Regular season

While the Rabbitohs got off to a rocky start to 2012 under new coach Michael Maguire, losing 3 of their first 4 games. With the heir-apparent to the fullback position, Nathan Merritt, out for the first 7 rounds, and a struggling Dylan Farrell playing out of position, coach Maguire moved Greg Inglis to fullback in the 40–24 thrashing of Penrith, setting their season alight. From the next 17 games, South Sydney managed to lose only 4, and all bar one were closely fought losses, won in the dying minutes of the game.

In Round 19, South Sydney fought out one of the wins of the season, pipping the Sydney Roosters with 2 back-to-back tries within the last 3 minutes of the game, a feat which the Roosters had pulled in Round 1 over South Sydney. The team experienced a minor hiccup losing back-to-back games in Round 23/24 for only the second time all year. South Sydney bounced back however, with an inspiring victory over the Parramatta Eels in which Greg Inglis posted one of the best individual performances of all time, as measured by Sportsdata's CVR Ratings.^[1] The Rabbitohs then wrapped up their first Top 4 spot since 1989 with a win over Newcastle.

Date	Round	Opponent	Venue	Score	Attendance	Report
Mon 5 Mar	1	Sydney Roosters	ANZ Stadium, Sydney	20–24	18,278	[6]
Sun 11 Mar	2	Melbourne Storm	AAMI Park, Melbourne	10–24	15,872	[7]
Sun 18 Mar	3	Penrith Panthers	Centrebet Stadium, Penrith	40–24	13,876	[8]
Fri 23 Mar	4	Brisbane Broncos	nib Stadium, Perth	12–20	15,599	[9]
Sun 1 Apr	5	Wests Tigers	Allianz Stadium, Sydney	17–16	25,604	[10]
Fri 6 Apr	6	Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs	ANZ Stadium, Sydney	20–10	35,221	[11]
Sun 15 Apr	7	New Zealand Warriors	Mt. Smart Stadium, New Zealand	22–44	15,378	[12]
		Representative Weekend
Sat 28 Apr	8	North Queensland Cowboys	ANZ Stadium, Sydney	20–16	12,213	[13]
Mon 7 May	9	Cronulla Sharks	ANZ Stadium, Sydney	34–28	12,201	[14]
	10	BYE
Sun 20 May	11	St. George Illawarra Dragons	WIN Jubilee Oval, Sydney	19–18	14,894	[15]
Fri 25 May	12	Canberra Raiders	ANZ Stadium, Sydney	36–18	10,054	[16]
Sat 2 Jun	13	Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs	ANZ Stadium, Sydney	18–23	19,439	[17]
	14	BYE
Sat 16 Jun	15	Parramatta Eels	ANZ Stadium, Sydney	24–6	14,212	[18]
Fri 22 Jun	16	Brisbane Broncos	Suncorp Stadium, Brisbane	12–26	33,602	[19]
Sun 1 Jul	17	Penrith Panthers	ANZ Stadium, Sydney	38–12	13,096	[20]
Sun 8 Jul	18	Newcastle Knights	ANZ Stadium, Sydney	34–14	16,104	[21]
Mon 16 Jul	19	Sydney Roosters	Allianz Stadium, Sydney	24–22	19,906	[22]
Sat 21 Jul	20	St. George Illawarra Dragons	ANZ Stadium, Sydney	36–14	21,071	[23]
Sun 29 Jul	21	Wests Tigers	ANZ Stadium, Sydney	32–6	29,863	[24]
Sun 5 Aug	22	Gold Coast Titans	Skilled Park, Gold Coast	22–18	20,187	[25]
Fri 10 Aug	23	Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles	Bluetongue Stadium, Central Coast	6–23	17,947	[26]
Sat 18 Aug	24	Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks	Toyota Stadium, Sydney	7–20	16,423	[27]
Sun 26 Aug	25	Parramatta Eels	ANZ Stadium, Sydney	36–6	24,121	[28]
Fri 31 Aug	26	Newcastle Knights	Hunter Stadium, Newcastle	18–6	24,127	[29]
Legend:   Win   13+ Win   Loss   13+ Loss   Draw   Bye

Finals Series

After finishing the season proper in third place, the Rabbitohs travelled to Melbourne to take on the second placed Storm. Souths put in an uncharacteristically poor performance, with Melbourne rolling Souths 24–6, with the only Rabbitohs try going to forward Eddy Pettybourne, for his first try of the year.
Despite the loss, South Sydney proceeded through to an Elimination final against the Canberra Raiders at ANZ Stadium. Against a home crowd, Souths turned in a dominant performance, piling on 38 points; tries going to Adam Reynolds, Sam Burgess, Dylan Farrell, and a double to Andrew Everingham. Additionally, a rare penalty try was awarded to Greg Inglis, after Canberra's Blake Ferguson tackled Inglis without the ball as he was about to receive an offload from forward Luke Burgess. During the game, halfback and Rookie of the Year Adam Reynolds kicked 7/8 goals to become only the second South Sydney player to score more than 200 points in a season.
Souths then moved on to a Grand Final Qualifier against the Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs, played in front of a bumper crowd of more than 70,000. The Rabbitohs scored their only try through Issac Luke, however after halfback Adam Reynolds left the field with a hamstring injury, the momentum of the game swung and the Bulldogs surged ahead to end the Rabbitohs season.

Date	Round	Opponent	Venue	Score	Attendance	Report
Sat 8 Sep	Qualifying Final	Melbourne Storm	AAMI Park, Melbourne	6–24	19,750	[30]
Sat 15 Sep	Semi-final	Canberra Raiders	ANZ Stadium, Sydney	38–16	35,874	[31]
Sat 22 Sep	Preliminary Final	Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs	ANZ Stadium, Sydney	8–32	70,354	[32]
Legend:   Win   13+ Win   Loss   13+ Loss   Draw   Bye

Ladder

2012 NRL season v t e
Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	B	PF	PA	PD	Pts
1	Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs	24	18	0	6	2	568	369	+199	40
2	Melbourne Storm (P)	24	17	0	7	2	579	361	+218	38
3	South Sydney Rabbitohs	24	16	0	8	2	559	438	+121	36
4	Manly Warringah Sea Eagles	24	16	0	8	2	497	403	+94	36
5	North Queensland Cowboys	24	15	0	9	2	597	445	+152	34
6	Canberra Raiders	24	13	0	11	2	545	536	+9	30
7	Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks	24	12	1	11	2	445	441	+4	29
8	Brisbane Broncos	24	12	0	12	2	481	447	+34	28
9	St. George Illawarra Dragons	24	11	0	13	2	405	438	-33	26
10	Wests Tigers	24	11	0	13	2	506	551	-45	26
11	Gold Coast Titans	24	10	0	14	2	449	477	-28	24
12	Newcastle Knights	24	10	0	14	2	448	488	-40	24
13	Sydney Roosters	24	8	1	15	2	462	626	-164	21
14	New Zealand Warriors	24	8	0	16	2	497	609	-112	20
15	Penrith Panthers	24	8	0	16	2	409	575	-166	20
16	Parramatta Eels	24	6	0	18	2	431	674	-243	16

Statistics

Transfers

Gains

Player	Gained From
Matt King	Warrington Wolves[2]
Justin Hunt	Redcliffe Dolphins[3]
Ryan Carr	Redcliffe Dolphins[3]
Andrew Everingham	Western Suburbs Magpies
Michael Maguire (Coach)	Wigan Warriors[4]

Losses

Player	Lost To
Chris Sandow	Parramatta Eels[5]
Shannan McPherson	Salford City Reds[2]
Luke Stuart	Retired
Rhys Wesser	Retired[6]
John Lang (Coach)	Retired
Ben Ross	Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks
Beau Falloon	Gold Coast Titans

Current squad

The following list comprises players who are in the Rabbitohs full-time first-grade squad for the 2012 season in the NRL Telstra Premiership.

Player statistics

Representative honours