Well, was he? It’s the 1.5 million dollar question on many fans lips.

The drama that surrounded Sam Burgess’ re-entry into the NRL ranks at South Sydney was well covered back in November 2015 when the worst kept secret in Rugby League came to the fore.

The Clive Churchill Medal winner was returning to Redfern after what had to be deemed an unsuccessful year in Rugby Union.

But at this late stage in the recruitment process for a Rugby League club how would they possibly fit a player of his ilk in under the Salary Cap?

Fast forward a few months and the answers would unravel themselves in the shape of Tim Grant(Wests Tigers), Dylan Walker(Manly), Chris McQueen(Titans) and many other squad members seemingly as a direct result of ‘Surgess’ returning.

South Sydney have had a tumultuous year on and off the field with bungled contracts, players being released early or contracts terminated, recreational drug test failures and extremely under-par performances on the field.

All this without mentioning the Aaron Gray and Dylan Walker overdose saga in pre-season. The pressure is not only starting to mount, it’s close to boiling point on the back of house operations.

Now whilst it would be a big stretch to blame Sam Burgess for all of these examples, you could forgive some fans for wondering how much the shake-up of the squad due to his signing is responsible.

Burgess’ feats on the field this year have been to a fairly high standard throughout however it’s clear that this South Sydney side is a very different one to the one he left, in both personnel and culture.

In some good news for the club, they have finally at the second or third time of asking, secured the signature of Cody Walker, but they reportedly had to find over $300,000 to get it.

One has to wonder though how this will effect what is essentially becoming the clichéd “rebuilding” phase for the Bunnies.

At the time of writing there are still 12 of the 17 2014 Premiership winning squad on the roster, but as we know Rugby League doesn’t stand still for very long and this year, Souths are being left behind.

A big question to be answered by seasons end is, will it be Michael Maguire to lead this rebuild, or will that task be handed to another?