As we all know, Souths haven't won a premiership in 40 years. Sure, they won 20 premierships, but that was before a lot of us were even born. Based on the 2006 census data on
www.abs.gov.au, only 44% of the Australian population were aged over 40...
So, to bring things into perspective a little, I have discounted the prior years, giving more weight to more recent premierships. The discount rate I have used is 2.5%, a reasonable estimate of inflation. A 2010 premiership for St George Illawarra is worth 1, while a 2009 premiership stripped from Melbourne is worth 1/1.025 = 0.98, and a 1971 premiership for Souths is worth 1/1.025^39 = 0.38, and so on and so on.
So St George's 15 premierships are now worth 4.60, falling lower every year since they aren't in the running to win any more.
Brisbane's much more recent 6 premierships comes out second being worth 4.45.
Souths 20 premierships are only worth 3.96 today. Will it ever get the chance to increase?
The total list is:
St George (15): 4.60
Brisbane (6): 4.45
Bulldogs (8): 4.03
Souths (20): 3.96
Manly (7): 3.90
Roosters (12): 2.90
Parramatta (4): 2.06
Canberra (3): 1.88
Balmain (11): 1.78
Newcastle (2): 1.53
Penrith (2): 1.47
St George Illawarra (1): 1.00
Wests Tigers (1): 0.88
Melbourne (1): 0.76
Wests (4): 0.75
Newtown (3): 0.43
Norths (2): 0.22
I guess this shows that Souths may have a proud history, but it is so long ago that it struggles to have any relevance to people today.
Another thing to consider is that Souths won their premierships when there was only 8-12 teams in the comp. Brisbane won their premierships when there were usually around 16 teams in the comp. I might try to quantify the impact of that later...
