Three minutes of milestone magic, a hat-trick and 26 points from South Sydney star Latrell Mitchell led a demolition job on Canterbury, setting he and the Rabbitohs up for a mouth-watering clash with their old mentor Wayne Bennett.
Mitchell’s jersey presentation during the week made for emotional scenes involving his brother Shaquai and father Matt at Redfern ahead of his 150th NRL outing.
A pair of thrilling first-half tries for the Bunnies fan favourite was simply great Good Friday theatre, with Campbell Graham’s own treble in the final 12 minutes a fair encore.
The Rabbitohs’ rapid-fire assault blew a busted Bulldogs side away, ending in a 50-16 carve-up as Mitchell’s good mate Josh Addo-Carr joined the club’s bulging casualty ward.
Canterbury’s bright start to the contest went down the gurgler the moment Addo-Carr went down in awkward fashion, his ankle twisting badly on a chopped up Accor surface.
Fears of syndesmosis damage and a lengthy lay-off for Addo-Carr could well scupper his hopes of an Origin return.
Compounding Addo-Carr’s injury, rising rookie back-rower Jacob Preston was sin-binned for a hip-drop tackle that saw Izack Thompson helped off with an ankle injury of his own.
Latrell Mitchell celebrated his 150th NRL game in style on Friday.Credit: Getty
Mitchell, meanwhile, with his first try of the season, another just three minutes later and eventually seven goals from 10 attempts, might be just warming up.
The milestone man knocked over two wide shots at goal for good measure, his second four-pointer finishing off lovely lead-up work by first Graham and then Cody Walker, who found Mitchell with a round-the-corner offload.
When Jacob Host crashed over running a simple line out wide, a 6-all deadlock had blown out to a 20-point Bulldogs deficit in just nine minutes.
The flurry of Rabbitohs points were well and truly due given Jason Demetriou’s side was staring down a 2-4 start when Canterbury jagged an early runaway try to Jake Averillo.
Instead they’ll now travel to Suncorp Stadium to meet Bennett and the Dolphins next Friday night with a confidence-boosting win under the belt, and Mitchell revelling in the moment as he so often does.
Bennett, of course, went after Mitchell among the marquee stars he has met with in the past 18 months of building his Dolphins empire.
Mitchell never truly looked like leaving Redfern, and his lucrative four-year extension makes that look even less likely further down the line.
While Demetriou shares a remarkable bond with his fullback, it was Bennett who made him well and truly at home when Mitchell first arrived in 2019.
Mitchell’s unbridled joy when he scored his second against Canterbury was the most magnetic man in the game summed up in one moment.
The sight of him with arms outstretched, appealing for a monster 45-metre field goal – kicked after a scrap between Damien Cook and Reed Mahoney stopped play – was a fair snapshot as well.
Souths’ sluggish start to the second half gave Canterbury a sniff, even with a try to Matt Burton denied because of a Josh Reynolds obstruction.
Burton was on the board soon enough thanks to a Reed Mahoney grubber, the margin back to 26-12 with plenty of time to play.
Only half a boot sliding into touch from Thompson saw his remarkable gathering of a kick at full stretch, and a subsequent touchdown, pulled back.
When Preston was binned and Thompson rubbed out of the game, Walker struck, plunging over from an inside ball from Host.
Like Sydney buses backed up in Rabbitohs heartland, the tries came one after the other. Of course it was Mitchell on the end of a simple right-edge overlap for his third try of the afternoon.
Graham then bagged his own hat-trick to cap a fine performance on South Sydney’s left edge. But in the end, this was always Mitchell’s day.
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