South Sydney have flashed their credentials as one of the best teams in the NRL once again with a decisive 28-12 win over Melbourne to wrap up day two of Magic Round at Lang Park.
It came after Penrith and the Dolphins both nabbed wins earlier on Saturday, but the Rabbitohs were the most impressive performers.
Coming off wins over the Panthers and top-ranked Broncos in the past two weeks, Souths came up against the Storm as the headline act at Lang Park.
It was never a contest as Latrell Mitchell, Cody Walker and Alex Johnston punished the sloppy Storm at every turn.
The first try was a testament to the class of the Mitchell-Walker combination, with time seemingly standing still as Mitchell stood at dummy half a metre from the tryline, before he poked a grubber behind the line for Walker to sneak through and touch down in the sixth minute.
Back rower Jacob Host, off a Walker short ball, trampled Storm halfback Jahrome Hughes to score in the 19th.
The Storm hit back shortly before half-time when a rare Walker error, fumbling a high ball under the posts, allowed Melbourne centre Reimis Smith to swoop and get his first try since round one last year.
But the second half was all cardinal and myrtle.
Johnston got on the end of a deft Mitchell grubber to start the scoring in the second half of his 200th NRL game and had his second of the night when the Rabbitohs went through the hands to the left winger five minutes later.
Walker's kicking laid on another try for centre Isaiah Tass before the Storm made it to double digits with four minutes left in the game.
But even that try had a Redfern tinge to it, with the dummy-half sneak coming from Bronson Garlick, son of former Rabbitohs forward Sean Garlick.
There was time for one last piece of magic from Johnston, who soared through the air for a two-handed take above his head to pluck a Cameron Munster cross-field kick out of the air and prevent Will Warbrick from adding another consolation try out wide.
But he fumbled a golden opportunity for his hat-trick two minutes later when he could not handle Walker's short pass under pressure on the left.
South move to second, between the Broncos and Panthers.
Rugby convert stars on debut in Dolphins' big win
The Dolphins' exciting start to their NRL journey has continued with a dynamite Magic Round outing against Cronulla punctuated by a double for hulking debutant Valynce Te Whare.
The Dolphins jumped out to a 30-0 lead in the first 32 minutes of the game against the Sharks, before Craig Fitzgibbon's side reeled them in someone, but not enough to make it a real contest.
The Dolphins eventually won 36-16, with rugby convert Te Whare the star attraction with tries either side of half-time.
Five straight tries to start the game was not quite enough to put a smile on the face of Dolphins coach Wayne Bennett in game number 900, but Te Whare's efforts may well have.
After Isaiya Katoa and Hamiso Tabuai-Fidow crossed to start the game, the hulking centre got a ball out wide and, from a standing start beat Ronaldo Mulitalo with strength and footwork before running through two more Sharks on his way to the tryline.
Connelly Lemuelu and Tesi Niu added four-pointers to take the side to an outlandish 30-0 scoreline in just over half an hour.
Te Whare tired and struggled a bit in defence against opposite number Sifa Talakai, who laid on tries for Mulitalo and fullback Will Kennedy before the break to make things more respectable.
The second half was a 6-6 affair, with Te Whare capitalising on an Anthony Milford line break to cross in the corner for his second in the 52nd minute.
Teig Wilton scored the Sharks' third of the night 15 minutes from full-time, but the night belonged to Te Whare and the Dolphins.
The 22-year-old's family flew over from New Zealand for his first NRL game, and he shared a haka with Kiwi teammates and his support crew in the stands after the match.
Panthers pushed all the way by the Warriors in hard-hitting clash
Fullback Dylan Edwards has inspired Penrith to a hard-fought 18-6 win over the Warriors that brings the reigning premiers' concerning two-game losing streak to a halt at Magic Round.
The Panthers came into round ten following their first back-to-back defeats outside of the State of Origin period since 2019, but resembled themselves more closely on Saturday than in their shock loss to Wests Tigers last week.
Penrith cleaned the errors out of their game, did a better job suffocating their rivals in defence and won the territory battle thanks to Nathan Cleary's kicking game but were still some way from the clinical best of their premiership seasons.
They were constantly rebuffed by a resilient Warriors outfit that drew first blood and were never out of the fight, despite the physicality and passion of the contest twice reducing them to 12 men.
Jackson Ford can expect scrutiny from the match review committee for a hip-drop tackle on Spencer Leniu that forced the back-rower to sit down, and rookie Demitric Sifakula could join him on the charge sheet after running into a fracas to strike Cleary.
Little separated the sides across the 80 minutes but hard-working fullback Edwards helped the Panthers build a 12-6 lead at the half.
He pulled off a try-saving tackle on Dallin Watene-Zelezniak, before stepping through the line and shrugging off two defenders to score at the other end.
Warriors winger Edward Kosi picked up a knee injury as he made a bone-crunching tackle on Stephen Crichton and Edwards picked him out. He forced a drop-out by sending a grubber kick Kosi's way, and in the next set, bamboozled him with quick hands to put Brian To'o over.
Edwards was his reliable self under the high ball and finished with 232 run metres.
Warriors captain Tohu Harris made his presence felt on return from a knee injury, sending Addin Fonua-Blake over with a flat ball that helped the Warriors open the scoring.
Kosi eventually left the field after a high shot from Crichton in the 30th minute and did not return despite passing his head injury assessment, forcing Marcelo Montoya onto the left wing and Marata Niukore to centre.
Another injury concern meant Ford stayed off after his sin-binning, while Watene-Zelezniak also spent time on the sidelines for a HIA.
But with Harris marshalling the middle and Shaun Johnson cleaning his kicking game up in the second half, the wounded Warriors made sure the Panthers were never comfortable.
Tempers threatened to boil over in the last 15 minutes when Cleary floored Warriors forward Josh Curran in a hefty tackle, sparking a fracas between the two sides that culminated in Sifakula's sin-binning.
It wasn't until Leniu, returning from a calf injury, burrowed over in the final five minutes that Penrith were home.
Fixtures
Ladder
ABC/AAP
