There's a difficult road ahead but South Sydney's top-four ambitions remain intact following a ruthless 48-10 NRL victory over the Warriors.
Coach Jason Demetriou says he's excited about what his side can achieve against the competition's top teams when they face four sides currently jn the top eight before a likely finals tilt.
Now sixth on the ladder, South Sydney will play Parramatta, competition leaders Penrith, North Queensland and the Roosters to round out the regular season.
"Everyone talks about the draw but the beauty of what we've got at the back end is that teams are going to influence where we finish," Demetriou said after their big win.
"It's on us and every two points will decide where we finish at the end of the year, and there's another two points up for grabs next week against a team that's playing some good footy as well."
The road home may be difficult but their work on Saturday was seamless as the Rabbitohs were clinical against a hapless Warriors outfit at Sunshine Coast Stadium, effectively having the contest put to bed when they scored six tries to one in the first half.
Adding two more to their tally in the second stanza, star fullback Latrell Mitchell was given an early rest with 18 minutes to play after a perfect game off the tee.
Mitchell kicked all eight conversions, adding two tries and two try assists to go with two line assists and two linebreaks.
Perhaps the pick of his contributions was the sliced cut-out pass that found Izaac Thompson on debut to score his first NRL try and the Rabbitohs' seventh of the afternoon.
Skipper Cameron Murray was one of nine Bunnies players to run for over 100 metres and had three try assists in the first 16 minutes before putting Lachlan Ilias over in the third minute.
He also linked up with hooker Damien Cook off a midfield linebreak to set up the hooker for Souths' second.
A deft offload to Tevita Tatola gave the Bunnies their third before Murray put a strong shot on Dallin Watene-Zelezniak 25 metres from the Warriors' line to win back possession.
It led to Ilias setting up Keaon Koloamatangi as Souths piled on 24 points in the first 21 minutes of the match.
Edward Kosi hit back for the away side in their first and only real opportunity of the opening half, but Jai Arrow then found an offload through three tacklers for Mitchell to crash over.
The fullback then put Alex Johnston in for his 23rd try of the season as the Bunnies enjoyed a 36-6 advantage at the break.
That margin grew slightly in the second half marking the fifth straight game South Sydney had scored 30 points or more against the Warriors.
Shaun Johnson bagged their only points of the second half with interim coach Stacey Jones blunt in his summation of the contest.
"Since I've taken over in this role that's probably the most disappointed I've been," he said.
"I just want to see some real care in the jersey. I saw that for a month before; I saw some real care in the jersey. Tonight, I didn't."
