South Sydney enforcer Tom Burgess is confident the Rabbitohs are ready to end three years of finals heartbreak at the hands of the Panthers after a breakthrough victory on Thursday locked the competition heavyweights at one win apiece for 2023.
The Rabbitohs' come-from-behind victory over the defending premiers was just their second in 12 games against the Panthers and their first since September 2021 – giving Burgess full confidence there's nothing stopping his side from going all the way in their finals dream.
“Obviously it’s 1-1 now this season which makes it a good contest for that back end of the year,” Burgess said following Thursday night’s match.
“It’s been a massive week, we moved to the new facility, and subconsciously it was a big week for everyone but I thought we handled it really well.
“It was a fast passed game, Penrith are the league leaders and I think we had our best completion in the first half, that was a big part of it.
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“We got in that grind of the arm wrestle and discipline and that sort of thing. That really helped us middles do our job.
“The two points is the most enjoyable thing tonight. They’re very valuable at the moment.”
While Burgess and his middle men set the platform up front, fullback Latrell Mitchell was at his career-best form on Thursday night, carrying the ball 111 metres, breaking 14 tackles and scoring two tries for Jason Demetriou's side.
But putting the defeated Panthers - and the rest of the competition on notice - Burgess believes the International star still has another gear to reach in 2023.
Mitchell too big, too strong
“He’s still building into the season,” he said.
“He’s a pretty big player but I think we’re all still building our game.
“We’re not the team we want to be in Round 26 so we’re still looking to improve each week.
"We're looking forward to going away for a couple of weeks with games in Brisbane the next two weeks, and I think it will be good for us.”
After a late switch saw prop Hame Sele start in the forwards and Burgess come off the bench, the English prop revealed it was “game smarts” that helped his side finally flip the script on the Panthers on Thursday.
“We also had Jai (Arrow) back in a different role in the middle there and I had a different role coming off the bench but I didn’t mind it, it worked out for the team,” Burgess said.
“It was obviously a tactical thing we talked about during the week to bring me off the bench after I’d been starting the last few games.
“It was just a bit of a different feel coming off the bench. It caught me off guard a little bit. I was blowing and JD (Demetriou) realised that and got me off and brought me back on in the second half as another impact.
“Hame (Sele) is also an unbelievable player, he’s just had some really unlucky times with injuries.
“If he can start stringing together a few games he’s just going to keep going and building that momentum. He’s strong, fit and can chop people in half.”
The challenge gets no easier for the high-flying Rabbitohs as they now begin to travel to Brisbane in Round 9 to meet with the heavyweight Broncos.
With Souths forwards Liam Knight and Tevita Tatola expected back on deck, Burgess believes his side is ready for a big middle contest against in-form enforcers Payne Haas and Patrick Carrigan, and former teammate Adam Reynolds.
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“I missed both games last year against Broncos so I’ll be looking forward to playing them and coming up against my old mate Reyno (Adam Reynolds) because I haven’t played against him yet since he moved,” Burgess said.
“It’ll be a good contest, they’ve come out firing this year and they’ve played some good footy so it’ll be good to play some good footy against them.
“Obviously Haas carries the ball really strongly, he’s dangerous and he has the highest offloads (20) in the league so we’ll have to lock that up as well.
“They’re laying that platform for all the boys to do well with blokes like Herbie Farnworth playing well too.
"I’ve just got to get my prep right going into the game, I think I might have done too much on the bench (against Panthers).
I don’t think we get a bye until round 15, so I’ll just take my rests when I get them and keep trying to manage the season."
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