NRL 2021: Benji Marshall looks good in Rabbitohs debut despite Storm loss

They ran into a Storm team that never loses in Round 1 and while the loss stings for the Rabbitohs, there are plenty of reasons to hold hope for 2021, writes Nick Walshaw.

MUDGEE, AUSTRALIA - FEBRUARY 27: Rabbitohs head coach Wayne Bennett looks on during the Charity Shield & NRL Trial Match between the South Sydney Rabbitohs and the St George Illawarra Dragons at Glen Willow Regional Sports Stadium on February 27, 2021 in Mudgee, Australia. (Photo by Mark Metcalfe/Getty Images)

Benji Marshall isn’t your traditional NRL super sub.

For a start, he’s older than dirt.

Or close enough.

Not only the oldest player anywhere in the code this year, but by our count having been declared deader than disco no less than three, maybe four, times.

Yet this morning, Benjamin Quentin Marshall wakes, aged 36, and undoubtedly sore, as one of the most intriguing stories of the 2021 NRL season.

Same deal Latrell Mitchell.

A fella who, this time last year, few outside immediate family thought was a fullback.

Yet alongside Marshall, and a fella named Cody Walker … well, they’re set to unleash the most exciting left-handed attack since Brian Lara was thumping those famed pull shots out and over the pickets.

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Benji Marshall in action for the Rabbitohs against the Storm Picture: Robert Cianflone/Getty Images

So who cares if Melbourne won the season opener 26-18?

Doesn’t matter.

Instead, while caught short in rugby league’s most hyped of returns at AAMI Park – a result, coincidentally, which every available stat suggested would happen – it was still a night that proved the Bunnies hype.

A match, too, where Marshall revealed himself to be far more than some old guy signed by Wayne Bennett to simply whisper secrets into the ears of young Souths players.

Or act as security come State of Origin time.

Coming off the bench after roughly 30 minutes, and with the Bunnies trailing by 22 unanswered points, Marshall orchestrated a try with one of his first touches.

Then four minutes after the break, did it again.

Buy of the Year?

Might be a bit early for that.

But when you consider this Wests Tigers recruit is old enough to have once been used to sell Tazos (Google it kids), this third resurrection, or fourth, could prove some story.

Benji Marshall early on in his career in 2003.

Entering the field as a replacement for backrower Jaydn Su’a, but assuming a playmaker role, Marshall didn’t simply start two left sweep lefts but held the Steeden only long enough to ensure Walker had the greatest of commodities – time.

Which the Bunnies No.6, in turn, made great use of to ensure Alex Johnston twice crossed in the left corner.

Just on that too, get on AJ now for most NRL tries. While you also have to reckon it won’t be long until new recruit Jai Arrow, who was strong in the middle, is starting games.

In fact, you have to wonder what this game might’ve looked like had the Bunnies not started uglier than sandals with socks.

Dropped balls, intercepts, wayward passes – Souths had done it all, and then some, before heading to the break with a 58 per cent completion rate and what seemed no hope.

Which is just as every statistic had pointed to.

Wayne Bennett still has a few tricks up his sleeve. Picture: Getty Images

Especially when you consider Craig Bellamy never loses season openers.

While Souths, they never win in Melbourne.

But you want to know something else?

Bennett sides, they have a long habit of resembling that mate who, every Saturday afternoon at the pub, starts your shout slower than most.

Not exactly sipping on schooners, or ducking out on the round.

But rather than putting them down like, say, a Six O’Clock swill, prefers to build throughout the night.

The aim, eventually, to get themselves onto that dancefloor late, and with the girl, while everyone else falls into a dribbling heap around them.

Bennett, see, has been around a while.

Longer even than his new Super Sub.