Only time will tell whether South Sydney erred in allowing Adam Reynolds to shift to Brisbane but, on the evidence from the opening round, it will be a win for all parties.
Reynolds was the difference between Brisbane and the premiers on Friday night and so, too, was his replacement 24 hours later as the Rabbitohs accounted for Cronulla 27-18.
This is the best performance Lachlan Ilias has submitted yet. South Sydney scored four tries, all of them on the right-hand side for a change. Ilias was involved in all of them. Better still, he saved two.
One of those was effectively a 12-point play; the halfback scoring moments after a miraculous stop at the other end of the field.
Asked whether Ilias had produced a better performance for Souths, coach Jason Demetriou said: “It’s up there, he was good. He wasn’t perfect, I didn’t think anyone was going to be perfect in round one. He’s a first-grader, an established first-grader. He knows how to play footy and I thought he identified some areas that we could exploit in the first half and in the second half he was pretty clinical in going after it.”
The Cronulla No.7 also left a mark on proceedings. All the talk before the game was about the absence of the injured Nicho Hynes, but Braydon Trindall couldn’t have done more to fill the void. A spectacular try, one that involved no less than five kicks in the lead-up, was one of the many special moments Trindall produced.
However, it was Ilias, playing behind a pack missing early casualties Junior Tatola and Jai Arrow, that came out on top.
There was drama from the kick-off. Tatola took the opening hit-up and knocked himself out in the process. The Rabbitohs prop’s night was over after getting his head in the wrong spot in a collision with Dale Finucane. His replacement, Jai Arrow, didn’t fare much better, forced off with a hamstring injury shortly afterwards.
Rabbitohs halfback Lachlan Ilias celebrates a try with teammates.Credit: Getty
It set the tone for a helter-skelter opening half that contained enough action and controversy for an entire round.
It didn’t take long for a pattern to emerge; a player would make a monumental blunder, one that cost his side a certain try, only to atone for it a few moments later.
It began with Ronaldo Mulitalo. The Sharks winger looked certain to score, only for Ilias to dislodge the ball as he was putting it down, sparking memories of George Gregan’s famous tackle on Jeff Wilson almost three decades ago.
And then redemption. Opposing winger Izaac Thompson was bound for glory, only for Mulitalo to pull off a trysaver of his own.
On it went. One minute Keaon Koloamatangi was dropping the ball over the line, the next he was planting it down.
Trindall threw what was deemed a forward pass for what would have been a Sione Katoa try – Sharks coach Craig Fitzgibbon thought otherwise – and then both bagged four-pointers shortly afterwards.
“It was pretty obvious it wasn’t [forward],” Fitzgibbon said. “[Whoever] made that decision, I’d be interested in their feedback on that. Did someone yell forward and they flinched? I don’t know.”
The Trindall try was next level. Kennedy kicked the ball ahead three times before Trindall soccer-ed it twice on his way over.
Just when you thought you had seen it all, Latrell Mitchell took a regulation run, hit the deck and didn’t immediately get up. The league world collectively held its breath and was only able to exhale when the superstar fullback eventually took his place in the defensive line.
Mitchell had strapping applied to his left knee at half-time, but finished proceedings without further incident.
It can be a fine line between a textbook tackle and an illegal play. Just ask Wade Graham. The veteran forward pulled off a spectacular collision on Davvy Moale, only for the referee to point to the sin bin because he “left the ground to make contact with the head.”
There are concerns about how Cronulla finished last season; out of the finals in straight sets after finishing the regular season in second spot. Their starts to seasons need to be addressed as well. They have now won just one first-round game over the past decade.