In 38 years of coaching at the top-level Wayne Bennett had never seen an injury toll like the one South Sydney endured last season.
In turn, it made for the worst attacking numbers and fewest points scored (17.8 per game) in arguably rugby league’s greatest ever coaching career.
Welcoming back a fully fit Cody Walker, Cameron Murray and Latrell Mitchell into the mix is the most effective balm Bennett has. But that’s not to say Souths attack can’t do with an evolution either.
Mitchell’s ball-playing and pure power has been shifted to left centre in favour of Jye Gray’s increased involvement and mobility at fullback. David Fifita, at his best, adds enigmatic strike power, so too Brandon Smith at the ruck.
The return of Murray’s leg speed and class in the middle is overdue, so too Walker’s ability to be “busy around the footy and getting offloads” according to the veteran five-eighth, a first in some time after battling through two years of various injuries.
South Sydney’s offensive numbers from 2025 make for sobering reading.
With Bennett at one point unable to field an 18th man late in the season, the Rabbitohs’ devastating injury toll understandably led to the safety-first approach of completing sets better than any other side in the NRL.
And struggling to convert that low error-rate into any regular attacking threat – ranking last in the game for tackle busts, line breaks, offloads, run metres and support runs.
The easy fix for Souths, aside from not having millions of their salary cap watching from the stands?
Continuity in the halves for one thing, after 16 different spine combinations in 2025 and the ill-advised signing of Lewis Dodd.
And a rebalancing of the most lopsided attack in the NRL, even with Fifita slotting into an ominously skilful left-edge alongside Walker and Mitchell.
“You can’t sleep on us,” new right centre Jack Wighton says of he and Campbell Graham’s combination on the opposite side.
South Sydney can’t afford to either. Not when they scored just 12 tries down their right channel in 2025 (17th in the NRL) and were dwarfed by the 46 scored on their left-edge – a ratio of almost 4:1.
Walker and Wighton both acknowledged as much after the impressive trial trouncing of Manly.
Latrell Mitchell and Jack Wighton: an all-star centre pairing. Credit: NRL Imagery
“But it’s only a trial,” Wighton warns, even with rookie No.7 Ashton Ward holding his own in directing the Rabbitohs star-studded attack, a role Jamie Humphreys is expected to reprise after serving a two-game suspension.
“I think [against the Sea Eagles] we saw that if [the defence] stack that left edge, we’ve got some really good strike players on the right edge,” Walker says.
“Everyone’s talking about the left edge and how they’re going to defend it. But it’s always important to have that strike on the right edge”.
Depth and go-forward has been a concern for Souths for several seasons, but in Murray and Keaon Koloamatangi they do boast two of the NRL’s elite middles.
If Tevita Tatola can shake off two years of injuries, then even with uncertainty around Jai Arrow (shoulder), the Rabbitohs are stronger up front than they have been in some time.
Particularly if Smith switches to his bullocking best as a utility while sharing dummy-half duties with Peter Mamouzelos.
But as with all things cardinal and myrtle, it’s Mitchell who looms largest in this revamped attack.
In stature, Rabbitohs colours and game-play, Gray might be the best embodiment of an Energizer Bunny rugby league has ever seen. And his endless pinballing, running-based game is where modern fullback play has gradually trended toward.
That’s not to say Mitchell’s ball-playing won’t be missed in the No.1 jumper though. Few custodians count numbers and consistently thread a clutch pass as well as Mitchell. This is the next evolution in Gray’s game.
Striking a balanced involvement is Mitchell’s. Aside from his last game against the Titans last August, he hasn’t played centre at club level since leaving the Roosters as the NRL’s best centre in 2019.
Despite featuring all too rarely for NSW, he has at times replicated that status in the Origin arena with a collection of truly domineering performances, in both attack and defence.
The Rabbitohs won’t have to make do with Mitchell touching the ball just 14 times per game though – his average as a Roosters centre. Now 28 and a vastly different player, Mitchell knows far more is needed from him.
That outing on the Gold Coast last year in between foot and back injuries featured 27 touches from Mitchell, a couple of them match-defining alongside several try-saving tackles.
Keeping their brightest stars on the paddock is the fix to South Sydney’s historically low attack of last season. How they get the best out of them will be compelling viewing too.
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