South Sydney's Indigenous stars have pieced together one of the season's best wins with an electric comeback from an "unwinnable" position against Penrith at Accor Stadium on Thursday.
Trailing by eight points in the dying moments, Latrell Mitchell, Cody Walker and Alex Johnston all stood up to claw back the advantage with Isaiah Tass pinching victory at the death.
It's their first win against the reigning premiers in 11 meetings.
In some kind of performance, Mitchell lead his side's comeback just six weeks after receiving racist abuse from a young fan in Penrith the last time the two sides met.
The 25-year-old was heavily involved in each of Souths attempts at the try line, bringing up 1000 career points in the process.
It was his best display in an already impressive campaign just weeks out from an all but guaranteed return to Origin football.
After a scoreless first 20 minutes, Rabbitohs hooker Damien Cook put first points on the board after diving over from dummy half on the line.
That opportunity itself was set up by a Mitchell wonderpass to break the Panthers' line via Tass.
Stephen Crighton would cross late in the first period to spell a number 6-4 scoreline in the Bunnies' favour.
Crighton got his second shortly after the break.
Already trailing 12-6 Mitchell denied Penrith from getting some real breathing space with a try-saving tackle on Sunia Turuva in the 52nd minute.
Just a few sets later he would beat three Panthers at the line to score off a Cody Walker pass.
"The superstar stands up," Andrew Johns said on the coverage.
"Too big, too strong, too good."
With 13 minutes on the clock Penrith again put their noses in front on the right wing before Crichton brought up his hattrick off a Tass error in the in-goal to put a 18-10 buffer on the late stages.
It would only spur an inspired comeback from the home side.
Mitchell once again stormed over to put the Bunnies within reaching distance.
Alex Johnson almost iced the game with a break down the left side and pass back inside to Mitchell.
With 90 seconds remaining Souths would break the premiers hearts from within their own half.
In a last ditch effort, Mitchell, Johnston and Walker combined with a string of passes before Tass got on the end of it 30 going on to snatch the win.
"No player in the game is better at instinctive play, and he could just feel something going on, Cody Walker," Billy Slater said from the commentary box.
GLORY, GLORY!#NRLRabbitohsPanthers pic.twitter.com/NF3cH9PQCu
— NRL (@NRL) April 20, 2023
In his post-match press conference, Souths coach Jason Demetriou confirmed Mitchell reaches 'full beast mode' on the night.
"He brings us sometimes a dimension that's unstructured as well, when he's playing through that middle and offloads and supporting people that starts generating some ruck speed and gets us playing on the front foot a bit," Demetriou said.
Bunnies captain Cam Murray said the win came off the back of special efforts across the side, but it was good to see his star fullback firing.
"And he's just so hard to start when he's on. So it's good to say, Latrell out there with a smile on his face enjoying his footy," Murray said.
Demetriou also had encouraging words for 23-year-old Tass who is now stringing together regular game time.
He said he has been a "big fan" of the man since he arrived at the club.
In response to Tass' second half slip which threatened to take the game away from Souths Demetriou said "no one plays a perfect game".
"He's a guy that's getting better and better all the time," the coach said.
"One tackle shouldn't define your game and I've seen a lot of young guys go into their shell in that position and for him to muscle up and defend the way he did and not only that, he took some real tough carries and a lot of hard work in that second half for his teammates.
"(I'm) really happy to see him get the rewards (scoring the winning try) for staying resilient."
South currently sit third on the NRL ladder with five wins after their round eight opener.
