The fairytale finals run of the Rabbitohs has come to an end at the hands of the Penrith Panthers to the tune of 32-12 in the preliminary final at Accor Stadium.
South Sydney had the running throughout the opening stages of the game and through enterprising play and taking their chances saw them lead 12-0 through 20 minutes of play.
The key moment came in the closing stages of the first half, when a seemingly safe lead was overturned in the space of five minutes, giving the Panthers the chance they needed to get back into the game.
From there the points came at a constant enough rate to keep the Rabbitohs at bay and put an end to a magical finals run.
As has been the case all year, Penrith started with a brutal intensity and came out firing with their defence in the opening sets.
But a courageous Rabbitohs outfit refused to be bullied into submission, dishing out some hits of their own and earning a deserved repeat set through a Lachlan Ilias grubber.
The Panthers had a try disallowed after the bunker confirmed Jarome Luai unfairly took Ilias out of the play, and they were made to pay immediately.
Front rower Mark Nicholls burst onto a short ball close to the line, giving an offload of his own that took a deflection off Liam Martin, with Cody Walker there to dive on the loose ball and continue his tryscoring form.
That lead was doubled in the 18th minute when stand-in winger Richard Kennar got on the end of a trademark left-side raid, managing to touch the ball down just inside the touch in-goal line.
The minor premiers weren’t able to capitalise on their chances deep inside Rabbitohs territory as their defence held solid, before a fortuitous slide from Api Koroisau eventually got them on the board in the shadows of half-time.
With the potential for a field goal in the closing stages, a dropped ball was swooped upon by Brian To’o saw him race close to 80m to staggeringly send the game into the sheds tied at 12-all.
The whole momentum of the contest changed within the space of five minutes to close the opening 40, and that was continued by the Panthers straight out of the sheds.
They went close to scoring first-up, and after securing the ball from a charge down, they made it three-straight tries just minutes into the second half to take their first lead of the game at 18-12.
With the tide well and truly in Penrith’s favour, Souths were eventually able to stem the flow and got the chance to earn repeat sets deep in enemy territory, but couldn’t convert that into points.
The task to turn things around got that much harder in the 54th minute when Izack Tago got on the end of the grubber and pushed the lead out to 12.
Any hopes of a comeback were dashed when South Sydney were reduced to 12 men for the final 15 minutes of the game after Taane Milne was sent from the field for a high tackle.
The Panthers took the shot at penalty goal from the infringement, extending the lead to 14 points.
Despite the setback, they didn’t shirk the task over the final period of the game, maintaining the effort in defence and conceding just the one more try from a kick.
It signals an end to the season of the Rabbitohs after they defied the odds of advancing to a preliminary final from seventh on the ladder.
