South Sydney coach Jason Demetriou welcomed the challenge of helping Latrell Mitchell find top gear every week after the fullback grabbed a hat-trick of tries in the Bunnies' 50-16 demolition of Canterbury.
Mitchell came into his 150th NRL game on Good Friday surrounded by noise about his workrate when compared to the game's other leading fullbacks.
But the 25-year-old showed he belonged in the conversation, dazzling the 35,211-strong crowd at Accor Stadium with a 26-point haul that helped lift Souths into the top eight.
"As a fullback, the things he can do, there's no other player in the comp can do (them)," Demetriou said.
"Tonight he was Latrell Mitchell. And that's what we want from him every week.
"It's a lesson for us all, to find that fuel that gets us excited.
"Latrell is no different to any other player in the team, you've got to find that excitement and as a group we've got to find what motivates us and bring that to the game."
The only downside for Mitchell, who kicked seven goals from 10 attempts, was the sight of Canterbury winger and good mate Josh Addo-Carr limping out of action in the opening stages.
Addo-Carr will be sent for scans and his injury inside the opening 10 minutes was where things began to fall apart for a depleted Bulldogs side that had opened the scoring through Jacob Averillo.
Souths scored four unanswered tries courtesy of Cameron Murray, Jacob Host and a Mitchell double to take a 26-6 lead to the halftime break.
Matt Burton clawed Canterbury back into the game with a well-taken try but the Dogs' hard work was undone when back-rower Jacob Preston was sinbinned for a hip-drop tackle on Souths winger Izaac Thomspon in the 62nd minute.
"I was really happy with where we started the second half," said Bulldogs coach Cameron Ciraldo, whose side face Parramatta next week.
"I thought we were looking really good and that seemed to ... I don't know if it killed our energy or killed our belief, but we just didn't handle it and you can't give South Sydney that many cues."
From there the floodgates opened and Souths laid on five tries in the final 17 minutes.
Cody Walker started the rout before Mitchell sealed his hat-trick and Campbell Graham crossed for a late treble.
The victory - Souths' biggest over Canterbury since 1953 - sets up an exciting reunion with Wayne Bennett and his Dolphins at Suncorp Stadium next Friday.
"Who?," Demetriou said with a grin when asked about facing off against the veteran super coach.
"I will not be playing mind games with Wayne Bennett, I can tell you that.
"I'm looking forward to it and catching up with Wayne but we've got two points to go up there for."
