Live: Souths player in heated exchange with fans after Bulldogs thrashing (2025)

Here's how the two teams line up in this evening's clash - with a couple of late changes.

Poor Jeremy Marshall-King has been ruled out for the hosts after cutting his leg last week and that cut getting infected. Nasty.

As a result, Kurt Donoghoe comes in at hooker and Ray Stone moves to the bench.

There are some issues for the Storm too,as hooker Harry Grant isruled out with a hamstring injury.

Bronson Garlick steps in, with Kane Bradley coming in to start on the wing as a late change, replacing Sua Fa’alogo in the starting team.

Joe Chan will play off the interchange bench - it's both Chan and Bradley's first appearance of the season.

Jahrome Hughes will start despite some shoulder worries, while Grant Anderson will shift into the centres.

Well, that was pretty entertaining.

But now we're starting to turn our attention to the Sunshine state, where the Dolphins host the Storm at Lang Park.

Cameron Ciraldo doesn't think they need to.

"I think it's important we celebrate moments like this," he says.

"What I know about these guys is on Sunday, when they come back to work, they'll be focused on being better.

"[There is a] Long way [to go].

"We're defending really well, we can definitely execute better in attack.

"We just went away from the game plan If we can stick to the game plan a little bit more we'd have a little bit more cohesion."

Stephen Crichton is speaking at the press conference as well.

He says the last 10 minutes, when the Bulldogs had to defend, were incredibly pleasing.

"It means a lot, shows how hard our team has been working," Crichton says.

"That last eight minutes, we were down to 12, the way we finished the game was real professional."

Cameron Ciraldo is speaking now.

"Very special, today was a really important day for our club," Ciraldo says.

"It's moments like that that you'll cherish at the end of the season.

"Proud to be a Bulldog today."

The Daily Telegraph are reporting that Jai Arrow has been involved in an altercation with fans.

Wayne Bennett was asked about it in the press conference and intimated that he wished he'd get more angry on the field, before saying that he didn't know anything about it.

Cody Walker said he saw that there were discussions but did not hear what was being said.

Wayne Bennett is being asked about the hip drop that saw Euan Aitken put on report the second time.

"I don't know what a hip drop tackle is anymore," he says, before turning his attention to head high shots.

"I'm concerned about head highs as well, because there were a couple of them that didn't get called today.

"I've got a player with stitches in his head and [that player] stayed on."

He's talking about Viliame Kikau who got away with one, althoughDavvy Moale got away with one too.

Cody Walker is speaking about being taken off.

He says that he was OK to keep going, but Bennett took him off.

"I felt I could have played on ... the coach had other ideas. It's all good," Walker says.

"I took Cody off," Bennett explains.

"He's never had a proper pre-season ... fatigue carries on. I made the decision to take him off because the game wasn't winnable at that stage."

Wayne Bennett is speaking.

"They were much better than we were, and there's not much more to say," he says.

"It's pretty simple.

"They turned up, we weren't at our best.

"We have got to take how we beat ourselves out of it, we don't give ourselves a chance on days like today.

"We just didn't execute."

He seems pretty philosophical about it.

Max King was pretty chuffed about that performance.

"Mate, that was unreal," Max King tells ABC Sport.

"I'm so blessed to be part of these moments ... For it to be on Good Friday, you know 'even Better Friday' I call it, now that I've scored!"

Remember, it had been 80 NRL matches since his last try.

Josh Curran is speaking on Fox Sports.

"The crowd, when we ran out there was a big roar, and I got goosebumps," he says.

"We play for each other, but we play for our community as well."

He says that the attack was a bit loose, but there was plenty to be happy about.

"Coming off the bye we didn't want to be scrappy, we wanted to throw the first punch," he says.

"We strive on defence."

It's the first time in 87 years the Bulldogs have started a season 6-0.

It's the first time ever they've kept opponents scoreless in back-to-back NRL matches.

Canterbury Bankstown remain unbeaten in the NRL, thrashing a woeful South Sydney side 32-0 in front of a record 65,305 crowd at the Sydney Olympic stadium.

It is the first time since 1938 that the Bulldogs have started a season 6-0 and the first time they have ever held consecutive opponents scoreless, albeit either side of the bye.

That 1938 Bulldogs team went on to win the Premiership, and although it's far to early to talk of such prizes for the 2025 crop, there will be few teams who would fancy themselves against a team as cohesive as this.

"Today was a really important day for our club," Cameron Ciraldo said after the match.

"It's moments like that that you'll cherish at the end of the season.

"Proud to be a Bulldog today."

Josh Curran, Max King and Sitili Tupouniua all scored in a dominant first half — aided in part by a sin binning for Euan Aitken — as the Bulldogs dominated up the middle.

King's try was particularly notable, given it ended an 80-game try-scoring drought stretching back to round five of 2019, the longest such run of any player in the NRL.

It was fitting reward too — the 27-year-old ran for a game-high 232 metres from 25 runs, over 103 of those metres coming post-contact. He was one of three Bulldogs to run over 200 metres.

Jacob Preston and Bronzon Xerri added tries in the second period, but more pleasing for Cameron Ciraldo will be how the Bulldogs defended despite being in such a dominant position.

Roared on by what was a new regular season crowd record, every tackle during the closing stages was met with a surge of noise.

As Souths endeavoured to make the game scrappy, the Dogs met that challenge head on.

The mindset was apparent when Tevita Tatola was denied a try thanks to a brilliant tackle by Viliame Kikau in the closing stages, while Marcelo Montoya was in the sin bin for slapping Sean Keppie in one of a number of small melee's as the Bulldogs lived up to their Dogs of War moniker.

By contrast, Souths' big-name players were absolutely anonymous, Latrell Mitchell making just 10 runs, none of them meaningful, while Cody Walker was brought off after 51 minutes.

"They were much better than we were, and there's not much more to say," Souths coach Wayne Bennett said.

"It's pretty simple.

"We don't give ourselves a chance on days like today."

Just four players, Jye Gray, Campbell Graham, Isaiah Tass and Davvy Moale ran for more than 100 metres, the Rabbitohs as a team missed 40 tackles and gave away 10 penalties.

Jai Arrow was allegedly involved in an altercation with Bulldogs supporters as he walked off the pitch, with Bennett joking in the press conference that he wished he'd have got more angry on the pitch, before saying he was not aware of any issue.

It seemed to sum up a desperately frustrating afternoon for the Rabbiohs, who remain a long way from the top teams in the league based on this display.

He races back and slaps the ball down to save a try.

That's great work from the front rower.

On a big stage, the biggest ever in the regular season in fact, the Rabbitohs big name players have been anonymous.

They'd need to have a look at themselves I reckon.

But there was a double movement there!

Oh the Rabbitohs can't catch a break.

But the Bulldogs crowd are loving this - roaring their defense on.

Amazing atmosphere.

But is he held up?

He did really well to hold onto the ball initially.

Oh my word, that's brilliant defence from Kikau to hold him up.

It had to be close to brushing a blade, but no closer than that.

Tatola can't believe it.

Automatic sin bin for Marcelo Montoya for a slap.

Silly really.

The crowd are back up and into the contest again though, roaring as the Bulldogs defend their line.

Incredible atmosphere.

OH IT'S ON IS IT?

Sean Keppie is pushed on the ground, Josh Curran throws a hand as a push, Marcelo Montoya slapped Keppie on the head and then it's on.

Not much in that to be honest, but the Bulldogs don't need to get into this.

And then he refuses to hand the ball over.

Bit of petulance there.

It's the most he's done all night.