South Sydney skipper Greg Inglis says his side's commitment to play for the entire 80 minutes was the best thing to come out of the Rabbitohs' crushing 42-10 win over local rivals the Roosters on Sunday afternoon.
In sapping conditions, Souths completed an astonishing 90 per cent of their sets, and were faultless through the opening 20 minutes, allowing them to race out to a 26-0 lead at the break.
The hunger to tough it out in the second stanza is what pleased Inglis the most - an area he believes they lacked in 2015.
"It was rewarding and pleasing to be honest. Every team goes through a gruelling pre-season, and to put in an 80 minute performance like that, I couldn't praise the boys highly enough," Inglis said on Monday morning.
"That's what I liked about it. For our boys to step up and come out from the opening whistle to full time.
"There were stages throughout last year where we just clocked off through little periods. But to come out and play the way we did, I think our forwards really laid the platform, especially in the conditions. That allowed the backs to go in and pick the speed up."
The game was all but over after the opening 20 minutes, with tries to Cameron McInnes, Aaron Gray and Paul Carter helping Souths to a big early lead.
New recruit Damien Cook said controlling the opening quarter of the game was one of the keys to victory, especially considering how hot it was.
"Obviously you don't want to do more defence than you have to. Keeping the ball away from the opposition, especially in the conditions yesterday, it was a bit warm," the interchange hooker said.
"The first 20 minutes was key. I think at that stage we were at 100 per cent (completions) so you can't ask for anything more from the boys that started."
The only blight on the 32 point victory was injuries to Adam Reynolds (jaw) and John Sutton (pec). Both are set to go in for scans on Monday, with the extent of their injuries set to be revealed on Tuesday.
Both players were terrific on Sunday afternoon, with Reynolds controlling the contest with his pin-point kicking game, while Sutton popped up on both edges to regularly trouble the Roosters' defence.
Inglis wouldn't speculate on the severity of either injury, but said his halfback was taking the setback well.
"You look across the board and there are a few quite severe injuries. We've just got to sit back and wait and see what the scans say," he said.
"Adam's in high spirits and he's a tough little guy and we'll just have to wait and see what the scan says."