South Sydney playmaker Cody Walker says Benji Marshall's team-first attitude is rubbing off at Redfern as the Rabbitohs look to build a team capable of going all the way in 2021.
Marshall's career lifeline from coach Wayne Bennett has the makings of a premiership masterstroke with the 36-year-old veteran proving to be the club's new Mr Fix-It with his ability to cover injuries or suspensions in almost any key position.
"That's the beauty of signing a guy like Benji. He can cover quite a few different positions and whatever the team needs on the night he is happy to do," Walker said.
"He has been around the game long enough now to know what his job is in different parts of the game. We are quite lucky to have a guy like Benji in our squad, he has been unreal for us not only the first team but also the younger guys in our squad he has been quite amazing."
Marshall starts and finishes it for South Sydney
Marshall turned back the clock with his starring role in the 40-30 win over the Gold Coast on Friday night. He set up one try, scored two of his own and was threatening all over the park as the Rabbitohs fought back from a 24-10 deficit.
It was another case of winning when they've been challenged for Souths, after being pushed to golden point by the Wests Tigers a week earlier.
Marshall creates himself a double
They face Canberra, Melbourne, Cronulla and Penrith over the next month and Walker knows they'll need to execute far better than they did in stages against the Titans to keep adding to their six-game winning streak.
"I think that's the most pleasing part, we're not playing our best footy but still coming away with the two points," he said.
"You know leaking 24 points in that first half was just not on … we showed in the second half the way we want to play our game, get through our sets, put it deep in their half and put the pressure on them."
Walker said he was prepared for a few more weeks at fullback until Mitchell returns, with the seamless transition of partnering Marshall with Adam Reynolds in the halves showing the type of flexibility but also fluency in this attack that key players can change roles and it still works.
"The beauty and positive we will take out of losing a guy like Latrell is we can push in a guy like Benji who is very experienced and knows his way around the footy field at five eighth and I just needed to slot in where I could slot in," Walker said.
Match Highlights: Titans v Rabbitohs
"Nothing really changes for us. It gave us confidence last year when we lost Latrell early on in the season that we still played some really good footy so we didn't lose any confidence out of that.
"Although Latrell is a really big loss, I'm not discrediting that."
