South Sydney coach Wayne Bennett was at his wily best in summing up his side’s 32-24 victory over the Bulldogs after their unconvincing win over the Tigers before the bye.

Bennett was anything but impressed after the narrow victory over the Tigers, but he was whistling a different tune after the Good Friday performance.

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“I’m a bit happier today, you’re lucky,” Bennett said.

“We played somewhere near our potential and what we’ve got in the team. Last time we played we were far off that, so we weren’t perfect today, but we were a lot closer to where I want them to go.”

However, Bennett was giving nothing away when asked what his team fixed over the bye.

“I’m not here to give away our tactics and what we’re good at and what we’re not good at, it doesn’t help us,” Bennett said.

The win was made more special by the fact it was in front of club legend Nathan Merritt, who rang the bell prior to the game as he continues his heartbreaking fight against cancer.

Bennett admitted his players would have drawn plenty of inspiration from Merritt’s brave and dignified fight.

“I’m sure they did,” Bennett said.

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“We didn’t talk a lot about it, but there was a lot of publicity about it. I watched him ring the bell and it was nice.

“I’m sure the boys all are familiar with his background and his great career at South Sydney, but we didn’t spend a lot of time as a group talking about it.”

Souths skipper Cameron Murray revealed how much it meant to the players to put in a good performance in a win for Merritt.

“He’s a legend of this place,” Murray said.

“One of the great try-scorers of this club and very sad news, but it’s good to see the club get around him and get him out here and raise some money for him.

“I’m sure a lot of the boys in the change room took a lot of inspiration from him, particularly the ones that played with him, that know him personally.

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“And for all of us juniors, he was one of us. He came through the system and came up the ranks and he’s a South Sydney man through and through, so a lot of inspiration for people like me and AJ (Johnston) and Stretch (Graham) and all the boys in there. I think they’re very familiar with him as they came through a similar pathway to him.”

The star of the game was undoubtedly Tallis Duncan, who put in a man-of-the-match display after being recalled to the starting second row spot.

“He was, he’s young and he’s a great line buster and we moved him on the edge there late last year and we moved him to the centres actually and he played great for us in centres,” Bennett said of Duncan.

“We had him off the bench earlier in the season and just thought he was worth a full-time starting job on that edge.

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“The last couple of weeks we just haven’t got him the ball. We’ve been working pretty hard to make that happen and today they got him the ball at the right time, right places.

“He runs a great line and he’s pretty powerful with it.”

Keaon Koloamatangi also put on a brave display despite aggravating a knee injury in the opening minutes of the game.

“That was pretty tough from him today because he’s done the medial ligament, I think,” Bennett said.

“Maybe, maybe not, but certainly put a lot of pressure on it, so for him to go back out there and he tells me he reckons he will be playing next week in Perth, so I don’t doubt him.

“He recovers great. He’s had a few leg injuries and I can’t believe how quickly he recovers.”

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