Johnston hat-trick helps limp Bunnies hop over Newcastle

IF CATHY Freeman is the queen of Stadium Australia then Alex Johnston must be the king after he crossed for a hat-trick to join Josh AddoCarr at the top of the tryscoring leaderboard as the lacklustre Rabbitohs downed the Knights 24-10.

The South Sydney winger has a love affair with the venue and now has 66 tries in 71 matches at the ground after he crossed for the seventh hattrick of his career and his second in as many games at the Olympic precinct.

Johnston is level with AddoCarr on 15 tries in the race for the Ken Irvine medal, with both men on track for the highest tally in years as finishers take advantage of the new rules and extra space out wide.

He didn’t have to do much for his first two tries, but Johnston’s third was a thing of beauty as he managed to plant the ball despite having most of his body hovering out of play.

WORST OF TIMES

Bradman Best soldiered on but his horror run looks set to continue with the Knights centre forced off early in the second half with a suspected syndesmosis injury to his good ankle when he was brought down by Latrell Mitchell in the 21st minute.

The youngster hasn’t scored since round 1 and has been starved of early ball as the Knights try to unlock his potential.

He is one of the strongest ball-carriers in the game but managed just five runs before he was taken from the field, with initial fears that he could be out for a number of weeks.

BUNNIES OFF THE BOIL

They were without Origin stars Damien Cook, Cameron Murray, Jai Arrow and Dane Gagai, but that was no excuse for South Sydney’s miserable first half.

The hosts had just 42 per cent of the ball, completed 11 of their 18 sets, made seven errors and conceded a combined five penalties and set restarts in one of the most underwhelming halves of the season.

In his first start at hooker, Benji Marshall came up with two errors in as many minutes, while Mitchell looked flat after his Origin masterclass.