Adam Reynolds issued a reminder of his value to South Sydney before being left concussed in the Rabbitohs' 26-12 win over Manly at a rain-soaked Lottoland.
With his future remaining up in the air, the Rabbitohs halfback scored a try and kicked a 40-20 in the lead up to another in a dominant first-half.
But he was taken from the field early in the second half when he was hit by Sean Keppie after kicking and did not return.
The Rabbitohs are confident he will be fit to take on the Sydney Roosters on Friday night, but he will need to pass several concussion protocols to play.
"He's OK, he will play next week," coach Wayne Bennett said.
"He played good, but a lot of his mates were playing good for us as well. He certainly stepped up for us."
The game then later boiled over on fulltime, with Jaydn Su'A sin-binned for his role in a brawl and the whole incident put on report.
But the story was still Reynolds, who is off contract at the end of this year and has made no secret of his disappointment at Souths' call to only offer him a one-year deal.
And on Saturday he showed he is far from past it.
After Latrell Mitchell and Cody Walker got South Sydney out of the blocks for their first try, Reynolds had his fingerprints all over Souths' next two.
The 30-year-old's first big impact came when he chased through his own grubber to score in the 15th minute.
He later backed it up with a pinpoint perfect 40-20 in the final minute before halftime, swinging the momentum of the match.
From the ensuing set Mitchell seized on a ricocheted kick, making it 14-6 at the break and giving the Rabbitohs the clear advantage.
Manly were still sloppy and turned the ball over far too often early in sets, but were improved on their round-one flogging from the Roosters.
They briefly threatened a second-half fightback when Taniela Paseka put on a perfect offload for Martin Taupau, reducing the margin to two with 21 minutes to play.
But Damien Cook ended any hopes of that for the 3218 diehards watching on in the rain at Brookvale, darting over from dummy-half with 15 to play after regularly splitting Manly's defence.
An Alex Johnston four-pointer then compounded a sorry night for the hosts, which included a suspected season-ending ACL injury for Andrew Davey.
It came after fellow second-rower Curtis Sironen was also ruled out for up to six weeks on Friday, adding to their woes with injured fullback Tom Trbojevic.
Sea Eagles bench hooker Cade Cust also ended the game with a concussion, while Souths winger Jaxson Paulo failed his second HIA in as many weeks.
"They were gallant ... But the fact is we had an opportunity where we got back into the game twice," coach Des Hasler said.
"But there are clutch moments of the game where we just have to be better than we currently are."
