The Rabbitohs ran rampant in attack, with Latrell Mitchell and Cody Walker leading a six-try onslaught in the first half that left the Dragons defence on both edges scrambling.

The Dragons also struggled to contain Souths' big men in the middle, while the second half finished three tries to two in the Rabbitohs favour despite Wayne Bennett pulling the bulk of his stars from the game at halftime.

Read more: Dragons hammered as Rabbitohs continue Charity Shield dominance.

Griffin told reporters post-game that the effort "wasn't good enough" but he wasn't reaching for the panic button just a fortnight out from season kickoff.

"Lucky it's a trial and not round one," Griffin said.

"They were pretty slick; they were 19 from 19 in the first half, they're a really good side obviously and they taught us a lesson. I thought defensively down the other end of the field we made them kick the ball to us but as soon as they got good ball they just outplayed us.

"We get to have a look at ourselves against some really good opposition and there is a lot to work on. To their credit, their scramble defence was brilliant ... We probably bombed two or three tries with poor handling but their scramble defence was really good.

"We were just on the wrong leg all the time, if a ball went to ground they picked it up and we didn't. No-one likes getting 30 points put on you in a half of football but there's a lot of positives to what we did with the ball, some of our kicking game, putting them under pressure down their end of the field was pretty good but up the other end we have a lot of work to do."

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The Rabbitohs were certainly red-hot and showed why many have tipped them to claim what would be an eighth premiership for Bennett and Griffin said his side will get more out of it than a run-of-the-mill trial outing.

"We got a really high-quality attack to pull us apart like they did, that's more valuable than scrambling away and having a loose game and thinking we don't have too much work to do," Griffin said.

"If we came here and they hadn't have played so well and we got done by six or eight we might have felt a bit better about it but they played brilliant.

"When we've got the ball we look pretty good, when we had to defend our own end or defend one of our errors we just weren't good enough. They were too good for us and we clearly weren't anywhere near where we need to be."