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South Sydney have dominated the Dragons in their Charity Shield match in Mudgee, winning 48-16 on the back of an impressive first-half showing.

Attacking maestros Latrell Mitchell and Cody Walker have helped South Sydney stretch their Charity Shield dominance over St George Illawarra to nine years with a sizzling 48-16 win in Mudgee.

The Rabbitohs were almost untouchable in the first half as they raced to a 32-4 lead, with Walker scoring a hat-trick of tries in an eight-minute period.

But the signs were not great for the Dragons' season prospects under new coach Anthony Griffin, with his team made to look second-rate.

Completing at 100 per cent for the first half, Souths' performance sets the scene for a mouth-watering first-round NRL clash with premiers Melbourne.

With the Storm also impressive in their pre-season trial against Newcastle, the teams are primed to open the campaign on Thursday March 11 at AAMI Park.

Mitchell, backing up from last week's All Stars match, ran the defence ragged in the first stanza, setting up South Sydney's first two tries and then scoring one of his own just before halftime.

The Dragons' only first-half points were scored by Jordan Pereira after ex-Bronco Jack Bird burst through some traffic, although the winger failed an HIA after getting the ball down in the corner.

"It's amazing what we can do when we hold the ball, and complete our sets and really put the pressure on St George," Walker told Fox Sports.

"It's quite impressive the way we played but we've got to keep it up."

Rabbitohs coach Wayne Bennett made a raft of changes at halftime, with off-season signings Benji Marshall, Jai Arrow and Josh Mansour entering the fray, with the latter crossing in the 77th minute.

Young Dragons winger Cody Ramsey showed some neat footwork to scoot across the line and Paul Vaughan also scored, while centre Zac Lomax and fullback Matt Dufty impressed with limited opportunities.

But the Dragons lacked any punch through the middle, giving the Rabbitohs far too much room to run amok.

Souths have a couple of injury concerns, with young fullback Blake Taaffe limping off with an ankle problem while centre Campbell Graham and Dragons prop Poasa Faamausili were forced off after a clash of heads.

New Dragons captain Ben Hunt said there was not much to like about the game after the first 10 minutes.

"We completed seven from seven and were in the game, and then we made a few errors and defended pretty ordinary and they ran away," Hunt said.

"We need to be a lot better than that otherwise we're going to be spending a lot of time behind the posts."