The gutsy five-eighth may well have worn his heart on his blue and white sleeve for the last time after suffering a calf injury at a desolate ANZ Stadium on Thursday, which hosted just 8247 fans.

In his 137th game as a Bulldog and seventh season at Belmore ahead of an impending move to the Wests Tigers for season 2018, Reynolds limped from the field midway through the first half and went straight down the tunnel.

Soon after he was ruled out of the game, and cut a dejected figure in his beloved Canterbury dressing room, wearing all the dejection of a man resigned to his fate. Souths pair Sam Burgess and John Sutton respectfully raced over to shake Reynolds' hand once the full-time siren sounded.

A calf scan on Friday will determine whether or not Reynolds still has a role to play on the field as Canterbury's hellish season peters out.

"He's done a calf, he'll be sent for the scans, calves don't always have the happiest of endings," Canterbury coach Des Hasler said.

"It must've been pretty bad for Josh to come off the field."

As has been the case all year Canterbury's attack was uninspiring on Thursday in a match between two clubs who won't feature in September, and they were once against tryless in the first half.

They managed just two four pointers after the break. One to Chase Stanley who was in the right spot when Matt Frawley's cross-field kick spurted out of an aerial battle, and one to captain James Graham whose brute strength close to the line ensured he wouldn't finish with a duck egg this year.

"It was always going to be a tough game given the situation. I've got to say we looked a bit flat," Hasler said.

"Just scenarios where we refused to buy into just managing our game possession wise. We came up with undisciplined passages in our play, we came up with basic errors in our game it's a bit flawed with that at the moment.

"At a first grade level that standard of football is unacceptable."

The Rabbitohs meanwhile, who haven't had a huge amount to shout about in 2017, looked a pretty decent football side against Canterbury - the foe they downed at this venue less than three years ago for a drought-breaking grand final win.

They've now won back-to-back games for just the third time this season and Englishman Tom Burgess had arguably his best match of the season just days after ex-Rabbitoh Mark Carroll suggested that he and twin brother George were too big for the NRL.

"Between Tom and George...they've been under all sorts of different pressures through the way people talk about them," Souths coach Michael Maguire said.

"Tom showed a really great performance there and George has been working hard at his game. They've been put under a fair bit of pressure I suppose you'd call it through all sorts of different media.

"I'm just really impressed with how those two are playing.

"We're very fortunate that we've got a bunch of brothers that play inside our team. The way they performed tonight tells a story."

For just the fifth time this season, the Rabbitohs led at half-time, holding a 14-2 advantage.

Bryson Goodwin scored with five minutes left to down the Dragons last weekend, and he had another one five minutes into this game, finishing off a backline move in the left corner.

Marcelo Montoya was at fault, rushing in to challenge electric fullback Alex Johnston who let the flying Bulldogs winger run straight past him before picking out an unmarked Goodwin.

They should've had a second moments after Angus Crichton entered the fray from the bench. He beat a couple of defenders in Canterbury's fraying defensive line and threw a pass back to a flying Damien Cook on his inside.

Crichton missed Cook by several metres on that occasion, but the Rabbitohs soon made amends.

This time it was Cook charging through the Bulldogs' ragged marker defence, and he drew fullback Will Hopoate expertly before hitting Alex Johnston on the chest.

That put him one clear of Melbourne flyer Suliasi Vunivalu in an intriguing NRL's try scoring race, and he skipped two clear early in the second half when he strolled over. Aaron Gray also crossed in the second half scoring his first try of the season in just his seventh game.

SOUTH SYDNEY 28 (Johnston 2, Goodwin, Gray tries, Reynolds 6 goals) def CANTERBURY 14 (Stanley, Graham tries, Stanley 3 goals)

Crowd: 8247

Referees: Gavin Badger, Gavin Reynolds