Grieving South Sydney winger Jamie Simpson put aside news of the death of a close friend to run in a hat-trick of tries as the Rabbitohs closed to within one point of the NRL top eight with a 40-20 win over the Sydney Roosters on Monday night.

Simpson dedicated his three-try haul to former junior teammate and Queensland Cup player Todd Parnel, with Simpson told of his death at the weekend just 24 hours before taking on the Roosters.

The Rabbitohs winger, who was robbed of a fourth try following a dubious forward pass ruling late in the game, made a 'TP' symbol with his hands after his first try of the night, which started an avalanche of points against a disappointing Roosters side.

"He's my mate from back in Brisbane ... I dedicated it to him," Simpson said.

"I don't know the exact details of it at the moment but his funeral's coming up this week so I'm just going to go up for that. I actually found out last night just after training.

"We played football together in colts and through to Queensland Cup ... we were close at the time and then to move away and find out of his passing is just devastating."

Simpson said he never really considered standing down from the Roosters clash.

"You've just got to put it in the back of your mind and just carry on with life," Simpson said.

Simpson's display was just one of several impressive performances for the Rabbitohs, but feasting on a poor Roosters would have done little to prepare the Bunnies for a nightmare August in which they play five opponents currently in the top six on the ladder starting with the Bulldogs on Sunday afternoon.

They now sit just one point behind eighth-placed North Queensland with six rounds remaining, coach Jason Taylor saying his side was close enough if good enough.

"We had to get the job done tonight against a team that are on the bottom of the ladder," Taylor said.

"We prepared knowing that they're better than that and they came hard at us at the start of each half and I was really happy with the way we handled that.

"We've had three wins and that's been good but we play the Bulldogs on Sunday and we'll see where we're at that's for sure.

"We're close enough right now."

The Roosters, clearly lacking spirit and inspiration following a season from hell, were no match for the home side with the rot setting in early when Simpson scored twice inside the opening ten minutes.

Soft four-pointers to John Sutton and Issac Luke, who brushed through the mostly feeble of goal line defences, gave Souths an 18-0 lead, which could have been bigger only for an off night with the boot for Luke and Chris Sandow.

The Roosters hit back via Mitch Aubusson just before halftime, but when Eddy Pettybourne ran through a gap left vacant by the sin-binning of Willie Mason only moments earlier for a professional foul, the Rabbitohs were back in control at 24-4 after 50 minutes.

The final half hour resembled a training run with seven tries scored, Simpson completing his hat-trick with a spectacular leap to reel in a Sandow bomb with Mitchell Pearce, Jake Friend and Shaun Kenny-Dowall all crossing for the Roosters.

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