South Sydney's finals flame continues to flicker after the Rabbitohs hammered the final nail into the coffin on Parramatta's season of woe with a 24-16 win at ANZ Stadium on Friday night.

In what amounted to a battle of survival with both sides needing to win to remain in the hunt for a top eight finish, the Rabbitohs jumped Brisbane into eighth on the ladder with a four-tries-to-three win.

Canberra can go above the Rabbitohs with win over North Queensland on Saturday night, but Souths are at least some chance of going into their last round encounter against St George Illawarra with a hope of playing in the finals.

The same can't be said of the Eels, who started the season with so much promise as premiership favourites but failed to deliver on those expectations, two tries in the final seven minutes to departing pair Krisnan Inu and Feleti Mateo symbolic of their too-little-too-late offerings in 2010.

After a scoreless first half which tested the patience of both sets of fans, the Rabbitohs finally got the scoreboard attendant active when Rhys Wesser ran through a flimsy Justin Poore attempt four minutes after the restart.

With the drought broken, the Rabbitohs doubled their advantage as Jaiman Lowe stretched out for a 12-0 lead, but their insecurity was evident as Chris Sandow had a crack at field goal with almost half an hour remaining.

Sandow gave away a penalty for a lifting tackle which will no doubt interest the match review committee, that infringement threatening to turn the game as Kris Keating put Justin Horo over for Parramatta's first points.

A late flurry the ilk of which they produced against Wests Tigers appeared on the cards before a shocking few minutes killed off the Eels for good.

First Mateo offloaded when he would rather have held onto the ball with the Rabbitohs earning a penalty as the Eels defence retreated.

That extended the lead beyond a converted try, and it was soon 18-6 with Issac Luke darting over from dummy half after Krisnan Inu's restart from the penalty sailed over the dead ball line on the full.

Mateo capped a night he would rather forget when put on report for striking after taking exception to a Lowe tackle, David Taylor's comeback from a broken collarbone sealed when he carried Mateo over with him for South Sydney's fourth try of the night 11 minutes from time.

While happy his side's season was still alive, Souths coach John Lang said there was no point worrying about other results.

"It would be great to be going down there and playing (the Dragons) for a spot in the final, but that's out of our control now," Lang said.

"There's no point in doing all that (trying to work out possibilities), we're in a situation where it can be good, it can be bad ... we'll know where we stand, we'll just have to sit back and wait.

"Some guys might watch (other games), some guys won't - I don't think I'll torture myself."

Eels coach Daniel Anderson said his side's lack of creativity in the halves was too great an obstacle to overcome.

"That pretty much typified our season," he said of the performance.

"There's a few upset boys in there obliviously ... we're out of our misery as far as September footy.

"We've had difficulty in our halves this year in establishing a confident pairing - we have to improve that area."

Asked if Wallabies playmaker Quade Cooper was an option, Anderson said: "We have to look laterally a little bit, yeah."

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