Manly have the rest of the NRL looking over their shoulders after their 46-8 rout of South Sydney at Allianz Stadium on Friday night.
The Sea Eagles had heroes all over the park with Akuila Uate turning back the clock to score four tries, Dylan Walker terrorising on the right edge all night and Tom Trbojevic running riot all over the park.
After narrowly beating premiership contenders Canberra at home last week, the Sea Eagles will head into the representative round break with five wins from their last seven - a stretch that includes the big scalps of the Sydney Roosters, Canterbury and North Queensland.
The result leaves Souths with one win from their last six and they were booed by the 10,594-strong crowd as they left the field at halftime after Manly opened up a 30-2 lead.
Trbojevic turned in a performance which would have made the NSW selectors sit up and take notice after having a hand in four of his side's six first-half tries and finishing the match with 209 metres, one linebreak and three linebreak assists.
Walker - playing against his old club - continued his devastating form, throwing the last pass for all of Uate's tries.
After falling out of favour and spending most of 2016 in NSW Cup, the former Australian and NSW winger looks a new man playing under Barrett this year.
"I'm happy for both of them, particularly Aku, he had a horrible 12 months, he was down on confidence and doubting his ability, I suppose," Barrett said of his right-side combination.
"He's very popular with the players, he's a character and he worked hard in the off-season and he's getting rewarded for it."
Souths were not in the contest past the 10-minute mark with a Daly Cherry-Evans 40-20 proving the turning point.
Souths had the ball just three times in the final 29 minutes of the first half as they were made to make 175 tackles to Manly's 79 in the first 40.
They got over for their first and only try through Hymel Hunt in the 50th minute but were blown off the park.
"It was our defence, we didn't show up tonight, Souths coach Michael Maguire said.
"The first couple of sets we managed to get some attack on but all of a sudden the offloads started to come and we didn't get our bodies in front and do the things we spoke about.
"It probably goes to attitude."
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