Salford captain Kallum Watkins’ return to Leeds earlier this week made him the sixth player to depart since the start of the year – although it was agreed he would not feature against his former club.
With full-back Ryan Brierley sidelined by a hamstring problem, the home side handed a first start of the campaign to Chris Atkin – who was shoulder-charged by Keenan Palasia within seconds of kick-off, earning the Rhinos’ loose forward a spell in the sin bin.
Dogged defence by the Red Devils kept their visitors at bay, with Jarrod O’Connor brought down just short of the line and Ryan Hall narrowly failing to gather Jake Connor’s kick to the corner.
But Salford’s handling errors, particularly inside their own territory, meant they were unable to gain traction going forward and they eventually fell behind when Connor burst through and dummied before offloading for McDonnell to score.
However, Connor’s conversion attempt thudded off a post and, despite incessant Rhinos pressure towards the end of the first half, they could only add a routine penalty goal from Miller on the stroke of the interval.
Leeds were quick out of the blocks after the turnaround and Harry Newman’s deft backhand pass to Hall on the wing was swiftly returned for the centre to set up McDonnell’s second try of the night.
McDonnell’s treble soon followed as he ran onto Connor’s crafty kick through and, although the Rhinos had Mik Oledzki yellow-carded for a high tackle on Matty Foster, it did nothing to derail their momentum.
Newman wriggled across the line, only for the try to be chalked off by the video referee for a double movement, but Miller nipped between two Salford defenders to collect Morgan Gannon’s kick for the visitors’ fourth score.
That ended McDonnell’s monopoly on tries, but the 25-year-old burst clear for his fourth of the night and referee Liam Rush denied him a fifth late on because of Newman’s forward pass in the build-up.
