Latrell Mitchel doesn’t appear to be a happy man.
Why?
That’s the puzzle Rabbits coach Jason Demetriou needs to solve before it costs him his job at South Sydney.
There’s only one person who knows what’s wrong with Mitchell, and that’s Latrell himself.
What’s swirling around in Mitchell’s head is the key but he needs to work it out with his coach.
The big thing about Mitchell, as we’ve all witnessed many times in his past performances over the past two or three years, whether playing for Souths, NSW or Australia is: “when he’s hot, he’s hot, he explodes.”
He certainly hasn’t started 2024 the way he would have wanted to, and the question everyone is asking is, why?
It wasn’t a good end to 2023 with former star Sam Burgess walking out of the club, questioning the culture, and suggesting Mitchell received special treatment and perhaps should have been pulled into line.
When you are the highest-paid player at your club, you have a responsibility to go out and perform at your highest level every week.
Mitchell is not doing that and he is becoming more frustrated with every loss.
Maybe, in a strange way, this could do him a favour, making him look at himself and re-assess things.
He is well and truly under the public spotlight now. He needs to produce his absolute best consistently otherwise fans will turn on him.
Mitchell will miss Souths next three NRL games after entering a guilty plea to raising his elbow into the face of Warriors halfback Shaun Johnson.
In his absence, Souths have a tough stretch of games against the Sharks, at home next Saturday, followed by a bye, which they should win, before their big showdown with Melbourne at AAMI Park.
After that, they host Penrith at home before an away clash against St George Illawarra.
By then, or even earlier, the club should have made their decision on whether they pay out coach Jason Demetriou with talk surfacing they could go after Wayne Bennett.
To me, Wayne seems pretty happy where he is at the moment, but when the journos get their teeth into a story it’s hard to stop them.
It’s also hard not to notice a few big Queensland forwards are already out of this year’s Origin series through injury, notably Tom Gilbert and Tino Faasuamaleaui whose 2024 seasons are already over.
Losing two big tough guys like Gilbert and Tino is a little worrying but I’m sure Queensland will do what Queensland do, and find somebody who will fill in and do the maroon jersey proud.
And I’m sure coach Billy Slater has already identified a few players capable of filling those key positions.
