‘I don’t need to change’: Latrell’s aggression isn’t going anywhere

Superstar Bunny Latrell Mitchell isn’t going to change anything about his rugby league game, he declares midway through a six-game suspension for a huge, injury-inducing hit on friend and Roosters centre Joey Manu late last season.

According to the Rabbitohs game-breaker, he “doesn’t need to change anything.”

Mitchell’s declaration comes several games into his half-dozen match suspension for a huge, bone-rattling hit on Joey Manu when rival clubs the Rabbitohs and Roosters met at the end of the 2021 season. The game ban–sliced down by a match after the NRL’s ruling–is set to end in round two of the next campaign.

When the 24-year-old returns against the Storm in Round 2, all his trademark ‘Trell aggression will still be there though. Mitchell is refusing to bend for the governing body or “the media” despite his sanctions.

“I don’t think I need to [change how I play], the game needs to change,” he said.

“Since I debuted at 18, I’ve always taken it upon myself to play the game as hard as I can, as fast as I can, every time I play. That’s what I do. Some people like seeing it, and then some people don’t.”

Mitchell first debuted in the NRL for the Roosters back in 2016, and quickly earned his name in Bondi with 96 blistering games for the tricolours. The Rabbitohs signed him for his speed and power in 2020 and switched him to fullback so he could exert his dominance on the game from a deeper strike position.

When the 24-year-old burst onto the scene six years ago, he was lauded for how he played. It earned him an Origin jersey on top of two NRL championships. He’s played for Australia four times for similar reasons.

All this has left Latrell scratching his head over the recent controversy.

“That’s the person I am,” he said. “I always have been.”

“People have mistaken [that]. They don’t know me as a person, just as a player: aggressive, taking people’s heads off intentionally. You see all this stuff, but they don’t know me as a person. They don’t know how I play the game. If they are a real rugby league fanatic they would know and understand, but they don’t.

“That’s just how the game is. I should get a royalty out of all the stuff that comes out on me. The story wouldn’t even be about me, my name would just be in it and they pump it up. That’s how it is.”

For all the media and fan outrage over Manu’s facial injury, things between Joey and Latrell have been “patched up” since the hit. The Roosters centre told the Sydney Morning Herald on Sunday that things between the pair are “sweet” and he carries no hard feelings for the ugly hit that sidelined him for the 2021 finals.

Mitchell will miss South’s first-up clash with the Broncos, but will face perennial heavyweights the Storm a week later. He missed the Charity Shield, where his team lost to the Dragons, 16-10.

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