Latrell Mitchell is meeting with South Sydney Rabbitohs brass this Tuesday afternoon to discuss the last several days and his three-game suspension for elbowing New Zealand Warriors playmaker Shaun Johnson in the face.
The Sporting Base is sure of one thing: there won’t be any retirement talks from Latrell in that pressure cooker meeting. No ifs, no buts.
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The Souths superstar has had his commitment to footy questioned this week, with the highest-profile prodding coming from Phil Gould; the Bulldogs mastermind suggested Mitchell may want to walk away from the NRL. “I don’t see he’s in love with it at all… Has anyone ever sat Latrell down and said, ‘Do you really want to play this game?’”
Those stinging comments in particular sparked a hurricane around the 26-year-old in the days after round five. He returned serve as quietly and as strongly as he could—by ripping in at Souths training on Tuesday.
In fact, the under-siege Bunnies fullback even volunteered for extras after class.
He also apologised to his teammates after the session.
However this meeting that will be happening in the next few hours goes, we already know Mitchell won’t be hanging up the boots and walking away from rugby league. He probably has every right to at least consider it with how he’s often unfairly treated by the NRL world—though in this case, his bumpers-up strike on Johnson was bang out of order—but there can be no question the Taree junior still wants to play footy at the highest level.
Jack Wighton, who just recently joined Souths specifically to play with close friend Mitchell, is another party that was left shocked Latrell’s retirement is even being floated. Instead, he thinks this latest setback is only going to spark Latrell’s fire brighter.
“He loves the game, mate,” Wighton told media on Tuesday when asked about Mitchell. “Everyone just sit tight. Watch him in the near future. That’s all I can say. He’s one reason I come here, he’s a big part of the team, we’ll miss him.”
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Mitchell’s suspension sees him miss matches against Cronulla, Melbourne, and Penrith. He returns in round 10. This week, Jye Gray will debut at fullback on Saturday to replace him.
