Like many rugby league players, Latrell Mitchell is a fan of American football — so much so that theories abound about him trying his hand at the sport as Jarryd Hayne did with the San Francisco 49ers in 2015.
You can’t help but wonder, then, if he caught the final quarter of the Dallas Cowboys’ 19-3 loss to Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Monday.
In the fourth quarter, Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott left the field with a suspected broken thumb. As he ran up the tunnel to seek medical attention he was mercilessly booed by the fans. Then some pelted him with rubbish.
The interesting thing is they weren’t Bucs fans. They supported the Cowboys.
The match was being played at their home ground, AT&T Stadium. As Prescott left the field, his own fans wanted to him know what they thought of his performance.
Tough crowd. It’s hard to imagine South Sydney fans ever treating Mitchell this way, no matter how poorly he might have played.
Latrell Mitchell delivered a performances for the ages against his former club last week.Credit:Getty
The rousing reception he was given after his coming-of-age performance in the elimination final last Sunday against the Roosters speaks to that.
At the other end of Allianz Stadium, though, many Roosters fans were booing, and this is where it gets tricky when talking about Mitchell and his relationship with supporters.
Like many supremely gifted players, he polarises opinion with few grey areas in between. Such is the nature of sport and fandom.
But when Mitchell invoked Adam Goodes’ name following the incessant booing directed at him during the final-round match against the Roosters a week earlier, it pulled the north and south poles further apart.
Sydney Swans legend Adam Goodes walked away from the game after a long campaign of booing from rival AFL fans.Credit:Kate Geraghty
“Adam Goodes gave up his career because of it,” Mitchell said. “It’s not nice because we cop it every day as it is, and regardless of what happens on the field, it stays on the field. They have control over what they do off (the field) when they come watch a game. They can be passionate, but there are different ways on the spectrum of that. It’s expected. It’s warranted.”
Mitchell’s critics pounced on the Goodes’ comparison.
How could he compare sustained, guttural booing, mostly racially motivated, over a three-year period, while getting slammed daily by conservative commentators, with the AFL the whole time remaining mute, to getting booed at his first match against his former team after breaking the face of centre Joseph Manu a year earlier?
It has taken the comments of a 15-year-old Souths ball girl, Aliyah, to put the abuse into perspective, telling Herald colleague Christian Nicolussi earlier this week: “The abuse he receives, it’s indescribable. It’s pretty upsetting hearing it. They don’t know the real him. It was tame and a lot better than the previous week when the abuse was bad. It wasn’t even just him. I was copping it as well. I was like, ‘I don’t even know what I’ve done to you guys’.”
Mitchell embraces South Sydney ball girl Aliyah after a crunch conversion last week.Credit:NRL Photos/Brett Costello
Typically, the veracity of her statements have been questioned by some, although it’s difficult to assume a teenage ball girl concocting stories about abuse.
Are rugby league and Mitchell having their Adam Goodes moment?
The lazy argument about Mitchell is that he “plays the victim” — the same thing was said of Goodes — but Aliyah’s remarks reveal he had shown restraint.
Mitchell has never been afraid to speak his mind but what’s different this time is how he handles the attacks.
One of the few knocks on him as a player was his temperament. Get under his skin and he’s likely to do something silly and get penalised or sin-binned.
The Manu tackle cost Mitchell a grand final against Penrith — and, possibly, a premiership for his teams.
As everyone at Allianz Stadium lost their heads last Sunday, Mitchell was one of the few to keep his on.
Normally, he would’ve been among the first sin-binned. Instead, he saw the bigger picture.
There’s been plenty of chatter this week about him milking penalties after he refused twice to play the ball so the Bunker had enough time to intervene. In a match full of head slams, headlocks and forearms, it was hardly the most offensive act.
An alternative view is Mitchell was shrewdly using a comical flaw in how games are refereed to gain an advantage. Mitchell didn’t take a dive: he merely glared at referee Ashley Klein to give him a penalty. Wally Lewis did it his entire career.
Much of the credit for Mitchell’s evolution rests with first-year coach Jason Demetriou.
When Wayne Bennett left at the end of last season, there was concern about how it would affect players like Mitchell and Cody Walker, with whom the master coach had a close bond.
Bennett’s fabled “man management” skills synced perfectly with Mitchell. They never talked about football. Both farm-owners, they talked about cattle prices.
Demetriou, though, has shown he understands Mitchell as well as Bennett.
Before the final-round match against the Roosters, he gave Mitchell a three-day break in Taree. Mitchell was well contained, although it’s been said he played within himself because he was mindful about being suspended for the finals.
A week later, he saved as many tries as he set up, motoring from one side of the field to the other to bundle Roosters players over the sideline.
In attack, instead of running around defenders as he did the week before, he picked a mark in the defensive line and threw his imposing frame at it. Unfortunately for Roosters halfback Sam Walker, the target was on his forehead.
There’s a belief Mitchell feeds off the anger and emotion of the crowd, although those close to him paint a different picture.
Mitchell shared a close bond with former Rabbitohs coach Wayne Bennett.Credit:Getty
He’s not a “victim” but a sensitive soul from the country who just wants to be liked and respected.
He never wanted to leave the Roosters, the place where he won two premierships before a fallout with chairman Nick Politis during messy contract negotiations led to his arrival at South Sydney.
To be hounded by them — as claimed — hurts him, even if he infuriates them by putting a finger to his lips after kicking sideline conversions.
The immediate question about Mitchell is how far he can take South Sydney in this finals series, starting with Saturday night’s semi-final against Cronulla at Allianz Stadium.
The bigger question is how long he can maintain — and contain — the rage.
At 25, he has years ahead of him, but he’s jammed so much into his career so far — two premierships, Kangaroos and NSW jumpers — he’s quickly running out of things to do.
Mitchell is considered a lock at left centre in Mal Meninga’s Australian team for the World Cup but heading to the UK for seven weeks will be tough for someone who relishes every chance to return to his farm.
Meanwhile, it remains to be seen if rugby league is having its Goodes moment. We’ll know the answer in years to come.
There are some rival fans who will support Mitchell no matter what.
After his return match from his hamstring injury, Mitchell was standing around with teammates in the Souths dressing-room after their impressive win over Parramatta when he noticed a shy eight-year-old boy standing in the corner.
Mitchell signalled him to come over, but the boy was reluctant. He lifted the front of his hoodie to reveal an Eels jumper underneath.
The Souths fullback laughed, pulled the kid into his circle like he was one of the players — and handed him a pair of his boots.
“You can stand with us,” he said.
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