Phil Rothfield believes South Sydney might need to explore returning Latrell Mitchell to centre after criticism of his fitness in Souths’ preliminary final loss to the Panthers.
Speaking on Sky Sports radio, Rothfield compared Mitchell’s involvement to his counterpart Panthers fullback Dylan Edwards and questioned if Latrell has the petrol to play the most physically demanding position on the field.
“There has been a lot of media talk about Latrell Mitchell’s game for Souths and The Daily Telegraph rated him a 4.5 out of 10, while Dylan Edwards got a 9,” Rothfield said on Sky radio’s The Big Sports Breakfast.
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“I ran some stats today and I compared Latrell to Edwards. Latrell only ran 55 metres and Edwards ran 248. Mitchell had seven runs and Edwards had 25.
“I was a bit disappointed in Latrell, but I don’t want to bag him because they wouldn’t have been in the finals without him.
“But apart from the stats he also threw a couple of poor passes that weren’t necessary and put his teammates under pressure.
“He was also caught out in defence a bit. But you have your off nights and he chose the wrong night to have his.”
Fox League’s Corey Parker also questioned Mitchell’s fitness after he struggled to stay involved in the game as the Panthers stormed back from 12-0 down early to win by 20.
“It was 18-12, three complete sets of six, he did not touch the ball, and they bobbled away and didn’t come up with the right option,” Parker said.
“For mine, it is fitness, Latrell was pulled apart to the point where he couldn’t be able to put effort on effort.
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“He wasn’t able to put himself, where he needed to put himself, if he was fit enough, he would be there.
“There was a period in that second half when Latrell Mitchell did not touch the ball, was not seen, did not touch the ball for three sets of six.
“You are playing in a preliminary final, you need your big stars touching the ball, there is not next week, it is a grand final if you want to go and take it.”
Sky sports’ Michael Clarke is not sold on Mitchell as a fullback and believes centre is his best spot in rugby league.
“I’m not convinced . . . if we are saying he is at his fittest now,” Clarke said.
“I’m still not convinced watching the other night he is fit enough to play fullback.
“I think he is a better centre than fullback.”
Clarke believes too many players want to play fullback for the financial rewards of the position saying, “it is all about the cash”.
Clarke pointed out that Mal Meninga played centre his whole career and became the best.
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Rothfield agreed that Mitchell is better suited to centre and could play a floating role similar to Valentine Holmes at the Cowboys in a bid to get him more ball than your average centre.
“That is a really good point and when he first joined from the Roosters I kept saying he is a centre,” Rothfield said.
“He doesn’t use as much petrol. He can be more explosive getting the ball.
“And they can design plays around Cody Walker to get him the ball more than the regular centre does.
“But Wayne Bennett I think proved us all wrong and stuck with him at fullback.
“He hasn’t had a problem with his petrol in other games.
“I think maybe that hit from Leota took more out of him than we thought.”
Laurie Daley believes the effects of Leota’s massive hit in the first half had a big impact on Mitchell’s ability to stay in the contest.
“I thought it rocked him,” Daley said.
“I still think he needs to work on his fitness if you are going to play fullback.
“But I think the fact he was rocked pushed him back a bit. I think he was really feeling the effects of that hit.”
Rothfield was asked if he still thinks Mitchell is a $2 million player after his sub par performance against the Panthers.
“When I said he was a $2 million player and people have got this wrong, I never suggested it was in the salary cap,” Rothfield said.
“He is as influential to his club side as any other player in the competition and the fact he played poor the other night illustrated that.
“I think he did rate a 4.5, but I am convinced they wouldn’t even have been there in the finals if it hadn’t been for his form after coming home from America.
“I don’t know if he was carrying anything because the week before I don’t think he was at his best against Cronulla either.
“But I stick by the $2 million because I think he is the biggest thing in rugby league as a personality. As a turnstile clicker. As a person who makes you turn on the television to watch.
“He’s the biggest since Sonny Bill Williams. That’s just my opinion.”
Daley believes Mitchell’s personality is driving his earning potential, but thinks he can deliver much more as a player on the field.
“I think his personality is the thing that is driving it all,” Daley said.
“If you just want to judge it on footy performances, you look at it and go, he can give us a lot more than what he is giving us at the moment.
“I want to see Latrell do more in a game because I get excited about the things that he does because he does things that other players can’t do.
“But he is a different type of player to a Dylan Edwards or a James Tedesco.
“He is just not that work rate type player. But if you give him plenty of possession inside the attacking zone he just comes up with play after play that just bamboozles the opposition defence and that’s what makes him so good.”
Clarke was critical of the media for building Mitchell up so much only to heavily criticise him when he doesn’t meet their unrealistic standards.
“I can’t believe we are having this conversation,” Clarke said.
“Let’s build him right up and let him believe his own press and then he has a bad performance and you are going to get absolutely smoked.
“He is getting flogged at the moment. It is because the media has built him up the last two months like he is the greatest player to ever play the game. He is not.
“This is what media does. We see it all the time. You build him up so much and now we have media for the next two weeks to bag him.”
Rothfield believes Souths may look to move Mitchell if he has a dominant World Cup for the Kangaroos at centre.
“I think we will get a really good example at the World Cup where he will play centre, with Tedesco at fullback,” Rothfield said.
“We are going to get a really good indication in England with Latrell playing at centre where he doesn’t use so much petrol throughout the game.
“Maybe it is something Souths will look at next year.”
