South Sydney coach Jason Demetriou says it’s only natural for the Dolphins to be interested in signing superstar fullback Latrell Mitchell but warned the club that the appeal of playing under Wayne Bennett may not be as tempting as they think.
Mitchell is contracted to the Rabbitohs until the end of next season, but other clubs can start making offers from November 1.
The Dolphins are keen as they look to sign a marquee player, with reports the NRL’s newest franchise is tabling a deal around $4m over three years.
The link is an obvious for one Mitchell given he was coached by Bennett at the Bunnies where Demetriou was an assistant.
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But the lure of playing under Bennett may not be as big a selling point, as it’s expected he will move on after two seasons with Kristian Woolf set to replace him.
“Latrell is a big player, Cody is a big player, so they’re all going to attract plenty of interest,” Demetriou said, not worried about any distractions just a fortnight out from the finals.
“Ultimately, they’re contracted until the end of 2023, so going off to play for Wayne for one year before Kristian takes over in 2024, I’m not sure that’s a real carrot for anyone.
“He can make some noise up there, can’t he?
“He’s building a team and he’s doing what he needs to do to get a team. Players have got contract negotiations all the time, but our focus is on the 80 minutes this week. I haven’t spoken to Latrell and I won’t speak to him about it.
“Wayne’s building a team so he can fancy what he wants.
“My job is to get the boys up for 80 minutes this week. Ultimately, it’s about making an environment where our players want to stay. He knows how well loved he is here, so I can’t control Wayne or worry about what he’s saying.”
The Rabbitohs have other things to worry about right now as they try to lock in a finals berth ahead of next week’s grudge match against the Roosters at Allianz Stadium.
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That starts against the second-placed Cowboys on Saturday night, but one man who won’t be there is winger Jaxson Paulo after he was dropped for making several crucial errors in last week’s tight loss to Penrith.
Paulo was subjected to online abuse and even received death threats, and it’s why the South Sydney coach wants his players to be careful when it comes to social media.
“The toughest thing about his week is that he didn’t play well, and he knows that.” Demetriou said.
“I was disappointed (with the abuse) but it wasn’t unexpected (because) that’s the world we live in.
“We’ve got a lot of low lives who like to get on social media with fake accounts and throw threats out to people.
“We can’t control that, and that’s a good lesson for the younger blokes. Social media can be good for them, but it’s also a trap that they don’t need to get too caught up in.”
