Warriors women no match for Dragons
Latrell Mitchell was being tortured in the middle of Redfern Oval with endless sprint drills on Friday as his Souths team-mates were preparing for the Nines tournament on the other side of the country.
Rather than put the feet up for a few days, Mitchell and some of his high-profile Souths buddies, including Cody Walker, James Roberts and Tom Burgess, dropped to the ground on more than one occasion as they struggled to catch their breath in the heat.
In news that is sure to please the Rabbitohs faithful, Mitchell has shed about seven kilograms since he started training at the club last month.
‘‘And I’ll only say the one thing – I’m flying,’’ Mitchell told The Sun-Herald as he stripped off his shirt and finished his gruelling session.
Plenty of people at Souths are keen for Mitchell to make the successful transition to fullback, but none more so than Braidon Burns.
Burns plays left centre, the position Mitchell owned at Sydney Roosters and where he won two premierships. Mitchell is also the Kangaroos’ left-centre incumbent.
Not prepared to think what could happen to his own future if Mitchell does fizz in the No 1, Burns said he was doing everything he could to make sure his new team-mate thrived in his new job at fullback.
‘‘I’ve said it to a few boys as a joke that I really hope ‘Trell’ gets fit,’’ Burns said. ‘‘If he stays at fullback, hopefully I can stay in my position. That was my biggest concern when he first signed because it had taken me so long to finally get a centre spot.
‘‘When he came I thought I had probably lost my position, but Wayne [Bennett] reassured me it was still mine and Latrell had signed as a fullback.
‘‘Wayne has done that since he’s come here, he’s constantly reassured me that is my position when I’m healthy because he likes what I bring.
‘‘You do have your doubts when Latrell comes here because he’s a world-class player. But Latrell has come here as well to test himself in a different position – he’s won two comps at left centre and now he wants to win one at fullback.
‘‘Latrell has come a long way. He’s lost a lot of weight. It shows as soon as he puts his head down and trains he can do anything. He’s a very talented guy.’’
Burns created a lot of headlines when he forced Greg Inglis to right centre st the start of last season. As Burns carved up against the Dragons in round two, GI was playing his last game in the NRL. A hamstring injury in round three and then another one in round 22 restricted Burns to just nine games. It came on the back of five games the year earlier.
But the well-spoken 23-yearold is adored at Redfern and has plenty of supporters who know he can be something special if he can avoid injury.
One thing Burns was disappointed about was being snubbed for next week’s All Stars game, especially given he is so passionate about Indigenous issues and history, and was one of the players hand-picked to attend a leadership camp on the NSW far north coast at the start of the year.
‘‘I was pretty disappointed, but I haven’t strung that many games together, and once I get a bit of confidence in my game again, it’s something I can hopefully push for next year,’’ he said.
‘‘Jesse Ramien and Jimmy [Roberts] will be there. A lot of the really good Indigenous players in the NRL are left and right centres. I think a lot of those boys will be playing in the backrow next week.’’
Burns featured in the Nines in Perth and still rated kicking a 40/20 in his first tournament in Auckland for Souths still one of his standout league memories.
The Warriors women may have looked the part but that wasn’t much help on the field as they were overpowered by St George Illawarra on day two of the NRL Nines.
Wearing their official jerseys after Friday’s gear bag blunder, when they were forced to borrow the men’s kit, the Warriors’ attack never really got going, while they repeatedly let the Dragons off the hook with a poor kicking game, in the 29-7 defeat in Perth.
After yesterday’s late win over the Roosters, another victory over the Dragons would have put the Justin Morgan-coached side into the final with a game to spare.
Instead, they had to try and beat the undefeated Broncos late last night to have a chance of going through to the decider, and even then it’s likely to come down to for and against.
The Warriors were on the back foot from the outset after Isabelle Kelly scored a long-range try in the opening set.
The Dragons then took control when Keeley Davis gathered her own charge down to score under the posts for a bonus-point try.
A St George Illawarra error late in the half gave the Warriors a chance to hit back. And while they continued to look disjointed with the ball, a brilliant chip-andchase by Apii Nicholls cut the deficit to four-points at the break.
It didn’t take long for the Dragons to reassert their authority in the second half, though.
Sam Bremner finished off another bonus-point try after the Warriors’ defence was split through the middle.
Two more late tries capped off a dominant display by the Dragons, who play the Roosters in their final round-robin match.
For the latest from the Perth Nines, go to stuff.co.nz