Inside the complex mind of a superstar
He’s up there with the best of the best yet happiest away from the spotlight. Just why Latrell Mitchell polarises NRL fans is not easily explained, say his supporters. Jamie Pandaram, and David Riccio report
Among the public posts to Latrell Mitchell’s Instagram account, following his sickening hit on Roosters player Joseph Manu last weekend, were these: “Biggest grub ever! Disgraceful hit on one of your mates … well done wanker.
“Your display tonight was absolutely disgusting and you’re supposed to be a role model.
“Nice cheap shot buddy you should be banned from the game.”
Worse was sitting in his private inbox, so Mitchell closed access to his direct messages.
The trolls then went after his partner Brielle Mercy, sending her threats.
The 24-year-old NRL star polarises people like no other.
“I don’t care who you are, when you read a personal, nasty comment about yourself from someone, it does sit with you,” Mitchell’s close friend George Rose said.
“For Latrell, that comes dozens and dozens at a time.”
A former NRL premiership winner, Rose met a 16-year-old cherub-faced Mitchell and has watched him develop into the most divisive figure in the game within eight years.
“Anyone who dislikes Latrell
Mitchell, I challenge them to spend half a day with him and have the same opinion,” Rose said.
“On the flip side, I dare anyone to spend 24 hours in his shoes, and cop what he cops, and remain as resilient as he is. Because I know I couldn’t.”
What is it about Mitchell that gets under so many skins?
Certainly an undertone of racism exists.
Mitchell is among the most outspoken Indigenous athletes in Australia, opposing the national anthem and campaigning strongly for equality. Following sustained racial abuse online, Mitchell went to police earlier this year and two men were charged with “using a carriage service to menace, harass or cause offence”.
NRL chief executive Andrew Abdo commended Mitchell’s “leadership” for pursuing the matter.
But there is more than racism at play when it comes to the 2019 Dally M centre of the year, who has already won two premierships, guided NSW to two State of Origin series wins and represented Australia four times.
Mitchell’s South Sydney club coach, Wayne Bennett, has mentored some of the greatest players in history. “Latrell is one of the most special players I’ve coached, not just as a player, but as a bloke,”
Bennett said. “I like Latrell’s honesty and what he stands for. He cares about his teammates and he is prepared to put the team first.”
Yet Mitchell is regularly labelled everything from “grub” to “lazy” to “arrogant”, having reached a status elevated from the game itself.
His reckless shoulder charge on Manu, a former Roosters teammate and good friend, left the 25-year-old Kiwi with a fractured cheekbone and ruled him out for the rest of the season. As has Mitchell, after accepting a sixweek suspension.
The initial reaction from Manu, his Roosters teammates and several fans was that it was a deliberate attack. But as days passed and the immediate hysteria evolved into more nuanced takes, most including Manu have accepted Mitchell did not intend to break his face.
“Of course Latrell wanted to put a big shot on and dominate that collision, but there’s no way he’s gone in there wanting to smash Joey’s face,” a friend of Mitchell said.
“What you’ve got to understand about Latrell is that he loves the personal battles, he makes it a mission to look at the guy opposite him and go, ‘I’m the boss’.”
That was evident in his first State of Origin game for NSW in 2018, Mitchell physically dominated Queensland bully Will Chambers.
In this year’s Origin series, he took the same approach to Souths clubmate Dane Gagai who was marking him in the Maroon jersey.
He made a telling tackle before halftime when he raced out of the line to thump Gagai – if Mitchell’s timing was off, Gagai would have either slipped the contact or passed to unmarked teammates for a try that would have swung momentum to Queensland.
After two stunning performances that helped the Blues to the 2021 series win, Mitchell was hailed as a future NSW captain by legend Greg Inglis.
The NSW football manager Peter Parr, a long-time league administrator, said: “I have been fortunate enough to see a lot of talented players in my time and Latrell is as good as anyone I have seen. Johnathan Thurston, Matt Bowen, Tom Trbojevic, Darren Lockyer, James Tedesco — Latrell is up there with all of them.
“Latrell is at a truly elite level. The way he can catch and pass, there is no one better than him. I remember watching a young Matt Bowen and I didn’t think I would ever again see anyone catch and pass as quickly as Matthew, but Latrell can match him.
“He is every bit as good as the most talented rugby league I have seen, if not better.
“Latrell has a huge competitive streak, all the great players do, and when I watch him play he does get emotional. I don’t believe he went in for one second intending to hurt Joey Manu. I know Latrell well enough to know there would not have been any intent to inflict injury.
“But it’s an emotional game and at times he plays with a high level of emotion. As he matures, I think he will handle that emotion better and remove those sorts of things from his game.”
One of Mitchell’s Rabbitohs’ teammates revealed that his aggression at training had to be reined in at times.
“What is really surprising about him is his speed, he’s 108kg but he moves like he’s 90kg and that kind of force is very different, you feel it,” the teammate said.
“We’ve had some opposed sessions where we’ve had to tell Latrell to tone it down, sometimes he doesn’t understand his own strength.”
It’s a quality Mitchell has always possessed, and why he physically dominated his teenage peers at junior level.
Then Roosters recruitment manager Peter O’sullivan sighted Mitchell as a 16-year-old playing for Central Coast in the Harold Matthews Cup.
O’sullivan had decided to sign Mitchell after merely observing him warm up, and left the ground 10 minutes into the game knowing he’d found a superstar.
Word spread quickly about the young kid from Taree who could be the next Greg Inglis.
“You always hear about the ones who are going to be special – most of them never make it – but what I liked about Latrell was how grounded he was,” Rose said.
“I had also come from the country and we had a similar path, but it wasn’t until years later that we really got close.”
During those early years at the Roosters, Mitchell shared a house with Manu, coped with homesickness and learned to live alone, which he has previously credited as crucial to his personal development.
But Roosters officials felt Mitchell needed to be kept on a tight leash, and credit coach Trent Robinson for being like a father figure to the young man and keeping him in check.
Some believe Mitchell’s controversial departure from the Roosters to bitter rivals Souths was because he’d be given more latitude by Bennett.
Mitchell’s move at the end of 2019, having won successive premierships with the Roosters, has added further fuel to The Book Of Feuds, an ode compiled by Souths owner and Hollywood heavyweight Russell Crowe detailing the fierce history between the two clubs.
Within a year, Mitchell had switched between agents, from Steve Deacon to Wayde Rushton to Matt Rose – George’s brother.
Mitchell had walked into a meeting with the Roosters late in 2019 believing he was being presented an offer. The Roosters understood Mitchell was attending to sign the contract.
Mitchell asked for more time to consider, and while sitting at a pub in Taree with his father, news flashed on the screen that the Roosters had walked away from contract negotiations with Mitchell, still among the top five players in the NRL.
Rumours swirled that Mitchell would join Wests Tigers, despite never meeting with any coach or official from the club.
Weeks later he would emerge in Redfern sporting the famous cardinal
and myrtle colours of South Sydney, having signed an $800,000-a-year deal, the same as what the Roosters had offered.
Joining the club richest in Indigenous culture and history, Mitchell became more vocal about social issues despite his young years.
“I think Souths is the right club for Latrell,” Bennett said. “We suit his personality and he is close to some of the guys he has built relationships with in Indigenous camps.”
But Parr is also circumspect.
“I don’t think Latrell is entirely comfortable with some of the expectations placed on him with being a role model not only for the game, but his Indigenous people,” Parr said.
“People underestimate the age of players coming into the NRL and their maturity levels. He was thrust into the limelight at a young age and in the main he has handled it well.
“The NSW team has never found one single fault with him.
“I remember being in Origin I this year, I took him to the NRL Cowboys house in Townsville and the Indigenous kids swarmed him. Latrell was terrific with the kids. He genuinely loved the opportunity to connect with his people.
“It is something very dear to Latrell, being a role model for Indigenous communities. When he walked into the Cowboys house, he was a superstar.
The kids gravitated towards him and he understood his responsibilities to Indigenous community.
“I have always found Latrell good company and to be honest, he is happy to be out of the limelight.
Latrell is uncomplicated. At heart, he would love nothing more than hanging with his mates and family in Taree with an Akubra.
“I don’t think it’s any secret that his preference has always been living a lower-key life than being in the bright lights. I don’t know how comfortable Latrell is with being in the spotlight of the NRL.
“I hope people consider that Latrell has had to handle a lot in his young life. He is only 24 and the pressure has been on him since his teens.
“He has won two grand finals and played Origin and for Australia at such a young age. He has had a lot on his plate as a professional athlete in a fairly short time frame.”
Mitchell is an enigma to those outside his close circle.
He has not been involved in any drunken incidents or nightclub scandals, because his primary source of entertainment is fishing and hunting on his sprawling Taree farm.
He did find himself in strife for going to the property last year in breach of Covid lockdown restrictions, but the father-of-two finds little enticement from bright lights of the city.
“After 2019 the Roosters boys took a season-ending trip to Las Vegas, and Latrell got criticised for not being a team player because he didn’t go,” George Rose said.
“He stayed in Taree to fight the bushfires. What other player would get criticised for not going to Vegas and staying to protect his property?
“The thing I love about Latrell is that he is the same person as he was when I first met him, he has the same values, the money and fame and attention hasn’t changed that.
“When he’s around at my house and the elders come around, he’ll be the first one to jump up and make them a cup of tea.
“I remember last year, during the Black Lives Matter march, Latrell was the biggest identity there, all the cameras were on him. I was following but had lost sight of my son, Latrell saw him and could see he was tired, so put him on his shoulders for the last two kilometres of the march, that’s just the type of stuff he does naturally.
“What I find funny is that a lot of people who take a shot at Latrell are just like him. He loves motorbikes, fishing, hunting, mucking around with his mates.”
Mitchell recently did a promotional shoot with JD Sport. Instead of accepting payment, Mitchell asked if he could bring a dozen children from Taree to their store and allow them a shopping spree with the money.
When the NRL announced they would base themselves in a Queensland Covid hub earlier this year after NSW went into lockdown, the first thing Mitchell packed was his fishing gear.
Three nights a week, when darkness sets and the Gold Coast strip lights up, Mitchell sneaks away to a quiet, isolated spot and casts his line.
The fish keep biting.
As do the messages piling up in his inbox.
24 anyone to spend I dare es, and cop hours in his sho as he cops, and remain what resilient as he is Rose Close friend G eorge