Indigenous coach Laurie Daley says Latrell Mitchell’s All-Stars fullback audition was successful despite the x-factor finding himself back in the centres.
The stage was set for an epic fullback battle when NSW centre Mitchell lined up against Maori No.1 Kalyn Ponga in Saturday’s All-Stars clash after switching to the custodian role following his off-season move to South Sydney.
Ponga appeared to have the last laugh after chiming into the Maori’s 30-16 win with former Sydney Roosters star Mitchell only showing flashes of brilliance at No.1 before being moved back to his familiar three-quarter role in the second half.
However, Daley said he had seen enough to convince him Mitchell would be a success at fullback in the 2020 NRL season.
“We certainly weren’t going to get the finished product (on Saturday night) – he’s still learning the role,” Daley said.
“He will get better as the season goes on. He had some nice touches.”
Indeed he did.
Mitchell produced a sublime flick pass for Josh Addo-Carr when returning the ball in the 26th minute that looked to have set the Melbourne flyer try-bound, only for the winger to spill the ball.
And in the second half, Mitchell’s clever grubber behind the Maori defensive line forced a dropout.
Arguably in defence he was even more impressive, pulling off two try-saving tackles on Ponga (35th minute) and two-try man of the match Brandon Smith (56th).
But eyebrows were raised when he spent a second-half stint back in the centres with Alex Johnston slotted into fullback by Daley.
The Indigenous mentor said it was not a slight on Mitchell’s fullback audition, just a way to cope with their injury toll that claimed Wade Graham (ankle), Tyrone Roberts (ankle), Josh Kerr (knee) and Chris Smith (knee).
“I thought AJ (Johnston) was playing some good football and wanted to give him an opportunity in the No.1 and I wanted to give Latrell a spell because he was puffing a bit – I wanted to get him off,” said Daley.
“And with the injuries we had, Alex was going well so I didn’t want to take him out of there, just move Latrell back to left centre.”
Besides, Daley admitted Mitchell wasn’t handed any favours in his much-anticipated run in the No.1 jersey.
“It was hard for him to get involved in the game. The ruck speed wasn’t fast,” he said.
“And every time we went wide we sort of had to turn the ball back in the middle, or we just didn’t have enough numbers pushing.”
In the end, Mitchell ran 56m, had six tackle breaks, 61 kicking metres and one forced dropout.
Succhi
Roar Rookie
Ok - I went back to the fridge for another beer.
Cyril Snodgrss
Guest
By any standard,Mitchell had a poor game at fullback he went off for a rest and was switched to centre at one stage. he hardly ran the ball in the last play of the game he failed to even try and catch the bomb... the opposition scored overall rating.......-C.........needs to try much harder
Train Without A Station
Roar Guru
Why does he have an attitude problem? Because he wouldn't accept the Roosters offer without talking to anybody else?
Robert
Guest
Question Who run the game of rugby league The players.. coaches.. or Admin Leave our national anthem alone it's a part of our game as it's is part of Australia and it's history.
Dogs Boddy
Roar Rookie
I noticed this as well. He's always had a hot head, and he's always had an issue when he is losing. He really needs to start reigning that in soon or he's just going to be known as a grub.
Dogs Boddy
Roar Rookie
50m!!!! Strewth Succhi how big is your house??
Forty Twenty
Roar Rookie
Mitchell could have a very ordinary season for the Bunnies and miss the rep teams and the clubs who didn't sign or keep him would be breathing a million dollar sigh of relief. There can be a nasty surprise in the story though. The Bunnies make the finals and a relatively fresh and newly motivated Latrell Mitchell fires up and is the difference in a Bunnies title win. It's possible, don't you worry about that. I remember talking to a Manly fan who saw Fulton play in his early days for Manly and he said he would win games by himself. Mitchell has the raw materials to do the same thing.
uglykiwi
Roar Pro
Look at his last 5 minutes; his shot on Ponga... if that was Hargreaves that did that; the media would be calling for 4 weeks suspension... dog act in my opinion; then with a minute to go; bomb goes up.. you have to take them on the full.. let’s it bounce Walker picks up and scores; what does Mitchell do.. dives at his head and just misses... if he collects, walker would have been lucky to walk again... I reckon half the season suspended!!
damo
Roar Rookie
Absolutely agree- but of the run on, play 80 minutes at NRL level with minimal mistakes, give away very few penalties & initiate backline & off the cuff close to the ruck plays from FB which name do you think gets written on the team sheet?
Adam
Roar Guru
Yeah but at least Hodges ran the hard yards out of trouble. There I said it
Adam Bagnall
Roar Guru
I wouldn't call his performance a success. He is quickly becoming the next Jarryd Hayne where he gets praised for doing very little. One kick to set up a line drop out and suddenly he was great. No mention of the forced offload to Addo Carr which gifted a new set to the opposition in good field position. If that's what we can expect from him at fullback it will be a long season for the Rabbitohs
JohnnyRipe
Guest
Oh well either say it like it is , or don’t say it at all . This editing history to suit the narrative gives me the sheets. Fake news is a plague .
Superspud
Roar Rookie
You may be right but AJ is not in the same class as the other top fullbacks and they do have Braydon Burns there as well.
Apriledon
Guest
He'll be right ....he's still maturing and learning his trade ... his best football is still ahead of him. His only problem is he didn't sign up with the Cowboys.
TodaysWorld
Guest
You would know, given your reply to his comment
David
Guest
Childish comment.
Succhi
Roar Rookie
Agree with JA, he does himself no favours when things don’t go his way - takes a cheap shot, pushes, grabs and/or mouths off. Obviously had Justin Hodges as a mentor. Also, did the stats say he ran for 56m? I just had a leak and got a beer from the fridge - that was 50m!
damo
Roar Rookie
I feel like we saw exactly what is going to happen at the Rabbitohs this year- AJ at FB & LM at centre. WB is no ones fool & he isn't going to risk his legacy in his final two seasons pandering to the positional desires of a bloke who kills it centre.
Paul
Roar Guru
The fullback role, especially these days, is so much about communication as well, SS. If a bloke's attitude wavers at all as Mitchell's has done form time to time, it shows up immediately in his lack of communication. I get the impression Mitchell needs to learn this aspect of the game as well as the more technical parts and again, that's going to take time.
JohnnyRipe
Guest
By the way , didn’t The Roosters feature in a game last night ? First team ever to go back to back in the club challenge. But no mention of it on here , possibly because they didn’t get on the Folau hate band wagon.