Souths coach Jason Demetriou has called for life bans for fans who allegedly racially abused Latrell Mitchell as he left the field at half time of their 16-10 defeat to Penrith at Bluebet Stadium.
Demetriou was visibly angered by the alleged incident, in which a teenage fan is reported to have called Mitchell a “black dog”. The fan was ejected and the police are investigating.
“Where does it end?” said Demetriou. “It’s just not on. I shouldn’t have to come here as a coach and lead a group of players to be racially abused. It’s not on.
“It’s not what our game is about and we have to stamp it out completely. The NRL clubs have to get rid of it. Life bans, anybody wants to racially abuse, get them out of the game, we don’t want their support. It has to end.
“It’s not the first time we’ve come here as a club and our players have been racially abused,” he concluded, referring to the 2018 incident where Greg Inglis suffered similar abuse at Penrith Stadium.
The supporter who allegedly made the comment was reported to be a teenager in a Sydney Roosters jersey and was said to be at the game with their father.
Mitchell and several Souths players could be seen reacting to the teenager, with Latrell saying ‘What did you say?’ and shaking his head as he left the pitch.
The fan was then removed and police could be seen talking to fans in the vicinity of the tunnel.
(Photo by Cameron Spencer/Getty Images)
“From what I understand, security have done a great job identifying who it is, the club has done a great job of identifying who it is and now we’ll take it through the police,” said Demetriou.
“We’ll go all the way, as far as we can with it. As a club, we’ll stand right by Latrell.
“He’s sick of it. Why wouldn’t he be? He should be able to come here as a star of our game and not be racially abused. Who cares what colour he is?
“It’s not on. I don’t understand how that happens in our day and age. I can’t get my head around how a young kid thinks that’s the language to be using. I don’t care what jersey he’s wearing. Get them out of our game.”
Demetriou also backed up Mitchell’s character, and added that he constantly deals with such abuse. In 2021, he reported two men to the police after receiving racist abuse on social media, resulting in the police pressing charges.
“Latrell answers his critics with his character every week,” he said.
“He just continually shows the quality person that he is. Again this is not just something that Latrell cops on the footy field. This is something that he has had to deal with his whole life. All Indigenous people do.
“I just can’t get my head around it. I don’t understand in Australia how anyone is raised like that. It makes no sense to me whatsoever.
“Latrell is a real role model in our game. We love him at our club. He stands for the Indigenous people. He stands for good people.
“I just get worried about Latrell or any Indigenous player in our organisation. Where, as a game, do we say no, no, it is not happening?
“There has to be hard and fast rules. If anyone even comes close to being racial they have to be completely ruled out of our game. And if it is a young kid, rule his parents out as well.
“It is just not on. Why should you have to cop it? I can’t understand how he feels? I haven’t had to grow up with this stuff. But he has and other people have and I can’t get my head around it.
“If it was my child I would be absolutely ashamed and embarrassed that my child has even thought to speak like that.”
Abdo vows to stamp out racist fans from NRL
NRL chief executive Andrew Abdo has vowed to eradicate racism from the sport as he promised to sanction and educate any fan found to have abused Mitchell.
Abdo on Friday stopped short of promising a life ban for a spectator accused of racially abusing Mitchell at Penrith on Thursday night, but said the game would come down hard on any offenders.
“The message to those outlying individuals is very clear – you are not welcome in our game,” Abdo said. “You’re going to be called out, and not just by players but by fans and officials. We self-regulate in our game. And eventually it becomes eradicated.
“That has to be our goal and our vision. We will do all we can to make sure we leave the game better than we found it. And that means that these types of incidents are not occurring.”
Abdo confirmed the NRL’s integrity unit were working with NSW Police on the matter, with the investigation the game’s top priority.
Rabbitohs CEO Blake Solly was furious. “This is a deeply disappointing situation, something that our players should never be subjected to,” Solly said on Friday. “We feel as a club that the strongest possible action needs to be taken against the perpetrators.
(Photo by Naomi Baker/Getty Images)
“Latrell is a strong, proud Biripi man. He stands up for himself, his teammates, his club, his family and his people. This should never be discouraged by the actions of some people with archaic views.”
Solly labelled the abuse as abhorrent and antiquated, and called for fans of all clubs to help stamp it out by immediately reporting any slur seen online or heard at a ground.
“If you’re a fan in the stands and you hear it, see it or read it, then call it out – just as the players from both teams responded to it in the tunnel at the time,” Solly said.
“This immediate response from Rabbitohs and Panthers players who heard the remark is the response everybody should take.”
Two fans who racially abused Greg Inglis at Bluebet Stadium in 2018 were handed indefinite bans from the NRL at the time.
Robinson, Panthers, Cleary voice support
The Panthers swiftly released a statement pledging their support to an investigation.
“Penrith Panthers is aware of an alleged incident involving a rugby league fan that occurred at half-time of the Round 2 match against South Sydney Rabbitohs at BlueBet Stadium,” it read.
“The NRL was immediately informed of the alleged matter, and the club will work with the NRL to investigate the situation. At this point, Panthers will make no further comment.”
(Photo by Cameron Spencer/Getty Images)
Mitchell’s former coach, Trent Robinson, offered an apology on behalf of his club because the person who allegedly made the abusive remark was wearing a Roosters jersey.
“It’s really disappointing. We just don’t represent the Roosters in that way. It’s not how we want to act as Roosters,” Robinson said on Friday morning. “Whether we like it or not, they were wearing our colours. We have to accept that. But it doesn’t mean they are a Rooster.
“If you want to act like that, and abuse people racially like that, then that is not who we are. It’s not who we want to be. We need to be better than (that). I’m apologising from the Roosters to Latrell, even though it’s not directly us. Indirectly one of our fans did that, and it’s not right.”
Robinson did, however, admit he was not surprised by the situation. “Because that’s where we are still at as a country,” Robinson said. “It’s pretty standard. Some people are casual racists and some people are overt like it was last night. That’s where we’re at.
“People don’t like strong Indigenous voices like Latrell. They would rather he stay quiet and in his box and not express it in that way.
“We are still not at a point where we are able to accept really strong Indigenous voices in this country. That’s really disappointing.”
Trent Robinson (Photo by Jason McCawley/Getty Images)
Robinson also backed South Sydney coach Jason Demetriou’s calls for life bans for the offender and their parents. But as someone who watched Mitchell confront online trolls publicly in 2019, Robinson played down fears the fullback could be driven out of the game.
“He’s too strong for that,” Robinson said. “He will get stronger and stronger from this. This isn’t the first time we’ve seen it with Latrell.
“He understands it is part of his life … He will use it in his way and the right way.”
Panthers co-captain Nathan Cleary was devastated for his Kangaroos teammate.
“It’s just disgusting,” Cleary said. “There’s no point in a game where you should feel like you have the right to say stuff like that to a player. I hope they never come back here. They’re not fans if they’re saying that stuff.”
London Panther
Roar Rookie
Racism is a complex issue. Part of it is easy to spot, like some young idiot yelling at a player as he walks up the players tunnel. Some is less easy to spot and reflects us imposing our own cultural and racial norms onto others and judging them based on that. In terms of Latrell’s big personality irking people being somewhat racially motivated, it is 100% what I am implying. I look at myself and need to think about my own behaviours; I will admit that I find Latrell’s comments boorish, but I need to think if that is driven by my ‘white privilege’. Does that make me racist? Maybe; we all need to look at ourselves and give serious thought to what biases our own upbringings have provided us. Similarly, how much of Luai’s ‘deficiencies of character’ are racially motivated? He embraces a ‘gangsta rap’ persona that is popular with islander and other groups of colour, but by all accounts he is an upstanding member of his community that is quite generous with his time and is almost universally known as a good father. He is niggly on the field, but so are Munster, Smith, Radley etc and they are celebrated as characters. When Luai (or for that matter Walker or Mitchell) niggle, they are grubs.
Michael Keeffe
Roar Guru
Watched the footy show this morning and I’ll give credit to Johns for not hiding from his past mistakes and talking openly about them and highlighting how much hurt his previous comments have made.
GB
Roar Rookie
You might want to read your last paragraph again. You seem to suggest that Latrell's "big character irks people because Latrell is "a proud aboriginal man". That's rac.ist mate. Luai's "deficiencies of character" are deficiencies of character. That wouldn't be improved by changing his race. I know Brexit was Australia's version of "stop the boats" to keep foreign illegals out but I'm starting to feel concerned that you think race is a topic that is relevant to justify, excuse or overlook bad behaviour and deficiencies of character. I would have thought race should be irrelevant? To me it is in any case.
London Panther
Roar Rookie
But racism isn’t just calling someone a terrible name, it is treating and judging them differently because of their race. So the question is if Luai was a blond haired boy from rural QLD would he still have ‘deficiencies of character’, or would he be celebrated as an Australian larrikin? Same with Latrell; his ‘big character’ irks people. Would it still be so irksome if he wasn’t a proud aboriginal man?
London Panther
Roar Rookie
To be fair, we don’t know anything about the reasons why Ricky had a go at Salmon. Ricky just blew up and then his press mates sabotaged Salmon’s character through innuendo and suggestion, but Ricky was too cowardly to actually accuse him of anything.
criag
Roar Rookie
Yes, obviously an awful thing and people are right to be upset…which is a good thing. It means racism is something our society is not tolerating. We should remember though, he is 15, if reports are true – his brain’s not fully developed. A ban for a couple of years and education as to how much racial slurs can hurt to give him a chance to become a better person would be a better outcome, IMO. Let’s not write a kid off for life. I think we also need to teach our kids to enjoy sport but to give some perspective.
G money
Roar Rookie
damn, if true, that is so low
Heyou
Roar Rookie
Yes I get that. I am always hoping for positive change but singling out the one from the many for punishment will never achieve that. It could do more harm than good. So yeah…wishful thinking on my part.
Glory Bound
Roar Rookie
The difference is that the criticism of Luai is based on his deficiencies of character not his race. Latrell on the other hand may be disliked by some because of his big personality and flamboyant nature but he is continually suffering racial abuse not criticism of his character. There is no excuse to bring race into it.
Maxtruck
Roar Rookie
Made an offensive remark about Stuarts autistic daughter
Robbo
Roar Rookie
Its a sound thought in principle but why should Lattrell have to take time out of his day and face that person with composure. And then how often should he have to do that?
Robbo
Roar Rookie
Pretty sure you can go again and not be recognised
Noel
Roar Rookie
Yeah. Gallen copped a $10k fine. Think they need to ramp it up to be taken seriously.
G money
Roar Rookie
what did salmon actually do to get ricky riled up like that?
G money
Roar Rookie
hasn't been a racist comment by a player in years, but yeah, next player to do it is gonna sit out for lonnngggg time
Big Daddy
Roar Rookie
Nat, it sounds like some sort of p**sing competition - my bloke gets picked on 50 x more than your bloke . As you said a lot of blokes dislike Mitchell and various other players not because of their being indigenous but for various other reasons but most people and i mean most people on this site normally draw the line in their feedback . Abdo says he's going eradicate this type of behaviour but when it's cultural thing educating the public is very difficult almost impossible as there will always be someone if old enough gets liquored up . I've been to Parramatta a few times and been abused for having an opposition jumper on in a certain area so it doesnt have to an indigenous person being abused it can be anybody any where any time .
Heyou
Roar Rookie
So…an interesting article and a thought-provoking, sometimes heated, sometimes quite derogatory discussion ensued. ‘Where does it end?’ I don’t know, but I think the key question is ‘Where does it begin? the seed the root the soil…’ Laying this on one teenager as the evil incarnate and worthy of a life ban and criminal charges is going a step too far in my humble opinion. This is a period in this young person’s life where he aimed a racial slur at a footballer and It was crass, uncalled for and pretty awful for the person slurred. That person is sick of dealing with such abuse. No one should cop racist abuse. It’s a very low blow. But it’s not isolated in this young person’s life I’m sure. Where did the idea that it would be ok to racially abuse someone come from? In the real world racial slurs are heard from all walks of life. It’s accepted as a bit of a joke in school yards and it’s not often called out. People, particularly young people, make mistakes and they don’t get the flak and the angry attention of millions of people. This young person, and the family, will be dealing with this in the eyes of their community and the wider RL community and national community. This crime is committed daily, hourly, by the minute around the globe and to single one young person out for public shame is going a step too far. I don’t have the answers that will help end racial abuse. I have been racially abused and it’s hateful. But there must be other better ways to deal with it. Perhaps the dignified, mature victim of the racial abuse would accept a heartfelt apology face to face? Perhaps this mature man could have a conversation with the young person and explain why it is such a horrible, unacceptable thing to be a racially abused person - to explain how it feels and why it is unacceptable. You may come at me as you wish but as a parent and an educator I’m loath to single out one to ensure that the many won’t commit such an act, being fearful of the consequences. Have I made any sense?
Maxtruck
Roar Rookie
Rick Stuart has a shot at a 24 year old referencing something he did when he was 12 Gets stood down for a week, fined, and plenty of calls for a public stoning. 15 year old kid says something obnoxious and Demetriou wants him banned from league for life. Is Demetriou at fault for targeting a minor ? Or should he butt out and leave it to NSW Police, If Mitchell wants to pursue the incident
GP
Guest
9/10 when I see security hustle people out, they aren't asking for ID. The less they know, the less work they need to do after. They just want you out. Which is a shame tbh. The security are just as culpable in enabling this type of fan garbage.
Richard POWELL
Roar Rookie
Just concentrate on your own job Jason. Leave racial abuse to the police. Souths had better check their windscreens after 35 missed tackles and 11 errors whilst in possession which allowed Penrith to march up field at will. Mitchell is overrated and Walker needs to control the red mist of his emotions.