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If you carve up the entire NRL playing talent, there’s probably less than 10 per cent who truly make a difference to their team’s chances of winning and losing when they’re on the field.
Latrell Mitchell is undoubtedly one of those elite talents who not only lifts South Sydney’s likelihood of victory on the field but makes everyone else around him better.
Calling a player a star is one of the most overused terms in the NRL and it is totally subjective.
To meet that criteria does a player have to be one of the best of the best in their position or someone who has established themselves in rep footy or can it apply to those who might not fill either of these requirements but are crucial to their club’s prospects.
Of the 469 players who have been used across the opening 22 rounds of the season, around 150 have played less than 10 games, aka fringe first-graders.
(Photo by Mark Kolbe/Getty Images)
Among the rest, there are a lot of solid first-graders who fill their role but, not to diminish their importance, their team’s chances don’t rise or fall too greatly based on their performance.
Whatever your benchmark for what constitutes a star in the NRL, the 26-year-old who will wear the No.1 jersey for the Rabbitohs against Cronulla in Perth on Saturday night meets all the benchmarks.
None of this is breaking news but what is important to note is his impact on the Bunnies as they try to mount one of their trademark late-season charges in pursuit of the famous club’s 22nd premiership.
Souths are again on the outside of the top four looking in as the competition hurtles towards the finals with only four rounds left after this one.
Due to a combination of Mitchell’s nagging calf injury, the burden that comes with Origin and a few tight losses where they, Souths are sixth with an 11-9 record
The upside for them is that their remaining draw – the swiftly sinking Sharks, St George Illawarra, Newcastle, the bye and the Roosters – contains opponents all lower than them on the ladder.
But they still have to leapfrog the Raiders, who are one win ahead, and the Storm or the Warriors, a further two points away, over the final month of the season to assure themselves of an all-important top-four berth.
Mitchell was heavily involved in his return last Friday from more than two months out with his calf problem, which went from ruling him out of Origin I to the entire series and a couple more NRL rounds to boot.
He got through the entire 80 minutes, with some extra help from the physio keeping his troublesome calf warm through nearly the entire half-time break, making 171 metres and 11 tackle breaks, which was more than double any teammate, in the 32-18 triumph over the Tigers in Tamworth.
Souths coach Jason Demetriou made the surprising admission that Mitchell could have returned a couple of weeks earlier but they wanted to ensure he was back to peak fitness before returning.
That decision led to the short-term pain of a 36-20 loss to Brisbane a fortnight ago but if it means he is able to get through the rest of the season without any further injury problems, the gamble will be worth it long term.
Since he joined the club in controversial circumstances after an acrimonious split with the Roosters after back-to-back premierships, Mitchell’s influence at the Bunnies has been monumental.
They have won 44 of the 63 matches he has played in the cardinal and myrtle at a tick under 70% but when he’s been sidelined through injury, suspension or representative duty, their record plummets to 19-17 at a 52.78% clip.
His impact on their fortunes is similar but not quite as drastic as Manly’s reliance on Tom Trbojevic in recent years – the Sea Eagles are 36-18 when he’s played in the past five years but 16-41-1 when he’s been absent.
The Trell Factor
| Rabbitohs’ record | Record with Latrell | Record without Latrell | |
| 2020 | 14-9 | 10-4 | 4-5 |
| 2021 | 22-5 | 14-3 | 8-2 |
| 2022 | 16-11 | 11-6 | 5-5 |
| 2023 | 11-9 | 9-4 | 2-5 |
| Overall | 63-34 (64.9%) | 44-17 (69.9%) | 19-17 (52.8%) |
Souths are an anomaly in the NRL in that their halfback, Lachlan Ilias, is an important part of their side but they don’t rely on him nearly as much as other teams do on their No.7.
Cody Walker splits the playmaking duties pretty much 50-50 with Ilias while Rabbitohs captain Cameron Murray (25 touches per game) is one of the NRL’s most hands-on locks with Penrith’s Isaah Yeo, Roosters firebrand Victor Radley and Tohu Harris his only peers who average more possessions.
When the Rabbitohs have Mitchell, Murray, Walker and hooker Damien Cook on the field, they have gone 38-13 over the past four seasons, an elite winning percentage of 74.5%.
Even though Penrith have still exceeded that high watermark in the same timeframe, winning an astounding 83.3% during their golden run, it shows that Souths have the potential to bring down the Panthers if they lock horns in the playoffs.
Demetriou on Friday at his captain’s run media conference in Perth said what you’d expect about being wary of the Sharks even though they’ve lost three straight and added that he expected Mitchell would be better for the run after blowing off the cobwebs last week.
“We made the decision to leave him out of the Broncos game to make sure that that was safe for him and making sure that we’re getting him in the big games that we need him in, and that’s tomorrow night,” he said.
Latrell Mitchell greets fans after South Sydney’s win in Tamworth. (Photo by Jenny Evans/Getty Images)
When asked about Phil Gould’s contentious comments earlier in the week that Mitchell was supposedly yet to deliver “on the big stage”, it was water off a duck’s back to Demetriou.
“(They were) interesting, Phil can say what he wants. That’s what he’s paid to do, give opinions on other teams but we know what Latrell can do. I love having him at the club, I love coaching him and I know the players know what he’s capable of.
“We are excited to have him back and the only way to answer critics is out there on the field, get through these next few weeks and then perform on the big stage at the back end of the year.
“I think he finds it disappointing that in his first game back someone’s saying those sort of things but he’s a superstar of the game and he understand that that comes with having critics at some times.”
Now how many superstars are in the NRL, a level above your stock-standard stars, that’s an even tougher debate.