South Sydney captain Adam Reynolds has jumped to the defence of under-fire superstar Latrell Mitchell, declaring the team will look after him following his controversial high shot on the weekend.
Mitchell won’t play again this season after accepting a six-match ban for a dangerous tackle on former Roosters teammate Joey Manu, which left the star centre with a depressed facial fracture.
The aftermath has seen a number of the NRL’s biggest voices come down hard on Mitchell over the incident, but Reynolds defended his teammate and claims the fullback would never “deliberately hurt someone.”
“He’s all right, we’ll look after him,” Reyolds told reporters today.
“Obviously the Match Review Committee has dealt with it now so it’s about us moving on.
“What’s happened has happened. We’ve moved past it, we’re looking forward.
“Obviously, we can’t look back now, we’ve got a pretty important week in front of us, obviously we’ve got to get things right. There’s only one game to go before the semi, so our focus is there.
“No player goes out there to deliberately hurt someone. That’s basically all I’m going to say about the situation.”
Reynolds last season famously spoke out in support of Mitchell after the fullback was highly criticised for his infamous COVID-19 breach alongside Storm star Josh Addo-Carr.
The Souths skipper was questioned on whether the media and public treatment of Mitchell had improved since.
“Everyone’s got strong opinions of people in the game, obviously some more than others. It’s how we handle it as individuals,” he added.
“It’s pretty easy to stand behind a microphone and bag someone or have comments about someone but you don’t really know what they’re thinking or feeling do we?”
Meanwhile, South Sydney winger Campbell Graham said he hoped the incident wouldn’t change Mitchell’s aggression and the way he approaches each game.
“I don’t want to see Latrell change his game at all. I love what he brings on the field, I love his aggression and his intent on the field,” Graham said.
“Sometimes things go wrong on the footy field and sometimes you’re on the wrong end of it.
“It’s a shame, you don’t ever want to see anyone from the opposition teams getting hurt, that’s not what our game is about.
“But there is a place for aggression and physicality in our game and Latrell brings that.
“Unfortunately sometimes it goes wrong and like I said no one wants to see that, I don’t want to see that but sometimes that’s just how it is.
“Latrell is definitely not the only player that gets it wrong, there’s plenty of players in the NRL that bring that same aggression.
“That’s what a lot of people love to see, we see it plenty of times throughout the year when players just get it wrong and some players might get hurt… it’s just one of those things about playing rugby league I guess.”
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