NRL guru Phil Gould has slammed “childish” accusations about the intent of Latrell Mitchell’s hit on Joseph Manu, arguing that the South Sydney star is only being punished severely by the NRL because of his former Roosters teammate’s sickening injury.
Speaking on Nine’s 100% Footy, Gould defended his take from Friday night after Manu was clobbered by Mitchell in a vicious high shot that sent him to hospital needing season-ending surgery. The incident all but ended Mitchell’s season as he is now facing a minimum six-week and maximum nine-week ban.
Gould was angered that Mitchell had been demonized for his actions in the game, no matter the impact on Manu and concluded that had the centre not suffered such a gruesome injury, Mitchell would not have received the same charge from the NRL match review committee.
“The reckless charge comes from these images [of Manu] all over the paper,” Gould said on the panel.
“I’ve got no doubt they are influenced by the injuries.
“You cannot defend it against the type of media you have today,” Gould added when asked about why the Rabbitohs or coach Wayne Bennett have not protested the charge for Mitchell at the judiciary.
“You get hounded down. You learn in football there are some fights you can win, and some you can’t. You can’t win the fight against idiots in the media who want to glorify or pump it up into something it shouldn’t be.
“I would have charged him with a careless tackle. He’s got loading, [and] could have ended up with four weeks anyway.”
Gould defended his initial take on Friday night of the Mitchell hit, where he asserted that those “calling for Mitchell’s head” were “from people who have never played the game or been in that position like he was defending his try-line.”
“People want to contradict me or criticise me for what I said, but I’ve got the courage and the conviction, I’ll say what I like and I’ll say what I believe, not what someone is telling me to say,” Gould said.
The former Roosters and NSW Blues coach then went into great detail explaining why Mitchell did not deserve the backlash he’s received, and called those slamming him as “childish”.
“What happened here I believe is accidental. I don’t see anything here in any way, shape or form that is a deliberate act,” he said.
“To suggest its thuggery is childish. To suggest Latrell Mitchell should be rubbed out of the game is childish.
“You obviously don’t understand the impact of the tackle and how it can go wrong. I defy anyone to tell me Latrell Mitchell ran 30 metres across field and said, ‘I’m going to knock Joey Manu out here with a shoulder’.
“The way the tackle took place with all the things that would have been going through Latrell’s head as he came across the field … he has to come across and stop him. It’s a heavy collision and it goes wrong.
“Manu actually ducks back in to get an offload on the inside, which takes away the protection… under Latrell he gets himself vulnerable to the collision.
“For all those that are experts… tell me what he should have done? Tell me what tackle you want him to make in that situation?
“It went wrong.
“Everyone wants to punish someone when someone gets hurt.
“I don’t believe just because a man gets hurt, someone has got to be punished for it.
“In the current climate you can charge him with careless… I don’t think there’s any reckless intent whatsoever.
“No-one wants to see the injury, but these things happen in football at high speed.”
Gould believed that the many factors surrounding the incident in question only “exacerbated” the drama, with the shocking “bad luck” injury Manu suffered, the historic rivalry between Souths and the Roosters, and the narrative of Mitchell playing against his old team.
On Saturday Manu underwent facial reconstruction surgery in Brisbane to fix a depressed fracture of his cheekbone.
On his Instagram account on Sunday he thanked “everyone for all the support and kind messages” and confirmed he was “in good spirits and recovering well.”
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