Phil Gould says it’s clear that the Roosters believe Latrell Mitchell intended to take out Joseph Manu based on the club’s reaction to the incident, describing that notion as “childish” and “ridiculous”.
Speaking on Wide World of Sports’ Six Tackles with Gus podcast, Gould was asked directly by James Bracey: “Is it fair to say, Gus, the Roosters believe there was intent from Latrell?”
READ MORE: Phil Gould lifts lid on ‘highly emotional’ phone call with Roosters coach
To which Gould responded: “I think that’s now obvious. And I failed to see that, I failed to see that one player would do this deliberately to another.”
Gould has been strident in his view that the collision between Mitchell and Manu was a legitimate attempt at a tackle gone wrong and a terrible “accident”.
On the podcast he relayed the phone conversation he’d had with Roosters coach Trent Robinson defending that opinion, explaining the physics of the tackle had worked against the Rabbitohs star, yet Gould has over the last five days formed the view that the Roosters think the collision was the result of sinister intent.
He said the club’s reaction to the incident would have been different had they accepted that it had been careless or accidental before tearing holes in the argument that it was anything more.
“Why would (Latrell) say, ‘well alright, I don’t want to play finals football’? I’m happy to be suspended. I’m going to go and knock this bloke out,” Gould asked.
“So he’s run 30 metres across field to a tryscoring situation to one of the great players on the field and one of the great players in the game, who’s already torn them up a couple of times on the other side of the field, pulled out of tackles, miracle offloads, miracle flick passes, we know what kind of player Joey Manu is…
“Latrell goes across there to try and make a tackle and stop the ball and stop Joey Manu all in the one action. But in all of that he thinks in that 30 metres, ‘here’s a chance for me to knock that bloke out’. ‘Right. Hit him in the head and knock him out, this is my chance. And I’ll take it here on national TV right in front of 11 cameras. I’ll run across field and I’ll knock this bloke out and no one will see it.’
“Or, ‘I don’t want to play finals football. I’ll come across here and I’ll knock Joey Manu out and I don’t care if I get suspended for life.’
“You mean to tell me that there are thoughts going through his head that this is deliberate? That this is what he’s going to do? That’s just such a ridiculous and childish notion that there would be anything deliberate about it.”
Gould said that he had run through that same scenario with Robinson during their phone call in an attempt to illustrate his point that Mitchell had got the tackle wrong without any malicious intent.
He added that if the accepted view was that Mitchell’s attitude and tackling technique was a problem it’s likely that it was a problem created by the Roosters.
“As for his tackling style and his attitude and his aggression; he was coached at the Roosters for a long long time. If it’s now someone’s responsibility to coach it out of him, who coached it into him?” Gould said.
“So I think everyone gets highly emotional about these things and you’ve just got to ride it out.”
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