Latrell Mitchell must open his eyes to the big picture, writes Paul Kent
Latrell Mitchell is falling dangerously close to joining a particular group of former star players who made poor career decisions, with the future being disregarded for the present, writes Paul Kent.
Roosters
Don't miss out on the headlines from Roosters. Followed categories will be added to My News.
Latrell Mitchell suffered the most fatal injury in sport when he stubbed his toe on his scrapbook earlier this season.
It was some injury, such is the recent praise.
It put Mitchell immediately in danger of joining a forgotten legion of players, all on the rise, who lost sight of what earned them their success and they instead took the big money that soon, and inevitably, turned into the short money.
It is not often you watch on as one of the sad stories in sport is being written but, right here, a cautionary tale is being penned before our eyes.
Stream the 2019 Oceania Cup Live & On-Demand on KAYO SPORTS. Get your 14 day free trial and start streaming instantly >
Former players have urged Mitchell to stay where he is at Sydney Roosters, who seem to have lost patience with him. Teammates have reached out in recent times out of concern, the Rugby League Players Association has put its concern on record.
Yet none of them seem able to do anything, which is the NRL’s tragedy.
The reasons why, in as much as those around Mitchell all insist they are doing nothing but what is best for the young player even as the growing number of advisers and urgers all overlook the fact success is built on foundations.
Talent does not transfer easily. Success is the residue of hard work and good practices.
Mitchell’s problem is twofold; his youth and his ears. He has so many people whispering sweet deals in them, without the wisdom to discern, it is easy to become confused.
Sadly he has yet to mature to a point where he can distinguish the good advice from the bad.
Where it began, so far as anyone can tell, is after his brilliant game in round eight. He scored 26 points against Wests Tigers and many were quick to declare, such was his dominance, that he was quite simply the best player in the world.
His stats were mighty and surely backed up their assertions. Three tries, seven goals, six runs for 194m, which included five tackles busts, two line breaks, a line break assist and two try assists to go along with his three tries.
Shortly after, like clockwork, it emerged Canterbury had approached Mitchell through an intermediary and a 10-year $10 million offer was being spoken about.
It would reflect his status as the best player in the world.
Only, he wasn’t.
Behind the dazzling stats was the fact that all those numbers were generated from just six runs. How often could a performance like that be repeated?
Unfortunately it just got worse.
Mitchell was already in a managerial dispute with his long-time manager Steve Deacon. Deacon was there from the beginning but as Mitchell’s talent grew, and his worth with it, conspirators got in his ear and leveraged a small fissure between Mitchell and Deacon into an unworkable problem.
Mitchell went to market for a new manager and surprised most, and angered some, when he settled on Kalyn Ponga’s manager Wayde Rushton.
Then it began to get really murky.
Another manager, Mario Tartak, introduced Mitchell to Canterbury Leagues Club chairman George Coorey which is where the Bulldogs 10-year deal first stemmed from.
Everybody could see Mitchell was being romanced by greener pastures.
The Roosters looked on concerned. Rushton, a freshly signed contract in hand, remained unconcerned.
The Bulldogs football club had no official contact with Mitchell. The entire conversation was speculative.
Tartak was simply introducing Mitchell to Coorey and the potential of what might be.
Things began souring during the finals, though.
The Roosters turned up for their first finals game at the SCG and Mitchell turned up in a flash new Mercedes S63 Turbo. The car, it is believed, was provided by Tartak.
Beating Souths earned them a week off.
By now speculation about his future was being reported on weekly, if not daily.
Not only were the Bulldogs still hovering with their 10-year offer but more clubs, driven by more urgers, were circling Mitchell with promises of gold bullion.
Then it got worse.
With the week off Mitchell had a secret meeting with Tartak and Coorey.
At one point one of those loosely advising Mitchell told Coorey he could deliver Mitchell. All he needed was a small payment of $50,000. And he’d prefer it kept quiet.
Coorey, because he is not crazy, immediately knocked it back.
The secrecy around the meeting angered the Roosters. They saw it as disrespectful. Here they were fine tuning a premiership defence and Mitchell was secretly negotiating.
About then the Roosters reworked their plans. Brett Morris could play centre next season.
He is not the threat Mitchell is in attack but defensively he will be there for every minute, something Mitchell can’t be accused of.
Billy Smith is on the rise.
It reached a head Tuesday when Roosters coach Trent Robinson called Mitchell in and
Mitchell arrived believing he was meeting for his annual review.
Towards the end of the meeting Robinson told Mitchell what the Roosters believed he was worth. Mitchell did not pick up on the finality of it. He told Robinson he wanted to explore the market to find his value.
Later, the Roosters called his manager Wayde Rushton to say they had withdrawn their offer. It leaves Mitchell in his final season with a year to negotiate at a new club.
But the Roosters are happy to let him go now.
As late as Friday Rushton said up to nine clubs are interested in him for next season.
Then later on Friday the Bulldogs confirmed they were not one of them.
“We’re out,” chief executive Andrew Hill said on Friday.
“With all the speculation around the club and Latrell we thought it would be the right thing to let our members and fans know that we are not pursuing any interest in Latrell Mitchell.”
He declared it a definite no.
It came after a short talk with coach Dean Pay last week.
They simply did not believe he was right for the culture of a club in a rebuild.
Here it comes back to the Roosters. With an $800,000 a year offer on the table and for all the care they gave him, there was a clear belief he showed no gratitude for what the Roosters had done for him and were still doing.
A meeting between a senior player and club officials confirmed it when the player got honest. Mitchell, he said, did not quite fit with the playing group.
He always needed extra work. Robinson was understanding, going as far as allowing him to return to Taree mid-season to escape the mental stress of life in the NRL.
Robinson, the player said, would spend as much time preparing Mitchell and his quirk as he would the rest of the team combined. Was he worth the work? With indications the high maintenance will get worse? And at that price?
Canterbury’s formal withdrawal on Friday was a nod to those whispers.
“Jarryd Hayne all over again,” one club insider said.
It is a bad time for Mitchell to be getting bad advice.
His talent is undeniable.
But his consistency is missing for a player asking marquee money and his leadership, given the work that needs to be put into him, should already be there in a player commanding such money.
With money, Mitchell seems never to have been told, comes expectation.
Rushton is in a delicate position. Any sound recommendations he makes are undermined by rivals and their promises of more money, when the smart move is not that at all.
Calls from teammates are dismissed as agenda driven.
The smart decision disappeared Tuesday, when the Roosters took the kid gloves off and declared the offer gone.
AUSSIE TRIUMPH EMPHASISES CUP FLAW
When racecaller Matt Hill called Vow And Declare’s Melbourne Cup victory “a win for Australia” it was a savage, but barely recognised, indictment on what the Cup has become.
Vow And Declare was the first Australian bred winner since Shocking in 2009.
The Melbourne Cup was one of those races that shouldn’t make sense. It is a two-mile handicap when all the great races around the world are at weight-for-age, and that was always one of its charms. It’s what made it different, what gave the battler a chance.
There is no Kensei going on to win the Cup after winning a Grafton Cup, no Wendy Green driving across Australia, from Darwin to Melbourne, in a car she called “Rent-a-Dent” to watch her horse run when Bart Cumming promised he could train Rogan Josh to win the Cup.
No old trainers like Laurie Laxon walking ahead of Empire Rose, picking up stones because he feared the great mare might bruise a hoof.
The days of school teachers around the country wheeling a TV into the classroom to watch the race have been replaced by left-wing protests under the misguided notion of animal cruelty.
There is no heartbeat, no romance, to soften their stances or to sell to wide-eyed children.
Instead, the race is contested by blueblood bred horses with rich owners who commit the greatest sin of all for a race built on history, which is the sin of being boring.
It is impossible to line up form to find the winner. Horses are starting without ever having run a race in Australia.
Betting blind into that appeals only to the poker machine mentality.
Betting revenue has declined year on year for the past six years. TV coverage was down 40 per cent on last year.
The Cup grew on the possibility that anybody could one day own a Cup winner, and the stories of those who did.
The industry is in denial, insisting the internationals have brought prestige to the race.
Shortly before his death Cummings, the Cups King, was written off as mad because he said they should put a cap on the international horses.
Tuesday’s race had 20 of the 24 starters bred overseas.
Not for the first time Bart was right.
Originally published as Latrell Mitchell must open his eyes to the big picture, writes Paul Kent