State of Origin 2023: Latrell Mitchell’s injury situation to create Blues camp overhaul
State of Origin camps are set for a big overhaul following the injury situations surrounding NSW stars Latrell Mitchell and Cameron Murray.
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They’re our $1m players so we want some medical input.
In a bid to protect injured stars Latrell Mitchell and Cam Murray, his team’s $1m-a-season assets, South Sydney chief executive Blake Solly has called for a State of Origin overhaul where club medical staff are allowed inside NSW camp to help treat their club’s injured players.
And Solly’s proposal received immediate support from the NSWRL, ensuring medical protocols are about to change.
Solly defended his club’s head physio, Eddie Farah, appearing at Blues training on Wednesday to carefully monitor Mitchell and Murray.
While Farah didn’t interrupt the session, he was sent to Coogee Oval to ensure the pair, especially Mitchell with a calf injury, warmed up in the same methodical and systematic manner they do at Souths training.
Since returning from the US last year, where he visited reconditioning guru Bill Knowles, Mitchell goes through a well-organised warm-up process before every training session to ensure he is ready to play.
Farah wanted the NSW staff to know that information. Solly claimed club physios and doctors should be permitted into representative camps to oversee their players’ training and preparation.
“With Cameron and Latrell both injured going into camp for game two, we thought it would be best to work with the NSW medical and high performance staff to give both players the best chance of playing next Wednesday night,” Solly said.
“We think this should be the model employed for all representative camps when players go in carrying injuries.
“It seems pretty sensible that the professionals who treat them and work with them every single day are allowed to continue that treatment during a representative schedule, supported by the staff who are appointed by the states or Kangaroos.
“This would help staff with NSW, Queensland or the Kangaroos to get a player on the field in the best shape possible.
“The NSW staff have a role to play but it’s important the medical staff here at Souths, who treat them every day, have some input too.”
NSWRL chief executive David Trodden agreed with Solly, saying: “I think it’s a totally sensible approach to take. Nobody knows those players better than their own clubs. I think it’s a perfectly sensible model moving forward.
“The ability of NSWRL to get the best performance from those players is enhanced by club staff, whether they are doctors or physios. It is a good thing and we would always support and encourage it.
“That’s not to say we don’t have total confidence in our own medical staff. Nathan Gibbs is arguably the most experienced sports physician in Australia so we’re really lucky to have someone of his expertise in our camp.
“And I think Nathan would also support the proposition that his job is made easier and facilitated by assistance from club staff. There is no us and them with the clubs, there’s only us as one.”
Solly stressed Farah wasn’t sent to Coogee for fear Mitchell and Murray would be pushed too hard at training.
“We think generally the information flow from rep teams back to clubs could always be improved (in regards) to what the players are doing physically in camp and that should be fed back to the clubs as a matter of course,” Solly said.
“Eddie would have worked with the NSW staff and supported the players to get on the field. From what I can understand, they (NSW medical staff) were happy Eddie and any other member of our medical team could drop in on camp when required. It’s important from a club point of view to have them fit and healthy.
“Speaking to Latrell and Cameron, they are desperate to play as well. We want to do everything we can to make sure they are on the field against Queensland.”
Concerns remain over Mitchell’s fitness with a decision on his injury to be reached sometime over the weekend.
Public enemy: Blues’ warning for Tino after hurting ‘one of ours’
—Brent Read
The NSW Blues are ready to dish out their own form of retribution to Queensland enforcer Tino Fa’asuamaleaui at Suncorp Stadium next week, declaring he hurt “one of ours” when Blues hooker Api Koroisau was left nursing a badly broken jaw.
Fa’asuamaleaui was cleared to play in the second State of Origin game by the match review committee after they deemed his contact with Koroisau last weekend was within the rules – three weeks earlier he was charged over a similar incident involving Bulldogs hooker Reed Mahoney.
NSW coach Brad Fittler was among those who were critical of Fa’asuamaleaui in the wake of the Koroisau clash and it clearly struck a nerve with his Blues teammates as they head to Brisbane hoping to create history.
Asked whether he thought Fa’asuamaleaui should have been suspended over the Koroisau clash, NSW second rower Liam Martin said: “Probably a little bit. I am glad he is (playing) so I can give it to him. It sucks, especially with Api going.
“It is part of the modern game, those bumpers. Probably got it a bit wrong with those two. Got to try to get under him I guess.”
Second-rower Hudson Young added: “Definitely as a forward pack, he has obviously hurt one of ours. You can’t do anything illegal in the game these days.
“I think going out there and beating them will hurt them more than anything.”
Fa’asuamaleaui’s running technique will be under the microscope at the Cauldron following a pair of incidents that have driven a wedge through the rugby league community.
He was charged with dangerous contact over the clash with Mahoney and then cleared after an ugly incident that prematurely ended Koroisau’s Origin campaign.
Experts and officials from either side of the border were at odds over the incident. Regardless, Koroisau’s absence has gifted Damien Cook an opportunity to resume his NSW career.
Cook said he was willing to give Fa’asuamaleaui the benefit of the doubt that there was nothing intentional in the Koroisau clash.
“You wouldn’t like to think Tino was looking to cause any harm,” Cook said.
“I would like to think that players, not just Tino but other front rowers, that it is a technique thing. We’re (hookers) definitely smaller and it is disappointing how bad that injury was because Api would be starting all three games here – it is his time.
“I would like to hope it was something that wasn’t done intentionally. I would give him the benefit of the doubt that it wasn’t.”
Cook was clearly delighted to regain his NSW No. 9 jersey but there was also a tinge of disappointment at the way he won it back. He and Koroisau were teammates in Origin last year and engaged in a friendly rivalry for the NSW No. 9 jersey this year.
Koroisau was named for the opening game of the series but that all changed last weekend when Fa’asuamaleaui brought Koroisau’s campaign to a premature end.
Cook acknowledged he felt for his former teammate.
“Of course I do,” he said.
“We have the same ambitions and goals and that is to play NRL, play for your state, play for your county. I don’t find him an enemy at all.
“He has been my teammate. So I was more than happy for him like he has been happy for me in the past. Very unfortunate. When I first thought what had happened to him, that is all I was worried – him.”
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