Latrell Mitchell’s old school style is once again giving the centre position rugby league relevance
ROOSTERS young gun Latrell Mitchell - AKA the next Greg Inglis - has begun to realise his potential in 2018 with stellar showings for his club and the NSW Blues. The scary thing? He has a tonne of room for improvement.
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IF MATT Gidley were still playing rugby league, he would have to defend against Latrell Mitchell.
“And honestly,” the Newcastle great shrugs, “I dunno what I’d do.
“I’ve thought about it. Considered how when the Roosters give him early ball, Latrell terrorises you with footwork. And if the ball arrives late, he just takes you on — powers straight over the top of you.
“We’ve seen him do it a number of times this year, even at State of Origin level.
“Then you’ve got his fend, his offload, all of it.
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“Actually, the more I think about it, the happier I am retired.”
Which is only half-true, of course.
For there was a time, kids, when this old Knights premiership hero enjoyed staring down men such as Mitchell. He did it every week, too.
Back in his day, and for roughly a decade from 1996, this gifted Novocastrian — a fella no less than Mark Gasnier hails his most troublesome rival — was simply one more character in an unending highlight reel of centres such as Steve Renouf, Justin Hodges, Ryan Girdler, Jamie Lyon, Matt Cooper, Gaz, even a wiry Aboriginal kid named Greg Inglis.
Even better, and like the WWE, every Superstar had his signature move.
Think, for example, the Gidley Flick. Or the GI Fend.
And how good Gasnier’s Shimmy, Shimmy, Whoosh?
“But then,” shrugs the St George Illawarra favourite, “rugby league changed. All the strike centres, they’ve basically disappeared.”
Which, when you think about it a little, is true.
Unthinkably, and almost overnight, superstar centres shifting from the front of Big League magazines to the back of milk cartons as the NRL has increasingly become overrun by rushing defences, Wrestlemania and a structured playbook that is all block-plays, decoys and percentages.
Increasingly, jerseys three and four have been tossed to larger, backrow types.
No longer do centres get time with Steeden in hand. Nor dollars in the salary cap.
Instead, they’re overshadowed by The Spine. Reformed as Red Zone bulldozers.
Even surpassed in the pecking order now by, gasp, wingers.
Yet just when we all had them killed off completely — or at the very least, joining Mr Miyagi and Biff Tannen in games of Alive Or Dead — along comes another indigenous kid from the NSW North Coast.
“A centre,” says legendary Queenslander Hodges, “who is bringing that fear factor back.”
So forget, at least for a moment, those comparisons with GI. Bypass, too, those yarns about fishing trips, new daughter Inala, even kangaroo try celebrations.
For the real story with Mitchell is how he’s starring in a position that, until recently, seemed suited to anything but superstars.
Indeed, if you named rugby league’s top 50 players right now, how many other centres would get a run?
Undoubtedly, Melbourne star Will Chambers is in. Likely Brisbane’s James Roberts, too.
“But there was a time where the old strike centre, they really led the game,” Hodges says. “When they produced wonderful battles every week.
“But these days, there’s only a handful of guys who you’d class in that role.
“A lot of coaches now seem to prefer backrow-type players. Or guys transitioning from fullback (such as Inglis, Jarryd Hayne, even Josh Dugan).
“Yet Latrell, he’s really making oppositions worry. If you’re defending against him, you have to watch his step, his fend, his power, all of it.
“For me, that’s the biggest thing about his game, he makes people fear him.”
And as for the last time another young centre boasted the same?
Yep, probably GI. A fella who himself labels the Roosters prodigy “freakish”.
Yet after playing the same number of first-grade games Mitchell has now (64), Inglis — at the Melbourne Storm — already had four more Origins, double the try assists, 92 additional tackle busts, more linebreaks, tries and tackles, a premiership ring, plus he averaged an extra 30m per game.
“So while you can’t compare numbers,” Hodges continues, “I just can’t believe how much Latrell looks like GI.
“The way he runs, fends, steps, even the aggression he’s now showing in defence ... it’s almost like a mirror image.”
Gasnier agrees.
“Although with that left-foot step, I actually think Latrell is better on his feet at the same age,” he insists. “Already, Latrell is rugby league’s best centre.
“And scarily, he also has the most improvement in him.
“When it comes to the levels this kid could get to, it’s completely untapped.”
And for proof, have a look at his past fortnight. When coming off an Origin triumph in only his first attempt, this kid Renouf calls “a GI clone” has completely destroyed both Manly and St George Illawarra in performances that not only totalled five tries, 44 points and a dozen tackle busts, but had Euan Aitken wake up on Monday covered in palm prints.
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“And I’m a huge wrap on Aitken,” Gidley said of the recent NSW Origin contender. “The way he beat GI earlier this year, you could count on one hand the times anyone has done that.
“So to then to see how Latrell played against the same guy, somebody so strong, talented, competitive ... it’s incredible.”
Yet as important is what you don’t see.
Says one NRL coaching rival: “The knock on Latrell used to be that if you ran enough traffic at him, he’d pack up for the day. Punch out early.
“But when we tried that this year — and we ran a lot of forwards at him, sometimes consecutively — he stayed in the contest. Starred.”
Which is why the Roosters now sit behind only Melbourne in premiership betting.
And why Gasnier insists the NRL must lower the interchange from its current eight to six or even four.
Apart from improving the game as a spectacle, or increasing grassroots participation, lowered interchanges will also “bring strike centres right back into it”, the Fox Sports analyst explains.
Giving them more time to have a crack one-on-one, Gasnier says. More opportunity to showcase talents, too.
And certainly more opportunity for genuine comparisons between Mitchell and the likes of GI, Gidley and co.
“Because when you look at Greg’s numbers as a young centre,” says Hodges, “you have to remember he was basically up against another star every week.”