‘If you stand for nothing, you fall for everything’: Demetriou backs Indigenous stars

The Rabbitohs are as united as ever with coach Jason Demetriou launching a defence of his Indigenous stars who supported Ezra Mam.

Latrell Mitchell during South Sydney Rabbitohs training . 29/08/2023. Pic by Max Mason-Hubers

South Sydney coach Jason Demetriou has applauded Latrell Mitchell and Cody Walker for their continued support of Ezra Mam and called out former players who said NRL stars “should be in trouble” for commenting about Spencer Leniu’s racism case before it went to the judiciary.

Leniu was handed an eight-match ban for calling Broncos five-eighth Ezra Mam “a monkey”, with a number of Indigenous athletes – including South Sydney’s star duo – posting their thoughts on Instagram before Monday’s hearing.

Former Blues coach Brad Fittler criticised those posts, while polarising figure Anthony Mundine also attacked Mitchell online.

“I find it interesting when people are telling people to shut up when they’re sitting there having opinions every minute of the day,” Demetriou said at Sydney Airport before his side flew out to face the Broncos.

“The game is littered with opinions, the game is littered with agenda and people’s thoughts, whether they are right or wrong.

“Their stance doesn’t change, and it hasn’t changed for years for their whole time in first grade. They represent their people really well and I’m really proud of them for that.”

The Mundine criticism got personal, with the former NRL star attacking Mitchell’s form despite the fullback having a strong game in Las Vegas.

Mitchell and Anthony Mundine had a war of words on social media.

“I’ve known ‘Choc’ since I was a 14-year-old and I’ve been friends with him for a long time,” Demetriou said.

“I was disappointed that he used that platform for that, but I can’t control that.

“I’m sure those guys will have conversations away from that and sort it out and move on, which I’m pretty sure they have.”

Demetriou has called on his players to continue to voice their feelings no matter what the issue is, with the Rabbitohs coach declaring “if you stand for nothing, you fall for everything”.

“They’ve been fine. They understand who they’re representing and why they’re representing them. The players, staff and everyone at the club has their full support and is backing them 100 per cent,” he said.

“I’m really proud of the emotional intelligence they’ve shown throughout this process, but their biggest focus has been on training, and they’ve trained excellently.

“If you stand for nothing, you fall for everything.

Coach Jason Demetriou during South Sydney training. Pic by Max Mason-Hubers

“If you’re not prepared to stand up for what you believe, then where does life take you?

“I want all my players to be comfortable in their own skin, whether they are our Polynesian boys, our Australian boys, our Greek boys or our Indigenous players.

“What I love about this group is that they support each other.”

Meanwhile, Demetriou is confident Jai Arrow will return from a shoulder injury next month despite reports he could miss the rest of the season if he requires surgery to repair his rotator cuff.

“He’s got a rehab process over the next 3-4 weeks to strengthen his shoulder,” he said.

“I’m more than confident that he’ll be back playing for the rest of the season.

“It’s a shoulder injury that needs surgery, but like a lot of players do, they play with it.”