Latrell Mitchell photo says it all as NRL storm erupts
Latrell Mitchell has poked the bear of just about every NRL fan with a simple photo that appears to say much more than it looks.
Latrell Mitchell is cold-blooded.
A pensive photo pose is all the Rabbitohs star needed to poke the bear of just about every fan in the NRL after Queensland blew NSW away to win the State of Origin series opener 38-10 at Accor Stadium in Sydney.
Mitchell was overlooked by new NSW coach Michael Maguire and rumours swirled about the real reason he missed out.
Mitchell had earlier this year declared he planned to make himself unavailable for selection but backflipped in the days leading up to the NSW team announcement.
In a sign of how far the gun fullback has fallen down the pecking order, Mitchell wasn’t selected despite Tom Trbojevic and Bradman Best being injured.
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Maguire elected to go with Stephen Crichton and Joseph Sua’ali’i in the centres, and it was Sua’ali’i’s send-off that ultimately broke the Blues’ back just seven minutes into the game.
It’s why a photo shared by Mitchell on his Instagram stories on Wednesday night appears to say much more than his thoughtful pose suggests.
The photo shows Mitchell sitting on the couch and presumptively staring in the direction of a TV.
The seemingly innocent enough photo is something of a slap in the face for Maguire after Sua’ali’i made history for the shortest NSW debut in the records of the state versus state rivalry after a head high tackle on Queensland fullback Reece Walsh.
Many fans were all saying the same thing about the photo with most interpreting Mitchell’s post as a savage message about his omission from the team.
Others, however, have been divided by suggestions, Mitchell’s post was a simple message to Maguire that he is ready to step up to the challenge.
this is so funny
— Nat Hanrahan (@nat_sinclair93) June 5, 2024
Latrell Mitchell YOU are a NSW blue in game 2 pic.twitter.com/yERcb3LBcs
Latrell’s thoughts on the game.
— Lachlan McKirdy (@LMcKirdy7) June 5, 2024
Surely gotta get him in for game two.#Originpic.twitter.com/WrY5ghxjAS
The term “Latrell” was trending on X, formerly known as Twitter, on Wednesday night with fans calling for Mitchell to be re-called for Game 2.
With Sua’ali’i suspended through to the week before the series finale in Brisbane and with Trbojevic also unlikely to return before Game 3, Mitchell’s only competition for a re-call is Newcastle’s Bradman Best, who is scheduled to return from an injury in two weeks.
Queensland Origin great Cooper Cronk last month said he was surprised Mitchell was left out of the NSW team.
It came after rumours Mitchell met with Maguire in secret recently with their conversation reportedly leaving Maguire with an impression that Mitchell was not “overly obsessed” with playing for NSW.
Mitchell responded to news reports by writing on Instagram: “FACTS: I specifically said to Madge via phone call if I’m playing well enough for me to be in your side then I’m in 100%.
“I bleed blue, l love the rivalry and the Origin arena.
“All I can do now is focus on South’s and winning more games.
“Good luck to the boys in blue I’ll be cheering NSW all the way.”
Cronk said at the time he understood why Mitchell was not selected — if Mitchell was in fact not in a good head space.
“I get why he’s not (in the team),” Cronk said on Fox League.
“You can’t go down that path of picking (Dylan) Edwards and (Cameron) McInnes and then picking Latrell because that goes away from the way you’re setting up your team.
“But when Latrell puts it together there’s hardly anyone that can stop him. But Latrell needs to be in the right headspace for him to play in the big moments and obviously Madge has had a conversation to think that he’s not.”
Despite this, Cronk eluded to the fact the NSW team would miss Mitchell’s ability to produce something from nothing.
“The one thing that NSW will need – because if it is tight, if it is close, if there is fatigue – who is going to be the game breaker,” he said.
“It’s going to have to be them (Jarome Luai and Nicho Hynes) because the rest of those guys, Luai has done tremendously the last two weeks without Cleary and I like Hynes’ body of work, but I don’t think they’ve ever dominated Origin.
“Whereas I think Reece Walsh, Hammer (Hamiso Tabuai-Fidow), there’s a few more X factors there.”
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