Footballer or Indigenous activist? Latrell Mitchell can be both – with the right attitude

Latrell Mitchell has fronted the South Sydney board on Tuesday morning to learn his fate over the “white-substance scandal”.

When he exits later in the day, expect him to leave the room with a raft of conditions hanging over his head.

D-Day … Latrell Mitchell arrives at South Sydney headquarters on Tuesday morning.Credit: Nick Moir

Nothing has been decided, I’m told, but some directors will push hard for clauses around alcohol and drug testing and behavioural standards that must be met.

Then there’s the fine. It won’t be $250,000 as some are reporting, but it won’t surprise if the sanction is significant.

It also won’t surprise if a large proportion is suspended, although I suspect the Souths fullback won’t be facing another fine but termination if he steps out of line again.

Further, it’s been reported that Souths figures have already told Mitchell he must decide if he wants to be a footballer or Indigenous activist. Similar reports surfaced when it was revealed in May that coach Wayne Bennett was returning next year.

Am I missing something here? Are we talking about a troubled rookie who has just come into first grade? Are we talking about a player contracted to an unprofessional club that hasn’t provided him with enough support, care and understanding?

Are we talking about a player who shouldn’t know better than to stand over mysterious white substances in mysterious Dubbo hotel rooms with mysterious people who don’t have his best interests at heart?

No. We’re talking about a 27-year-old man in his ninth season in the NRL who has won premierships, Origin series and Test matches.

South Sydney’s Latrell Mitchell.Credit: Wolter Peeters

He plays for a club that has done nothing but support him through tough times while slapping him with a wet lettuce leaf when he’s done something wrong. A club that backed him over Sam Burgess, a premiership-winning legend.

According to former Cronulla captain Paul Gallen, that’s the problem.

“Privately, someone at the South Sydney club — the captain or the coach — is getting hold of him and telling him the way it should be, but I don’t think that happens at South Sydney,” he said on 100% Footy last week.

Gallen was told the way it should be in 2010 when his then Sharks coach, Ricky Stuart, dispatched him to the home of Ron Massey, the former coaching advisor to Jack Gibson.

Pride of the league: Latrell Mitchell and Indigenous Rabbitohs teammates model the club’s Indigenous Round jersey.Credit: South Sydney Rabbitohs/Sunny Brar

Until that point, Gallen was known more for his cheap shots than his toughness.

The previous year, he’d been fined $10,000 for a racial slur directed at St George Illawarra’s Mickey Paea — and mostly blamed the media for it. I can still feel the holes in the back of my head from Gallen staring through it on Australia’s Four Nations tour of England and France.

Stuart knew something had to change so he ordered him to attend Mass. Before Gallen could get through the door, Massey was calling him a “soft c--k”.

The sermon went for hours and Gallen says it was the turning point of his career: he captained NSW to an Origin series victory, captained Cronulla to their first premiership, and in retirement has become a respected media performer who calls it as it is.

Bennett last week credited the late Massey for his elevation to the Hall of Fame and the presumption is the greatest man manager in the game’s history will manage Latrell into becoming the best version of himself until he leaves again.

Which is all well and good but, at some point, Mitchell needs to take responsibility for his own career.

I was standing in line at a Parisian pâtisserie waiting to buy a white substance of my own — a crisp and creamy mille-feuille otherwise known as a vanilla slice — when the notification popped up on my phone with the breaking news about Mitchell’s Dubbo shenanigans.

My first response: who was to blame this time? The media? The Roosters?

Turns out it was an acquaintance who took the photo and then tried to sell it to media outlets, none of which paid for it before the image was eventually leaked on social media.

A week earlier, Paris police had busted Australian hockey player Tom Craig attempting to buy a white substance otherwise known as cocaine.

After spending all day and night in custody, Craig fronted the media outside the police station, apologised and shouldered total blame for his actions. It was refreshing.

Mitchell could have done something similar after what happened in Dubbo. It didn’t matter that the NRL Integrity Unit was investigating. A doorstep mea culpa would have taken the sting out of the story, which has now stretched into a third week.

After fronting the Souths board, he needs to have a meeting with himself.

We all know what Latrell can do. He reminded us in Origin II when he treated Queenslanders with the disdain they deserve. (Run at me, Tallis).

People remember players for how they finish their careers, not how they started.

Gallen changed. Mitchell can, too.

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