Wayne Bennett makes immediate Souths impact as Latrell Mitchell cops much-needed reality check

Wayne Bennett has made an immediate impact at South Sydney and has laid out what he expects from his players, namely Latrell Mitchell.

Rabbitohs chief executive Blake Solly believes Latrell Mitchell has been the main beneficiary of Wayne Bennett’s return to Redfern.

Bennett took the Bunnies to the NRL grand final in 2021 but since leaving the club the wheels have fallen off.

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While the Rabbitohs made the preliminary final the season after Bennett left, they tumbled down the table midway through 2023 and things only got worse last year, with their fall from grace costing Jason Demetriou his job.

Latrell Mitchell has returned to Rabbitohs pre season in great shape. Photo: Rabbitohs

Since then not much has gone right either, with the club finishing 16th and star player Mitchell being involved in several incidents both on and off the field.

But Solly says after Bennett read Mitchell and his Souths teammates the riot act, the star fullback’s attitude switched and the Rabbitohs CEO is confident the fullback is primed for a big 2025.

 “He’s come back and he’s been pretty direct with the players about what he thought we were lacking in the past couple of seasons and the sacrifices they’d have to make to get us back to the top of the table,” Solly said on Mornings with Matt White on SEN.

“I think you can see from the fitness of the players and their body shape and their mentality around the building that they’ve taken that on board, and none more so than Latrell.

“Latrell’s challenges towards the back end of last year were pretty public.

Wayne Bennett is expected to help bring the best out of Latrell Mitchell. Pic: Instagram

“He’s taken that as probably the wake-up call that he needed to concentrate on his family, his own fitness and to make sure that he started the pre-season in the best possible shape.

“Credit to him because he’s been wonderful. He’s led a lot of the drills and you can see from photos of him just how fit he is. For him now, I think it’s about preparing himself as best as he can for his first game of the season.”

Souths won just seven games last season but showed they could compete with the top sides during an impressive run before things fell apart later in the season.

– with Newswire

Originally published as Wayne Bennett makes immediate Souths impact as Latrell Mitchell cops much-needed reality check