‘We didn’t handle Latrell well at all’: Why Maroons will fear return of Blues’ wrecking ball

Latrell Mitchell celebrated his 27th birthday on Sunday with a return to the NSW Origin fold, for what will be just his eighth appearance in sky blue.

In short, nowhere near enough. Good luck finding a soul in either state who has forgotten the last time Mitchell played for the Blues though, least of all Daly Cherry-Evans.

“I’d say that was in a period where we didn’t handle Latrell well at all, or Tommy [Trbojevic] either,” the Queensland skipper says of that 2021 series.

Mitchell was rugby league’s version of Viv Richards in a 50-6 Townsville romp and comfortable series win that year, swaggering, mastering and blasting the Maroons on one edge while Trbojevic roamed wherever he liked from right centre, terrorising defenders across the park.

“We just didn’t handle them and didn’t have an answer sometimes,” Cherry-Evans says. “But I think the game did change quickly in that period as far as the way it was played with the rule changes.

“That was the year where Tom went absolutely bonkers.

“The rules had just changed and as a competition, it felt like we were still getting used to them and adjusting a lot.

“And players like Tommy, Latrell and Teddy [James Tedesco], they were just outstanding that series. But as a team and a competition, it feels like we’ve got a better handle on those rules now and how you defend with six-agains and the game play.

“I’d like to think we’ll be far better prepared for him, this series.”

Cherry-Evans is right, NRL defences have improved markedly in surviving the rapid-fire attacking assaults of the six-again era.

The Maroons defence will need that improvement in game two, because Mitchell brought his irresistible best down from the top shelf the last time he played Origin.

Trbojevic was a deserving player of the series that year, but Mitchell wasn’t far behind in terms of influence.

When NSW held only a 2-0 lead in the 2021 Townsville series opener and were being driven back towards Cape York by a swarming Queensland defence, Mitchell got on the front foot.

He raced past two defenders, tip-toed like a ballerina down the sideline and provided the field position for the first of eight Blues tries, two of them scored by the Souths superstar.

Throughout that series, Mitchell was simply superb – with and without the ball.

Maroons maestro Reece Walsh has left countless left centres for dead in the past 18 months, and Queensland love to use his speed and swerve on a right-edge shift as much as the Broncos.

Mitchell’s lateral movement out wide will be sternly examined. But as Kangaroos coach Mal Meninga told this masthead last week, “defensively, as a centre, Latrell would be one of the best defensive centres in the game … Latrell just makes really good decisions defensively.”

Again, his split-second reads in that 2021 series paint the most compelling of pictures. Queensland made a point of testing him out, and Mitchell repeatedly shut Valentine Holmes down in the first two games, along with latching onto an 85-metre intercept try.

He preceded that play with a one-on-one mugging of Kurt Capewell that led to the Blues’ opening try.

Ominously for Queensland, Souths have turned to Mitchell’s booming left boot to get him involved early, and repeatedly, in the past month.

Broncos players Selwyn Cobbo and Tristan Sailor know this all too well after floaters and spiralled bombs rained down in miserable conditions on Friday night.

Meanwhile, Maguire bunted and blunted most every avenue reporters tried to take on Monday – the Geoffrey Boycott to Mitchell’s gum-chewing Richards.

A grin and a quip about drawing on that kicking game sat alongside acknowledgment of Mitchell’s obvious Origin-breaking ability – and what all and sundry in the NRL have known for years about its brightest and most enigmatic star.

“Latrell is playing great footy,” Maguire said.

“He’s got a smile on his face, he’s got a lot of spirit about what he’s doing, and that’s resonating in his footy.

“We all know he’s a very talented and world-class player and he’s showing that, especially in the last month. That’s probably the piece that I saw, that he was growing towards what we know Latrell can do … He’s in a really good place and as a player, he wears his heart on his sleeve a little bit.

“He’s doing well and he’s now got his opportunity.”

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