South Sydney slump signals return to bad old days with golden boy missing again

He arrived at Redfern overweight, riven with injury niggles, in a cloud of negative headlines. But he was a champion, a representative player at state and national level and a talisman in the Indigenous community. South Sydney knew this man could supercharge a golden era.

He’d debuted as a teenager, won premierships as a centre but his true destiny was as a fullback. That’s where you park the prestige vehicles in rugby league – and it’s why you pay top dollar. Sure enough, with No 1 on his back, the champion colt became a legendary thoroughbred.

It was not Latrell Mitchell, but Greg Inglis who arrived at Souths in 2011, shifted to fullback in 2012, and delivered a premiership in 2014, the first in 43 years for a club that had endured a torrid run of wasted potential, terrible luck, shonky management and abysmal on-field results.

Related: Latrell Mitchell is being targeted due to his Indigenous advocacy, says Dean Widders

Those same charges are being levelled at the 2024 Rabbitohs who sit last on the NRL ladder after a 1-4 start that has coach Jason Demetriou’s job on a knife-edge this weekend. And where is his star No 1 Mitchell? Suspended again on a dangerous contact charge.

For rusted-on members of the red and green machine, it’s a sad return to the bad old days. South Sydney’s slump may be their worst start to a season since 2008 but that year they went 0-7 before tasting victory and in 2006 it was 0-12 before the win column was notched.

This is worse. Souths – the NRL’s most lethal attacking side – lack spark and look miserable. Their Origin players are conspicuously out of form and one, veteran hooker Damien Cook, has just been dropped. With an internal review under way and the season in freefall, heads are being hunted. Mitchell’s melon, worth $875,000 a year, sits highest above the parapet.

After Inglis delivered the 2014 fairytale, Mitchell’s 2020 signing was to underpin a decade of Rabbitohs dominance. The NRL’s brightest star and its oldest club, the club of his father no less, with the richest Indigenous history in the NRL. Mostly, Mitchell came to play fullback.

Fullbacks are rugby league’s superstars. That No 1 jersey carries power – and responsibility. Prowling behind the lines, diffusing high kicks and making try-saving tackles, they play at the back but spearhead their teams, inverting the arrow of attack to explode through the line.

But Mitchell hasn’t delivered as Inglis did. He cops plenty for it too, and is routinely booed and jeered by opposing fans. But stats matter. In four seasons at the Roosters, he notched 96 games and scored 65 tries. In the same time at Souths, injury and suspension has yielded only 64 games for just 34 tries.

Not only is he playing fewer games and producing fewer points with diminished impact, Mitchell hasn’t been there for Souths when they needed him most. He was injured when they fell one game short of the grand final in 2010 and suspended in their failed efforts to reach the 2023 finals.

In between, Souths made the 2021 grand final – their second decider in 50 years. But Mitchell was missing again. Caving in Joey Manu’s cheek cost him six weeks on the sidelines. It cost his club much more. They were pipped 14-12 that year by Penrith’s late intercept, leaving fans to ponder if Mitchell’s capacity for magic might have been the difference.

Related: NRL will not recognise Michael Jennings’ 300-game milestone due to ‘past conduct’

Mitchell’s grubbiness hasn’t gone away in 2024 but recurred as fast as his potency dwindled. Late hits, lifting tackles, raised elbows, stray boots, raked fingers across the face and more. Only some of these have drawn charges, but all are now drawing the ire of the game’s fans.

Souths continue to protect their golden boy. Former coach Wayne Bennett let Mitchell skip training to chill at the farm and Demetriou has spurned calls to snap his star’s lazy streak and curb his red mist by moving him closer to the action.

Now rumours of unrest within the team are rising. Allegations of favouritism to Mitchell saw club legend Sam Burgess walk out as assistant coach mid-year and winger Alex Johnston recently saw red when Demetriou praised a tackle by Mitchell that concussed his opponent.

At Souths’ under-siege headquarters this week, Mitchell apologised to his team for the “stupid things”. Where normally he would retreat to his farm, he vowed to stay in camp, doing extras on his own game and helping others with theirs. At 26, after nine seasons at the top, perhaps it is time Mitchell reflected more deeply. He has scattered some magic at Souths, but his legacy is shaky.

Without Mitchell yet again, Demetriou has decided to blood youth in a desperate bid to beat the Sharks and save Souths’ season (and his own job). Local junior Jye Gray – at 170cm the shortest player in NRL history – will wear the No 1 jersey. The pint-sized rookie has big boots to fill but, as Mitchell might remind him, reputations don’t win rugby league games.