{"id":323392,"date":"2023-08-14T02:31:56","date_gmt":"2023-08-14T02:31:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=323392"},"modified":"2023-08-14T02:58:06","modified_gmt":"2023-08-14T02:58:06","slug":"newsflash-gals-reality-check-after-gus-latrell-claim","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=323392","title":{"rendered":"'Newsflash': Gal's reality check after Gus' Latrell claim"},"content":{"rendered":"

NRL great PAUL GALLEN will appear on Nine's 100% FOOTY every Monday night of the NRL season, debating rugby league's hottest topics alongside Phil Gould and James Bracey. Tune in tonight at 9.40pm (AEST) following a bumper round 24!<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

I\ufeff heard Phil Gould's suggestion last week<\/a> that South Sydney<\/a> should move Latrell Mitchell<\/a> to the centres, and all I'll say is it won't be happening.<\/p>\n

I get there might be a bit of panic about the Bunnies at the moment given their form is down, and people look at their team on paper and expect them to be blowing teams off the park.<\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> 'I'm so sorry': Why Matilda apologised to fans after win<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> Former Origin star on the outer in Sharks squeeze<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> Boomers' classy act for Matildas amid World Cup charge<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Their past two or three months haven't been great, but they have won two of their last three games\ufeff<\/p>\n

Yes, they might not have looked overly convincing against the Tigers or Dragons – sides you would expect South Sydney to beat easily – but the important thing is getting those two competition points.<\/p>\n

\"Latrell<\/p>\n

\ufeffAnd the answer certainly is not moving Latrell out of the No.1 jumper.<\/p>\n

For starters, Latrell has only been back from injury for three weeks after missing more than two months of footy, and the Rabbitohs have won two of those three games.<\/p>\n

And secondly, people have had the same knock on him ever since he was moved to fullback after joining South Sydney – they say he doesn't do enough work.<\/p>\n

Stream the NRL premiership 2023 live and free on<\/strong> 9Now<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Newsflash – Latrell is not the same type of fullback as James Tedesco or Dylan Edwards, and he is never going to be.<\/p>\n

He won't carry the ball for 200 metres and take 15 hit-ups a game to get his team out of trouble.\ufeff<\/p>\n

People have criticised his workrate throughout his entire career but they overlook the impact he can have on games with limited touches of the football.<\/p>\n

\"Walker<\/p>\n

\ufeffHe lets his wingers bring the ball out of trouble, and then when the Bunnies get in good-ball positions he will inject himself into the play and come up with something freakish.<\/p>\n

It's what he does, and he's bloody good at it.<\/p>\n

Even at the Roosters when he played at centre he was never one to take lots of runs out of the defensive half. I don't see what moving him out wider would achieve for the Bunnies, especially at this time of year with finals only a few weeks away.<\/p>\n

I also heard Gus' comments a couple of weeks ago that Latrell has never owned a big moment in a big game.<\/p>\n

Initially I thought that was a bit harsh, given Latrell won back-to-back premierships with the Chooks and has also played for Australia and New South Wales in winning games.<\/p>\n

But I think what Phil said was taken out of context a bit – I think he meant Latrell hasn't done it as a fullback yet, which is true, but also a bit harsh given he doesn't play fullback at Origin or Test level.\ufeff<\/p>\n

\"Cameron<\/p>\n

This weekend's game against Newcastle could decide whether South Sydney plays finals or not.<\/p>\n

\ufeffThe Knights are a team on the up, having won six games in a row, and the Bunnies face a real test up there in the Hunter.<\/p>\n

If they can beat the Knights convincingly then they deserve to be locked in for finals, but if they lose it's probably fair to say they might miss the eight.<\/p>\n

\ufeffThe Rabbitohs haven't hit top gear yet, obviously, but I don't think you want to be at your peak right now anyway – at this time of year you should be building up towards September footy, if you're in contention.<\/p>\n

The Bunnies will just want to hope they haven't left their run too late.\ufeff<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

NRL great PAUL GALLEN will appear on Nine's 100% FOOTY every Monday night of the NRL season, debating rugby league's hottest topics alongside Phil Gould […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":321860,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/323392"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=323392"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/323392\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":323396,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/323392\/revisions\/323396"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/321860"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=323392"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=323392"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=323392"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}