{"id":324933,"date":"2023-08-21T03:52:00","date_gmt":"2023-08-21T03:52:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=324933"},"modified":"2023-08-21T06:59:45","modified_gmt":"2023-08-21T06:59:45","slug":"slaters-animated-defence-of-frustrated-latrell-act","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=324933","title":{"rendered":"Slater's animated defence of 'frustrated' Latrell act"},"content":{"rendered":"

Billy Slater<\/a>\ufeff has launched a passionate defence of Latrell Mitchell<\/a> over the South Sydney<\/a> superstar's high contact on NSW Blues teammate Tyson Frizell<\/a>, which has put the Rabbitohs fullback in danger of receiving a two-game suspension<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Mitchell will not be available for the Rabbitohs' clash with the Roosters in the last round of the regular season, which South Sydney will need to win to reach the finals,\ufeff after he was offered a one-match suspension for making high contact with Frizell in Newcastle on Sunday.<\/p>\n

If Mitchell fights the charge at the NRL<\/a> judiciary and loses, he will be hit with a two-game ban.\ufeff<\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> England star's admission after 'gutting' loss<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> World Cup hero had no idea of tragedy after thrilling win<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> 'Awkward question' after $800k NRL star becomes 'big flop'<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

But when Slater was asked about the incident on Nine's The Billy Slater \ufeffPodcast<\/em><\/a>, which was recorded before Mitchell's charge was announced, the Storm legend argued he should only cop a fine.<\/p>\n

"\ufeffHe's just got frustration in him and all competitors have that frustration in them. When your team's not going well (and) you're not playing well individually, that frustration comes out," Slater said.<\/p>\n

"I think he deserves a fine. Hit him with a fine, let's move on.<\/p>\n

"It wasn't direct contact to the back of the head. Look, he went down in a careless and frustrated manner, but the first contact was on the back of Tyson Frizell (and) it bounced up."<\/p>\n

\"Latrell<\/p>\n

Mitchell's act was a retaliation to a first-half incident that saw Frizell try to throw the ball at the South Sydney No.1's head, sparking an all-in melee.<\/p>\n

Mitchell was sin-binned\ufeff with a minute left on the clock and trudged from the field to a chorus of boos from the Knights faithful, who were soon celebrating a 29-10 victory and a seventh win on the trot.<\/p>\n

"Sure, it was unnecessary, that was totally unnecessary, but we don't need to be suspending some of our star players, or any player … for that sort of frustration," Slater added.<\/p>\n

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

"Hit him with a fine, let's get on with it.<\/p>\n

"We've got finals two weeks away, he's got the week off this week with the bye, come back and play the Roosters in the final round to see if you play in the finals.<\/p>\n

"That shouldn't be a suspension; that should be a fine."<\/p>\n

Mitchell must decide whether he'll accept an early guilty plea or appeal the charge by midday on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

"Latrell wears his heart on his sleeve … We love the characters in our game. He wears his heart on his sleeve, he got a little bit frustrated and that's something he will work on. He'll know that himself," Slater said.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

"He knows he's not playing his best football and he needs to handle those situations better, but that's just the competitor in us.<\/p>\n

"We saw Nicho Hynes (in round 21) say a few things to a touch judge.\ufeff<\/p>\n

"It's a competitive sport, these players don't like losing, so it can get frustrated out there sometimes."<\/p>\n

Slater also brought the larrikin personality of Roosters gun Brandon Smith into the discussion.\ufeff<\/p>\n

"We blow up when Brandon Smith has a laugh and a smile after a loss with the opposition team," said the Queensland Maroons coach.<\/p>\n

"We want to see that it means something, but then when we see that it means something to some players (we say), 'Oh, we don't want that'.<\/p>\n

"So sometimes we can actually be the contributor of dulling down our players. Our players are our players. Let them go and entertain."<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Billy Slater\ufeff has launched a passionate defence of Latrell Mitchell over the South Sydney superstar's high contact on NSW Blues teammate Tyson Frizell, which has […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":324935,"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\/324933"}],"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=324933"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/324933\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":324938,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/324933\/revisions\/324938"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/324935"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=324933"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=324933"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=324933"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}