{"id":375497,"date":"2024-03-13T04:00:51","date_gmt":"2024-03-13T05:00:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=375497"},"modified":"2024-03-13T07:02:49","modified_gmt":"2024-03-13T07:02:49","slug":"im-really-proud-coach-fires-back-at-latrell-critics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=375497","title":{"rendered":"'I'm really proud': Coach fires back at Latrell critics"},"content":{"rendered":"

Rabbitohs coach Jason Demetriou has encouraged Latrell Mitchell<\/a> and Cody Walker to keep speaking up for what they believe in after criticism of the two Indigenous players for comments they made about the Spencer Leniu racial vilification case.<\/a><\/p>\n

Leniu was on Monday night banned for eight matches<\/a>, drawing a line under a saga that had dragged on for more than a week to that point, after the Roosters enforcer called Broncos star Ezra Mam a "monkey" during their round one clash\ufeff in Las Vegas.<\/p>\n

That eight day period was dominated by opinions about how the NRL should deal with the allegation, with Mitchell one of the strongest voices demanding a heavy penalty.<\/a><\/p>\n

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\"Latrell's<\/p>\n

Mitchell's opinion copped some backlash, with Anthony Mundine among the dissenting voices who effectively told the Souths fullback he should stay in his lane.<\/p>\n

Mitchell and Mundine have since buried the hatchet, according to Demetriou, but the coach was adamant any critic trying to silence players with strong beliefs needed to back off.<\/p>\n

\ufeff"The game is littered with agenda and people's thoughts whether they're right or wrong," Demetriou said at a press conference on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

\"Jason<\/p>\n

"So as soon as a player comes out that's against someone that probably doesn't want to get someone suspended then it's an issue. But I'm really proud of Cody and Latrell, their stance doesn't change and it hasn't changed for years – their whole time in first grade.<\/p>\n

"They represent their people really well and I'm really proud of them for that."<\/p>\n

Demetriou added that he would encourage his diverse group of players to speak out on any issue they are passionate about.<\/p>\n

Watch the 2024 NRL premiership live and free on Nine and<\/strong><\/em> 9Now<\/strong><\/em><\/a>.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

\"Thurston<\/p>\n

\ufeff"If you stand for nothing, you fall for everything. That's my honest opinion," he said.<\/p>\n

"If you're not prepared to stand up for what you believe, then where does life take you? I want all my players to be comfortable in their own skin, and whether that be our Polynesian boys, our Australian boys, our Greek boys, or our Indigenous players, what I love about this group is they support each other and that's been the case over the last week, as it has been in Brisbane (for Mam) no doubt."<\/p>\n

Demetriou's comments come as the Rabbitohs prepare to clash with Mam's Broncos in a Thursday night blockbuster that will leave one of the two teams licking their wounds after a 0-2 start to the season.<\/p>\n

\"Broncos<\/p>\n

For Brisbane, it will be an opportunity to play in front of an expectant home crowd following last year's heartbreaking grand final loss, with club legend Darren Lockyer believing the players will be further galvanised after rallying around Mam.<\/p>\n

But it's Souths who are facing increasing pressure to turn around results on the field after a disappointing back end to the 2023 season and then the second half collapse in Vegas that consigned them to defeat against Manly.<\/p>\n

Demetriou is banking on his superstars to deliver, with Mitchell putting in an encouraging first round performance and Walker shaking off a calf injury and an interrupted preparation to take his place on the field in the United States.<\/p>\n

The coach expects both to be better for the run.<\/p>\n

\ufeff"I think Latrell had a good start to the season and that's what his focus will be," Demetriou said.<\/p>\n

" … [Cody's] had a great prep (for the Broncos clash). As I said, he went into the game (in Vegas) a bit underdone with a calf injury and battling for actual training on the field but he hasn't missed a beat since we came back.<\/p>\n

"As I said, we trained pretty hard on the Friday and the Sunday when we came back and I feel like that's got them well prepped for tomorrow night."<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Rabbitohs coach Jason Demetriou has encouraged Latrell Mitchell and Cody Walker to keep speaking up for what they believe in after criticism of the two […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":375499,"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\/375497"}],"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=375497"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/375497\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":375503,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/375497\/revisions\/375503"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/375499"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=375497"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=375497"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=375497"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}