Latrell Mitchell looks set to be missing from Magic Round, offered a one game ban for a late and high shot on Sua Faalogo in the Rabbitohs 24-16 loss to the Storm.
Mitchell was sent to the bin in the 50th minute for the hit on the Storm speedster, and on Saturday morning was slapped with a grade two dangerous contact charge. He’ll miss two games if he fights the charge at the judiciary and loses.
The Anzac Day clash marked the 22-year-old’s first appearance for the Storm this season. He failed a HIA and will also be unavailable for Magic Round.
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In commentary for Nine, Andrew Johns said Mitchell was in “serious trouble”.
“… Just spears in it Faalogo who is looking for Tyran Wishart on the inside,” he said.
Latrell Mitchell is sent to the sin bin. Nine
Mitchell was quick to jump to his feet after making the brutal tackle and did not attempt to push his case to stay on the field.
Referee Peter Gough declared the tackle was “direct contact with moderate force.”
“I think a couple of things went against Latrell there,” Billy Slater said.
“Firstly, the conditions very slippery underfoot and then the second thing, just just the aggression he went into the tackle with, that certainly didn’t help him as well.
“So unfortunately sitting down for ten minutes.”
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Faalogo is helped off the field as Latrell Mitchell jogs off to the sin bin. Getty
Replays suggested Faalogo might have also been slipping over.
The most-binned player in NRL history, it was the 13th time Mitchell had been sent for 10 in his career.
Surprisingly, Mitchell had support from Storm coach Craig Bellamy and five-eighth Cameron Munster.
“I think in the game at the moment, there’s a lot of people getting hit high, and they’re dropping,” Bellamy said post-game.
“I don’t know whether sometimes you can control that. I know that’s a dangerous place to go, to pick ones out ‘Oh, he could control that, or he couldn’t control that’, so I don’t think anyone’s going to go there.
“But I don’t think there was too much malice in it.”
Munster agreed, stating it would have been difficult for Mitchell to pull out of the tackle once he committed.
“It’s a contact sport at the end of the day. I know we’re trying to protect players from head knocks, but I’m going to side with Craig,” he said.
“It’s slippery out there, it’s wet, force on force. Sua’s very quick, Latrell’s very big.
“I don’t know where you want Latrell to go there. Sua’s obviously trying to engage him to get a pass, and he slipped over. I feel like sometimes it’s hard to get yourself out of those positions when you’re fully (committed).
“There’s always grey areas, (but) we play a contact sport, there’s going to be contact, and blokes aren’t always going to get it right.”
Munster said he didn’t have a problem with the NRL’s crackdown on head-high contact, but wanted to see it enforced consistently.
“There was not a whole heap of malice, but I know where the game is trying to go and protect a lot of players,” he said.
“But as long as we keep it consistent, I don’t have a lot of problem with it.
“But I don’t know where you want (Mitchell) to go.”
Mitchell was not the only Rabbitoh put on report in that set, with Bayleigh Bentley-Hape called out for a high shot on Wishart. He was cleared by the Match Review Committee.
The NRL’s crackdown on high tackles has sparked mass debate in recent weeks, with Johns calling for the time to be reduce for such acts in the future.
The eighth immortal noted that in the first game of the round the Bulldogs and Broncos witnessed four stars sent to the sin bin for high tackling acts.
But as Ryan Papenhuyzen was handed marching orders in the 71st minute for a similar act on Souths young gun Jye Gray, Johns floated a possible change to the sin bin ruling.
“I think for the high shots like these ones we’ve got to look at the five minute bin,” he said.
“If he didn’t challenge [the call of a penalty] he wouldn’t of gone to the bin.
“I have no doubt professional foul should be ten minutes in the bin. But for these high shots they’re clamping down on they should be five minutes.”
Papenhuyzen’s time in the sin bin opened the gates for Jack Wighton to cross for a double to narrow the lead against the home side, but his efforts were not enough to change his club’s nightmare run against the Storm on Victorian soil.
The Rabbitohs entered the match hopeful they could break a 26-year losing streak on Victorian soil as they put up a tough test early for the local stars.
Wighton and Papenhuyzen opened the scoring for their respective teams in the first 15 minutes before Xavier Coates and Bentley-Hape joined the try-scoring action.
Eliesa Katoa darted over after a brilliant 20m run to score in the 42nd minute before Wishart followed over the line in the 65th.
The result marked the 20th consecutive victory for the Melbourne Storm on Victorian soil against the Rabbitohs, while it was the 14th win for Craig Bellamy against a Wayne Bennett coached team.
