The Latrell Mitchell hit on Joseph Manu has sparked heated debate days after the ugly incident shocked the NRL.
Phil Rothfield believes Souths superstar Latrell Mitchell has anger management issues and that he entered the tackle on Roosters centre Joey Manu with reckless intent to hurt him.
Mitchell will miss the rest of the season while serving a six-game ban for the high tackle that caused multiple fractures in Manu’s face and Rothfield believes Mitchell needs to address the way he plays the game.
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“It was such a horrible moment and a really sinister addition to this Rabbitohs and Roosters rivalry that has been in action since day one when rugby league began in this country,” Yvonne Sampson said on NRL 360.
“Phil Rothfield you have called Latrell Mitchell out of control. How serious is the fallout from what we saw on Friday?”
Phil Rothfield: “My initial reaction and I’ve been watching footy a long time and there has probably been half a dozen instances in that time that have made me sick in my stomach,” Rothfield said.
“I know Joey Manu and I know what a beautiful bloke he is. Very gentle and almost too nice to play rugby league. But when I saw that I felt sick I really did.
“To see his cheekbone and then the photos on the front of The Sunday Telegraph the next day.
“The tackle was careless, reckless and was intentional. My view is there was intent there to hurt.
“I have got no doubt that he launched himself in a manner with intent to hurt.”
James Hooper: “I disagree with that Phil, it was reckless.”
“It was absolutely reckless for a brief millisecond, but intent is a very strong word and a tough thing to prove.”
PR: “There was intent to hurt in that tackle.”
Paul Kent: “I’m with Buzz for what it’s worth.
“I think he went in to hurt him. I don’t think he went in to hit him in the face, but he certainly went in with a shoulder charge action and brought the arm around late and I don’t think there was a lot of care there at all.
“He got hit with a reckless tackle. A reckless grade two. He could have got reckless grade three I would have been more than comfortable with.
“The silliness of the judicial system is you almost never get an intentional charge these days because it is hard to prove, but certainly there is a high degree of recklessness in that tackle and there was little care.”
YS: “I think there was a deliberate move to drive, I honestly don’t think he wanted to hurt Joey Manu.”
PK: “No one is suggesting he wanted to smash his face.
JH: “Hang on you guys just said it was intentional, which one is it?”
PK: “Every time you put a shot on someone you are going in to hurt them.
“That’s what you do. You go in to hurt them. You go in to drive your shoulder and hit them as hard as you can.”
JH: “But you are not going in to deliberately break someone’s cheekbone.”
PK: “No, but he went in with intention to hurt and that intent brought recklessness to his actions.”
“That’s why his action was reckless because the degree of accountability and care to his opponent was supposed to be taken into account. It didn’t happen.
“There was no duty of care whatsoever. That’s why he went in to hurt him and when he had a choice to make whether to lessen the tackle as part of a duty of care or to keep going he kept going.”
Rothfield believes you only have to look at Mitchell’s past indiscretions to know that he has to drastically change his fiery approach to contact, sparking another debate among the NRL 360 panel.
PR: “When you look at intent you look at priors.
“You look at how he lashed out at Nofoaluma earlier in the year with an elbow.”
JH: “That was pretty light.”
PR: “He got four weeks for it.”
PK: “It wasn’t light hang on.
PR: “He lashed out with his boot at Luke Garner.
JH: “That was worse than the karate chop.”
PR: “You wrote about how he lashed out and broke AJ Brimson’s jaw kicking out in a tackle and I’m convinced that wasn’t deliberate.”
PK: “When he hits Nofoaluma he hits him with the bony part of his forearm and Nofoaluma to his credit did not make a big song and dance about it, but privately told people after it had all settled down that he thought his jaw was broken.”
JH: “I thought when he kicked out at Garner was worse.
“If he collects Garner there guaranteed some sort of facial fracture.”
PK: “But there is an if in that statement Hoops.
“There is no if in whether he hit Nofoaluma. He hit him with the bone of his forearm. You hit anyone across the jaw with that it is going to sting you.”
JH: “There is very light contact there.
PK: “Oh come on, you would have a fortnight off if that was you.”
Rothfield believes Mitchell needs to work on his anger management issues or risk letting his team down in the future and tarnishing his legacy in the game.
YS: “To your point Buzz about Latrell being an egomaniac, Latrell is now the most heavily suspended player that we have this season.
“He has been out now for 10 weeks. Nearest to him is Radley and Ravalawa and they have got eight. The rap sheet is really long now for Latrell. Does he have to take stock and work out what kind of player he wants to be?”
PR: “He is the biggest turnstile clicker in the game and you turn the television on as much as Tom Trbojevic or anyone to watch Latrell play.
“But I think he has anger management problems. I think he is playing angry. What convinced me is when he wasn’t sent off and when he scored that try the manner in which he slammed the ball into the ground and he could have hit somebody. He was saying up yours after what he did to Joey Manu.
“He was so unapologetic. There was so much lack of remorse in it. I just think the way he has carried himself, despite having great mentors in Freddy Fittler, Wayne Bennett and Trent Robinson the year before. I think he is an angry man and I can’t recognise what it is.”
Originally published as Journos clash over Latrell Mitchell hit that ‘made me sick to my stomach’