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League icon Phil Gould has shut down suggestions South Sydney should switch Latrell Mitchell back to centre as the club looks to rescue its season.
The fullback starred for the Roosters during his time as a centre at the Tricolours and has been instrumental for the Blues in State of Origin on an edge.
However, due to the Rabbitohs’ three-match losing streak to start the season, there have been calls for Mitchell to return to his old position.
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Despite criticism of Mitchell’s form, former Blues captain Paul Gallen emphasised that his numbers have improved this season.
“Statistically he actually is more involved, statistically he’s touched the ball more than he has the past two season and is making more metres,” Gallen said on Nine’s 100% Footy.
“The thing I think happens with Latrell is we compare him to James Tedesco and Dylan Edwards, he’s not that player, he doesn’t base his game off effort, I think he’s getting better at that but he never has based his game off effort.
“He will have a 10 out of 10 game one week and then he’ll go back to just being Latrell and cruising through and doing what he’s got to do. He’s never been a James Tedesco or Dylan Edwards who play eight out of 10 every week … I think we’ve got to stop comparing him to some other fullbacks in the competition and understand he’s his own person, his own type of fullback.
“And when he gets it right, he gets it right, but when he doesn’t get it right he can be lazy at times and there’s a lot of footage going around of him at the moment where tries are getting scored and he’s not in the picture, but that’s just Latrell.”
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Gould backed up Gallen’s statistical analysis, calling for the 26-year-old to stay in his current position.
“In club football he’s been outstanding as a fullback, as Paul said his numbers have been pretty good,” he said.
“Individually a few of (Souths players), their numbers have been good, it’s just collectively as a team it hasn’t come together yet.
“They were blown off the park by the Roosters but as we’ve seen in the last three weeks, form can be very up and down and you can turn that around in the space of a few days which I’m sure they’re intending to do this weekend.
“I can’t write them off just on the quality of the roster and personnel there, you don’t lose your talent.”
South Sydney’s current predicament has put the microscope on coach Jason Demetriou, who had a horrible end to the season last year when his side was bundled out of the top eight and club legend Sam Burgess quit as assistant coach.
After losing the first two matches this season, Demetriou dropped halfback Lachlan Ilias and put hooker Damien Cook on the bench.
The shake-up backfired horribly with the Rabbitohs losing 48-6 to arch rivals the Roosters.
South Sydney will hope their fortunes change when they play the Bulldogs on Friday afternoon.
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Gould – who is the Bulldogs’ general manager – believes there’s still a number of Rabbitohs players who are State of Origin quality despite an awful start.
“Have a look at the roster, have a look at the class of players,” he said.
“When Michael Maguire goes to pick his Origin team, don’t tell me four or five of these names won’t be in the mix to be in his side, they could bounce back to form at any moment.
“They’ve played some good sides at the start of the season, it hasn’t been great but we’re only three weeks into this competition, we’re a long, long way from writing teams off.”
