Chris O'Keefe questions if Latrell Mitchell deserves to potentially lose contract 06:18

We missed a story about Latrell Mitchell. He is being forced to face the South Sydney Rabbitohs board and effectively fight for his contract. Now, can someone explain to me, though, why Latrell Mitchell, how he could possibly deserve to have his contract terminated at South Sydney? How? On what grounds? What has Latrell Mitchell actually done that is so nefarious that he deserves the sack? Let's just work through the facts here, right?

So Latrell joins the Rabbitohs in 2020. He joins from the Roosters on a one-year deal. Now, in 2020, Latrell Mitchell was fined $50,000 by the NRL after he broke lockdown protocols, the COVID lockdown protocols, with Josh Adokar. You know what he did? He went on a weekend camping trip. And because he was on his farm, Latrell Mitchell gave Josh Adokar a gun to shoot.

So he was charged by police and given a 12-month conditional release order after he pleaded guilty to giving a firearm to a person not authorised by a licence or permits. That's one thing he did, right? Big deal. Anyway, he's extended for two more seasons at South Sydney across 2021 and 2022.

He helped the club make the grand final in 2021, albeit he was suspended through the final series and the grand final. He played all three games in the New South Wales team that year. They won the series. He copped 10 weeks of suspensions for late tackles and the like, but he had a great 2022 battling injury and got Souths to one game short of a grand final and then went on to win a World Cup with the Kangaroos.

Off field, he was arrested and charged with Jack Whiten in Canberra, remember that? For wrestling in the street. Now that was a complete farce. That's something the police and the ACT should be ashamed of, and they got it very, very wrong. The case collapsed in court and the charges were dropped. In 2023, Luttrell Mitchell was filmed sculling a beer on stage at a concert a couple of days before a game.

And at the start of this year, he was reprimanded for swearing on a Triple M radio interview. And now, of course, someone's taken a photo of him bending over at a table with a white substance on it. Now, each and every one of those things would not have made headlines, let alone gained attention by police or the courts, if it was not Latrell Mitchell. None of them. Let's just think about this for a second. Latrell went to his farm and his mate shot a gun on a private property.

Have any of you done that? Can you honestly hand on heart tell me you followed every strict single rule during the COVID period? If you say yes, you know you're lying. Again, Latrell Mitchell went to his farm and his mate shot a gun on a private property. Big deal. The next charge against his name, we've got him wrestling with Jack Whiten.

Now, the police gave false evidence to the court. That was proven. The police apologised to Whiten for inventing the series of events. Whiten and Mitchell then wrestle outside a nightclub. Luttrell gets pepper sprayed for no reason whatsoever. And Magistrate Jane Campbell declares all charges dismissed. Now, you cannot tell me Luttrell was not singled out because of who he was. What's the next thing? Luttrell drinks one beer at a concert. Ooh.

Next, he swore on the Triple N broadcast. Now, I thought that was silly and unnecessary. I said that. But again, it's just swearing. And now you've got White Substance Gate, where we have this community-wide sham outrage. Now, whatever he's doing, is he hurting anybody but himself? And the faux moral outrage, you know, about something that goes on for better or worse hundreds of thousands of times a day across Australia.

Now, there is no police charge. There is no police investigation. There is just somebody trying to stitch Luttrell up. Now, you can't possibly tell me what I've just read out there is a rap sheet that deserves someone's employment being terminated. It's all very marginal stuff, like embarrassingly marginal. And when you look at the facts like this, can we really come to any other conclusion than people are out to get Luttrell?

Is it any wonder he feels like that's the case? Now, I've got a problem with the standard of his football. It's well below par. I've got a problem with how injury-prone he's become. I haven't got a problem with how he conducts himself off the field. None at all. Now, on the morning of white substance on the table gate, Luttrell was in Dubbo. He told nobody about it. He made a special visit to Country Hope in Dubbo, which is a charity who help regional families with children diagnosed with cancer.

He hosted a footy club fundraiser at the city's local pastoral hotel. He attends the Indigenous Round Fixture at Apex Oval in Dubbo, where he sat and signed autographs and took photos with the kids and the families while supporting the local men's and women's teams for the Macquarie Raiders. Terrible bloke, Trell Mitchell, terrible. Absolutely he deserves his contract torn up by Souths. I am sorry, but this is so wrong.

For the South Sydney board to demand Latrell Mitchell explain himself, in my opinion, is a disgrace. He needs to explain nothing. All he needs to do is get his body right so he can play footy to his best ability. But with all the BS that follows him around, I wouldn't be surprised if he just throws it all in. And that would be a crying shame. But can we just take a step back and look at the facts here?

Is Latrell Mitchell really some sort of devil figure, some pariah that everybody needs to criticise at every turn in terms of his off-field antics? I think, objectively, the answer is absolutely not.