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Latrell Mitchell detail exposed as Souths crash back to earth in brutal NRL loss to Dolphins

The Rabbitohs were made to pay for some atrocious goal-kicking.

sam goodwin
Sports Editor
·4-min read

Latrell Mitchell was sorely missed on Thursday night as South Sydney were made to pay for a woeful goal-kicking display in their NRL loss to the Dolphins. The Rabbitohs went down 36-28 in Redcliffe, snapping a run of five consecutive victories for Ben Hornby's side.

The scoreline appeared to suggest the Dolphins ran away with it, but the match actually finished six tries apiece. The difference proved to be goal-kicking, with Jamayne Isaako nailing all six of his conversions - while the Rabbitohs only made two from six.

Mitchell is the Bunnies' regular goal-kicker, but the superstar fullback is sidelined with a foot injury that will keep him out for at least a month. On Thursday night it was brutally exposed that Hornby's side don't have a viable second-choice kicker.

Cody Walker and Latrell Mitchell.
South Sydney's goal-kicking let them down with Latrell Mitchell out. Image: AAP/Channel 9

Cody Walker only made one conversion form four attempts, before Taane Milne took over. Milne nailed his first attempt but missed horribly on his second from an easy angle. Milne's miss left the score at 36-28 and ruled out any possibility of Souths sending the game to extra-time in the final seconds if they could grab a miraculous try.

Mitchell isn't exactly known as a sharpshooter with the boot, but he certainly would have landed more than two goals on Thursday night. At least three of the misses were very kickable, and Walker accepted that his performance with the boot wasn't good enough.

Tevita Pangai, pictured here in the Dolphins' win over Souths.
Tevita Pangai was brilliant in the Dolphins' win over Souths. (AAP Image/Jono Searle)

Walker had four try assists in a sparkling display, but let too many points go begging with inaccurate goal-kicking. "You probably underestimate the importance of goal-kicking and I have a new found respect for all the goal kickers in the NRL," Walker said after the game.

"It is a tough ask especially at Kayo (Stadium) where the crowd is so close. Obviously Trell is a wonderful kicker and slots them from everywhere so you are going to miss a guy like Trell's goal kicking ability. I put my hand up. I take full responsibility, It just wasn't good enough."

Walker has been forced into the goal-kicking role due to a number of injuries. Isaiah Tass, Lachlan Ilias and Dean Hawkins would all normally be above Walker in the pecking order, but are all injured as well.

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Hornby said Walker shouldn't be so hard on himself. "It shouldn't come down to goal-kicking," the coach said. "We had a couple of opportunities to score points in the second half that we should have put away. That's not the reason we lost the game.

"Cody has been outstanding. To go on the other side of the field and have no drop in his performance, and do that for this team, says what is team is about."

With Mitchell firing over the last two months, the Rabbitohs won five in a row and moved to within two points of the top eight. But they'll undoubtedly find it hard to keep pace with the pack while their fullback is sidelined.

"We have got the confidence we can beat anyone on our day but we probably took a step back in terms of our discipline," Walker admitted. "We love our effort but our kicking game and our scramble on a couple of their tries in the first half probably took a step back, so there are a couple of things we need to improve on moving forward to even worry about going on another run. Our important game is always our next game."

Hornby praised 20-year-old fullback Jye Gray, who produced another stellar display in Mitchell's absence. "He is still learning the game but he did a great job and there will be nothing lost with him playing for the next couple of weeks," Hornby said.

with AAP