Latrell Mitchell revelled in the role of captain for the first time in his NRL career and Cody Walker led by example to inspire South Sydney to a spirited victory over the Knights.
The famous club’s two brightest stars and their support cast combined to give first-year mentor Jason Demetriou what he described the most memorable win of his fledgling coaching career.
Souths were without seven regular starters because of State of Origin commitments or injuries, lost halfback Lachlan Ilias to a swollen cheekbone after 20 seconds, and trailed 16-6 after 26 minutes. But Mitchell, deputising for NSW back-rower Cameron Murray, and Walker sparked a remarkable fightback to lead the Rabbitohs to a fourth win from five games, pushing them to fifth on 20 points.
“It was the best win I’ve been involved in in my time at the club, just in terms of character and willing to pay the price and doing what they needed to do,” said Demetriou, who spent the past two seasons as an assistant to Wayne Bennett before replacing him as head coach this year.
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“There were a lot of special efforts tonight and we want to respect that and take it in, but the big thing for us, like I said last week after a good win, was to back it up. And I felt we did that tonight, we’ve got a long turn-around to rest up, and get ready to go again.
“I said to them in there, we had 40 per cent of our cap missing tonight, and nearly 1200 games of NRL experience, but no-one blinked through the week,” Demetriou said at the post-game media conference.
Rabbitohs: Round 17
“I’ll give the senior players a massive rap – not only for their performance but how they handled the week. Latrell here, and Cody Walker was outstanding all week, and I thought his performance tonight was outstanding as well.
“We had every excuse tonight, we had every reason to make excuses, and no-one in the organisation did. No-one blinked, and it was a credit to the players who came in as well," he said.
Walker scored two tries in the first half – the first from a short run close to the posts in the 10th minute to give the Rabbitohs a 6-0 lead, and the second when he intercepted Mat Croker’s pass in the 38th minute and returned it 80 metres.
That try was the visitors’ third in the space of eight minutes after they retrieved Mitchell’s short line drop-out to seize back momentum.
Latrell relishing the captaincy role
Walker also set up tries for Richie Kennar and Tevita Tatola with deft short kicks, and created another for Kennar with a neat pass three minutes into the second half. Mitchell threw the final pass for the other two Souths tries – one for Kennar and another for right winger Jaxson Paulo.
“Look, Cody gets a lot of stick, and I don’t think it’s fair a lot of the time, and there was nobody going to be under more pressure than Cody Walker leading into the start of this season,” Demetriou said.
“I feel like he’s coming through that now, he’s getting to terms with that, and he’s starting to play his own game. He takes the line on when it’s on, and he’s doing what he needs to do for the team, but his effort areas are outstanding.
“But like I just said to him then, through the week, he was probably calming me down more than the other way around, but he’s a pleasure to coach. He’s a big part of our club, he was special this week, and he was special tonight.”
Cool-hand Cody
Mitchell said he was more than happy for Murray to continue as captain but he enjoyed the experience and would step up again when the opportunity arises.
“I really enjoyed my time, I told the big fella (Demetriou), I told the club, that I definitely hold it up there with the biggest accolades that I’ve achieved in my career,” said Mitchell, who declared himself unavailable for NSW next Wednesday as a commitment to Souths.
“I’m enjoying my time here and I’m just enjoying footy at the moment.
“I talked to the big fella here and he just said “don’t change nothing, be you” … I definitely got a kick out of being up the top and leading the boys, but I definitely saw a lot of leaders out there also.”
In his second game back from a hamstring injury, Mitchell also kicked six goals from eight attempts, enjoying the last laugh over sections of the crowd who booed as he was lining up each kick.
“That’s the game of rugby league. Newcastle’s obviously a one-team band, and it’s really enjoyable to come here and get the win over them,” the 25-year-old Taree junior said.
“To kick those goals, it just puts the sugar on top. I really enjoy this. It’s a great rugby league community up here, and I’ve grown up only an hour-and-a-half away, so I know what to expect all the time and you’ve got to come up and put these games away.”