How Souths are using suspended Latrell Mitchell as secret weapon to shut down Tom Trbojevic

A fortnight ago the Melbourne Storm provided the blueprint to shutting down the game’s most dangerous player.

Now South Sydney has its own plan of attack to stop Tom Trbojevic, even if five-eighth Cody Walker thinks it is not that black and white.

“I don’t think you can stop him,” he told reporters on Tuesday afternoon.

“You’ve just got to limit that possession game.”

Melbourne did exactly that in its 40-12 win over the Sea Eagles, with ex-halfback Cooper Cronk telling Fox League it was all about numbers in defence.

“When he ran in and around the ruck he wasn’t one out with a defender, there were three,” he said.

“On an edge they gave him space and waited for the cavalry to come from the inside and usher him towards the sideline.”

They are handy hints for the Rabbitohs but ones that Trbojevic and the Sea Eagles will now be using to come up with their own solution.

South Sydney has its own secret weapon though in the form of suspended fullback Latrell Mitchell, who has been impersonating the Manly fullback at training.

“I guess the silver lining of the situation that we’re in with Latrell is that he can slot in there in reserves and pretty accurately act as a Tommy Turbo for us as we prepare to come up against him and Manly,” lock forward Cameron Murray said on Tuesday.

“He’s been really good for us over the last couple of days, he’s been having a lot of fun out there.

“He’s made sure we’ve put in a lot of really good practice. He’s a pretty handy player, he’s pretty similar to Turbo out there.”

Mitchell has also been acting as a mentor for young replacement Blake Taaffe, who silenced his critics with a classy display against Penrith a fortnight ago.

“He’s [Latrell] been training in the second team against our NRL team, putting plays on and acting as the opposition,” Benji Marshall said.

“He has been a great mentor for Blake.”

Damien Cook said Mitchell had been “quite a handful” at training, giving South Sydney an advantage few other teams having in trying to prepare for the Turbo-charged Sea Eagles.

“This is where the other players in the squad become so important,” he said.

“They have been all year, but the standard they set for us at training, the likes of Latrell, are really testing us. This will only make us better on the weekend.”

In an interview with The Big Sports Breakfaston Wednesday, Cook admitted the Rabbitohs can’t fall into the trap of simply following Melbourne’s blueprint to stopping Trbojevic.

“I think they had a lot of aggression and intent in their defence and every time they got the ball they tried to limit his time,” Cook said.

“That’s what you do. You watch how other teams do it with Tom on certain plays and try and best work that into your process without changing the way we play normally.

“We’ve definitely seen some things in that game we can use but there’s no doubt they also watched that game and how they stopped Tom.

“They’re going to find ways to combat how we defend him and will change a few things”.

Walker and fellow halves partner Adam Reynolds said similar on Tuesday, claiming that limiting possession is key.

“We just need to be South Sydney and defend how we defend,” Reynolds said when asked if Melbourne showed the way.

“I think we showed glimpses through that Penrith game. It was not pretty at times but if the scramble is there we can solve it. We’ll need that same desperation.

“We’ve done a little bit [of homework].

“Obviously, we know what kind of threat he is. We just need to be prepared as team and work together. If we do that I’m sure we’ll solve it on the night.”

Walker, meanwhile, said: “You’ve just got to try make them come out of their end as much as possible, not give them any leg ups out of yardage and just have high completions”.

“Have a line whenever you put in a kick-chase down there, not a staggered line,” he added.

“If you don’t give him too many opportunities in our end, hopefully you don’t see him. It’s easier said than done.”

The Rabbitohs were written off as premiership contenders following Mitchell’s suspension but critics did not count on Taafee being an instant success story.

“He’s done a great job,” Murray said of Taaffe.

“We had every confidence that he would do the job he could do last week. He stepped up to the plate under pressure and executed and did everything he needed to do at the back there.

“We’re really proud of the way he has stepped up into the position he’s been given.

“It was a good game for him, probably a lot of nerves there, but it was good to get the win there. It probably does a lot for his confidence leading into another big game.”

Source: foxsports.com 

Author: 
Foxsports.com