South Sydney coach Jason Demetriou says superstar Latrell Mitchell will “only get better” after a stunning late strike nearly earned the Rabbitohs a remarkable win against Melbourne Storm.
And the coach was adamant rookie halfback Lachie Ilias was “the future of the club” after bouncing back from an ordinary first half to play his part in Souths’ late run to the line.
Playing his first game for seven months, as a result of a six-game suspension that xjmtzywspanned the end of the 2021 season and the opening round of 2022, Mitchell saved his best for late with the two-point field goal that sent the game to extra time at AAMI Park.
Mitchell’s efforts until that point had been a mixed bag of important attacking touches, but his 88 run metres was evidence of an unwillingness to expend too much energy taking on the Storm defence himself.
Demetriou saw enough to like, noting the second-up effort of Cameron Murray off a shoulder operation showed improvement could come.
“I thought (Mitchell) was pretty good considering the time he had out of the game and the miles you have to do as a fullback,” the coach said.
“I thought he handled it well. and he’s only going to get better. I thought Cam after shoulder surgery looked a lot better this week than he did last week and I’m sure Latrell will be the same next week.
“We’re getting our key players back and getting minutes into them as well. We are tracking in the right direction, we’ve just got to stay to the process and keep believing we are going to nail it.”
Demetriou also backed in 21-year-old Ilias after he failed to have any impact in the first half against Melbourne in just his third NRL game and finished with, apart from 160 kicking metres, a fairly bare stats sheet.
“People forget Anthony Milford was signed here for this and that was to take a bit of pressure off Lachie to allow him to grow into that role and he’s been thrown into it,” he said.
“What I liked about him was even though we were behind, he could have easily drifted out of the game and I don’t think he did that. He started organising. He was better in the second half, came up with some good plays, dug into the line really well that created two tries.
“While there are things for him to work on, I am comfortable with his temperament. I thought overall he kicked really well and it’s a work in progress.
“It’s my job and the coaches’ job to keep working with Lachie and he’s long term, he’s going nowhere. He’ll be the future of the club, no doubt about that.”
