Latrell To Market, Bunker Backlash & Finals Fitness | Kenty Blitz

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Kenty - Paul Kent NRL Podcast 35 min 1 speaker 8 chapters transcribed just now
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Why is Latrell Mitchell going to market and what does it mean for South Sydney?

Paul Kent 0:01
G'day and welcome to Kenty Blitz, your daily head of NRL News. And Kenty, some news broke last night uh that Latrell Mitchell is going to market November 1. You surprised by that? Yeah, a little bit. I was surprised by that. I Because we expected him to just come to a deal with South Sydney that he he was not really gonna go anywhere else. Uh they weren't looking to lose lose him. Uh he was not looking to play anywhere else. But I think Warren looked to be fair, I think this goes back to to what we s we you know, what I said at the beginning of the season. Um caused a little bit of heat at the time. You got plastered, didn't you? Yeah by everyone from Reese Walsh to everybody else. Everybody. Everybody. But the the fact is, uh you know, I question I know, probably four rounds in or five rounds in, whether Latro Mitchell is worth
Paul Kent 0:49
Marquee money playing in the centers. And it's not it's really nothing to do with his talent uh or his input. It's it's all about where he's playing and and actually how much involvement he can have in a game in that position. Now we do see when he does get involved, he is still A big strike player, and he's still a guy that can make a difference in the game. But he can only get involved when the ball comes out to that edge essentially. And essentially, it also means it's probably one one tackle in every six that he's really getting involved. And and that's that's the trick. See what I think is now there's a couple of things we don't know here, right? It's going to market for reasons we don't know. The assumption is either South Sydney have come in low on their offer
Paul Kent 1:39
Or the the assumption is that something's happened at South Sydney uh that he wants out of the club. Uh and there is a suggestion that he might go as well. Now So you gotta assume what what's his true value. South one thing I do know about Wayne Bennett and one thing that gets rarely mentioned in regards to Bennett is how well he controls the salary cap. We've all marveled at the job they did br at the at assembling the roster of the Dolphins back when they first came into the NRL uh some years back. Nine of those players who were purchased back then for their debut season will be playing this week in the preliminary final. And one thing that the Dolphins did very well was they they set the club upright
Paul Kent 2:23
in regards to roster and salary cap. Bennett knows what is too much for a player. Back in his Broncos days, he had front rowers, he needed front rower, uh, he knew the value of having a good front rower, but he also knew that there was a ceiling on what you paid for those guys. And he also knew what you paid for your halfback and what you could pay for your centers. And if you hit that ceiling, you can't go over it. The minute you start Bending the rules v within your cap, it it gets bent all out of shape. Because the minute you spend two hundred thousand dollars more on a player that you wanted to keep, but it's it's two hundred thousand above what the position is worth. There's two hundred you can't you you can't buy for the next guy.
Paul Kent 3:08
Now that's not two hundred thousand to buy a two hundred thousand dollar player. That's when a player comes off for seven hundred and he wants nine hundred. That two hundred thousand is gonna cost you that player. And so Latrell is on marquee money, but he was put on that marquee money originally to play fullback. He hasn't played enough football in the past to justify his salary. He played twelve games this season, eleven games last season, eleven games the season before. The most he's played in his what, seven or eight years at at the Rabbit has now, the most he's played is seventeen games in a season out of twenty four. So that's only three quarters of the season. Uh and he's done that twice. Uh but he he's also had a 16 game season and he's had i all of yeah, 14 games and and all the rest of it.
Paul Kent 3:59
You've got to get value for money. It's it's vital in the NRL that you're getting value for money in your cap. And I think if South Sydney have low balled him compared to what he's on,

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