“We speak about our try-line defence,and he’s at the forefront of that. He comes up with a brilliant one-on-one tackle on[Matt] Burton,and that’s a massive play[in the second half].
“Tonight there were some big plays to be made,and Latrell put his body[on the line] and did his job for the team. That’s what he tries to focus on every week,it’s what his pre-season has been about.
Latrell Mitchell and Josh Addo-Carr after the game.Credit:Getty
“He is what he is. He gets the attention he gets. I’m really proud of how he’s been focused on the team first this week,and been all about what he needs to do for his teammates and how to improve on last week.”
At least Mitchell would have loved belting out the victory song for the first time this year.
It was not pretty,but it was a much-needed two points for Demetriou’s side.
Souths had lost their opening three games of the season and were under pressure to notch a win to kick-start their season,not to mention ease pressure on the coach.
“I get there’s noise about that,but I don’t come to work every day worrying about whether I’ll have a job or not,” Demetriou said.
“I come to work knowing I’ve got a job to do to help these guys get prepared to play footy ... I won’t put my head noise onto them. It’s for me to deal with,and I need to concentrate on making sure they know I believe how good they are.”
Victory against the New Zealand Warriors and Cronulla at home over the next fortnight will be considered a pass mark.
Mitchell’s good friend Jack Wighton finished with a double and was always a handful on the left edge.
Canterbury fans felt Wighton should have been penalised for a hip-drop tackle on Jacob Preston. Preston got up gingerly on his ankle,and coach Cameron Ciraldo bit his tongue about the incident.
To be fair to Wighton,replays appeared to show he landed on the ground rather than Preston’s legs.
Alex Johnston failed to finish the game due to a hamstring injury,and Shaq Mitchell failed an HIA.
Former Rabbit Blake Taaffe had a lot of nice touches against his old club,but came up with a crucial error late in the game that allowed Souths to stretch their lead to eight points.
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The Dogs had plenty of field position and possession,but did not turn them into points. It was poor attack rather than a rock-solid South Sydney defensive display.
For Canterbury,half-time was the worst thing that could have happened.
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