It comes after calls from fans to block the move from the star pair.
Souths superstar Latrell Mitchell is free to play in the Rabbitohs’ NRL season opener against the Dolphins after he and Parramatta recruit Josh Addo-Carr were granted permission to serve their respective suspensions in the upcoming All Stars game. The news comes after Mitchell’s Rabbitohs teammate Campbell Graham suffered another injury scare that leaves him fighting to be fit for the start of the new season.
South Sydney and Parramatta asked the NRL for the All-Stars clash on February 15 to count towards Mitchell and Addo-Carr’s suspensions, which have carried over into the upcoming season. The request sparked plenty of backlash, with rival clubs understood to be unhappy and league fans fuming at the thought of the exhibition match counting towards their NRL bans. But the league informed the 17 clubs of their decision on Wednesday, paving the way for Mitchell to make his return against the Dolphins in round one on March 7 and Addo-Carr to make his return against former club Canterbury, in round three.
Mitchell was banned for one game and then copped a $20,000 fine after a photo emerged of him with what appeared to be a white powder during a trip to Dubbo for coaching clinics earlier this year. He was then injured at the back end of the 2024 season but unsuccessfully tried to prove his fitness and serve the suspension in round 27, with the NRL knocking back the request and informing the 27-year-old he would have to serve the ban in the new year.
However, the Rabbitohs asked judiciary chair Geoff Bellew to allow the star fullback to use the annual All-Stars clash between the Indigenous and Maori teams in pre-season as his one-game suspension. Parramatta followed suit after lodging a similar request on behalf of recruit Addo-Carr, who still has three games left to serve on a four-game suspension for testing positive to cocaine while driving – which ultimately cost him his job at Canterbury.
Calls for NRL to block All Stars request fall on deaf ears
The NRL’s decision to allow the pair to use the All Stars game towards their suspensions comes after backlash from across the league world, with former premiership winner and radio host Scott Sattler arguing it would send the ‘wrong message’. He argued that because both Mitchell’s and Addo-Carr’s suspensions were for off-field indiscretions, the the pair should be made to serve their bans in the NRL.
“Respectfully and as a South Sydney fan I want to see Latrell Mitchell on the field as early as possible, absolutely,” Sattler said on SEN radio. “But I think because this is an off-field incident, if it was an on-field incident and it was a careless action on the field then I have no problems with the application being lodged and I don’t take anything away from Parramatta and South Sydney.
You’ll do everything you can to get your star players on the field and look for every avenue to do that. But I think (using) the All Stars game… to take off one of the games of their suspension, I think is a long stretch seeing as though it’s an off-field incident. I know PVL (Peter V’landys) wants the best players on the field, I know he wants headlines as much as possible but as I said, the NRL are being urged to block the application.
“What it does moving forward is it also changes precedence and you like to have precedence across a number of issues in the game whether it’s on-field, off-field… and if you do start making allowances then a lot of those precedents have a false future in a sense…. the precedent has been set with Braydon Trindall, Josh Addo-Carr and the amount of games they’ve missed through the roadside drug test.”
Souths rocked by fresh Campbell Graham blow
Wednesday’s development comes as mixed news for South Sydney though, with luckless centre Campbell Graham suffering another injury setback after missing all of last season with a sternum injury. Graham was on track to return for round one after undergoing successful surgery to sort out the sternum issue but is under a fresh injury cloud after injuring his hand at training on Tuesday.
Souths are yet to learn the extent of the damage or how long Graham might be ruled out for, with the gun centre awaiting the results of scans after being seen clutching at his hand during a Rabbitohs training session. The Bunnies are due to play Manly in a trial game on February 15, before the Charity Shield clash with the Dragons on February 22 and will be sweating on the fitness of Graham before the new season gets underway.
