But the eye-watering salary has sparked debate over whether the Australian and NSW Blues representative is worth the investment, given his ongoing injury concerns and inability to feature in every game of the season.<\/p>\n
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Although he is regarded as one of the NRL\u2019s most damaging and best players on his day, Mitchell\u2019s extended time on the sidelines over the past few years has raised questions about whether the Rabbitohs should hand him top-tier money.<\/p>\n
This comes as Code Sports reporter Brent Read predicted that the Cardinal and Myrtle will attempt to get a new deal done with him before he is allowed to head to the open market on November 1.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think Souths are going to try and get a deal done. They haven\u2019t started the process yet but I\u2019d imagine later in the year they\u2019ll try to knock a deal over,\u201d Read said on NRL 360.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt just depends, they want Latrell back playing footy. <\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s when he\u2019s happiest and at his best and I think once he gets back later in the year then they\u2019ll sit down and talk turkey with him. They want to keep him.\u201d<\/p>\n
Is Latrell set to go to market? | 02:43<\/p>\n
Currently on around $1.1 million per season, it is understood that this could be increased by as much as $300,000, pushing him into the top tier of the game\u2019s highest-paid players.<\/p>\n
Dylan Brown, Mitchell Moses, Nathan Cleary and Tom Trbojevic are understood to all be on around $1.3 million a season at the moment.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think Cleary is above everyone and then he\u2019s in the next level,\u201d Read added.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey can win a comp with Latell fit and firing. For me, there\u2019s a little bit of a premium with Latrell for everything else he brings – the personality, the persona.\u201d<\/p>\n
Souths unhappy with Koula return | 01:15<\/p>\n
However, the salary increase has raised concerns from former Origin enforcer Gorden Tallis who believes that handing Mitchell a long-term deal on a high salary carries real risk given his injury record, which saw him play 11 matches a year in 2024 and 2025.<\/p>\n
Although he stated that Mitchell\u2019s talent is undeniable, he was worried that he is ongoing fitness concerns could prove a gamble for the Rabbitohs.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you\u2019re at a footy club and it\u2019s top dollar, that\u2019s half a season (he is playing),\u201d Tallis chimed in.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m not saying he\u2019s not worth the money, it could just be a bit dangerous.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"South Sydney Rabbitohs superstar Latrell Mitchell could be in line for one of the richest contracts in NRL…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":713585,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":["post-713584","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nrl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-national-rugby-league","tag-nationalrugbyleague","tag-nrl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/713584","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=713584"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/713584\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/713585"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=713584"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=713584"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=713584"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}