Great warning over Parramatta eels message

NRL great Scott Sattler says he doesn’t believe Latrell Mitchell and Josh Addo-Carr should be able to use the All Stars game on February 15 to serve their respective suspensions and that allowing them to do so would ‘send the wrong message’. South Sydney and Parramatta have asked the NRL for the All-Stars clash to count towards Mitchell and Addo-Carr’s suspensions, which have carried over into the upcoming season.

 

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. The Rabbitohs star was 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 have reportedly asked judiciary chair Geoff Bellew to allow Mitchell to use the annual All-Stars clash between the Indigenous and Maori teams in pre-season as his one-game suspension. Parramatta have also followed suit after lodging a similar request on behalf of Eels 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.

League bosses have been urged to block the applications for both players so they can’t use the All Stars game and would instead have to serve the bans in the NRL. And former premiership winner Scott Sattler – who is the son of Souths legend John – says even though he would love to see Mitchell run out in round one next year, the NRL has an obligation to send a strong message.

 

Sattler suggested he would have no issues with the players using the All Stars game to serve on-field bans for incidents that may have carried over from last season. But he says 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.