Latrell Mitchell? Great player, truly one of the best, when he is on his game. Not only that, but he has been a wonderful advocate on matters Indigenous, particularly. But …

But here’s the thing, when it comes to this month’s Latrell imbroglio, which is all to do with being photographed with white powder of indeterminate origin, fined $20k and suspended one match by the NRL, fined $100k ($80k suspended) by his club and all the rest.

The problem is that it really is just THIS MONTH’S imbroglio. For every time you look up, there is a new suspension, or injury, or scandal, or break, or something that prevents him playing for an extended period of time. This year, he will have played for Souths just . . . 11 times. In four years with the Roosters from 2016, he played 24, 23, 24 and 25 times. With the Rabbitohs since, he has played 14, 17, 17, 16 and now 11 times.

He is, I repeat, a special player capable of doing things on the field others can’t conceive let alone execute, and in his one State of Origin match this year he truly demonstrated his absolute class. But the bottom line remains. In terms of value for money for Souths he is simply not worth his lofty salary in a team that was flirting with the wooden spoon.

Whoever takes on Latrell Mitchell next – for I can’t believe that one way or another he will endure at Souths – should put him on a contract where the big money only flows with his presence and performance, not the signature alone.

I try. I really try. With every fibre of my being I have tried to leave the whole Israel Folau thing alone, as we are all just so exhausted by it. And I have mostly been successful. Something like 425 days sober!

Alas, this week has broken me, I can no more, and just this once – I promise – am back on the sauce.

“When I put up the post,” the former Wallaby told the Ebbs and Flows podcast of the saga of twice putting up Instagram twaddle of how all gays would burn in hell, “I never thought that I’d get terminated for it. It just never crossed my mind.”

Seriously, Israel? Not even when you were sat down after the first time, asked not to do it again and counselled that you risked your contract being terminated if you did it again? I would have thought there was probably a fair clue in that?

My reckoning would be that when the first post led front and back pages for days on end, and your Wallaby coach of the time, Michael Cheika, told you this was a firestorm that the team just could not accommodate in the lead-up to the 2019 World Cup, that the possibility of termination might have crossed your mind? But, do go on . . .

Former Wallaby Israel Folau in 2018.Credit: Getty

“A couple of months before it all happened, I said a prayer and asked God to bring a challenge on that would really test my faith. If I say........

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