Panthers' first win marred by allegations of crowd racism

The Penrith Panthers secured their first win of the season in a hotly-contested battle with modern rivals South Sydney, but the afterglow was severely dampened after young crowd members were removed from BlueBet Stadium for allegedly using racial slurs against Rabbitohs fullback Latrell Mitchell.‍

The incident occurred as teams walked up the tunnel for the half-time break, with Mitchell, Cody Walker and other Rabbitohs pausing to engage and react to an unseen crowd member who was promptly ejected by security.

Though the clubs and league have come out strongly against racism and praised security for acting swiftly, Souths coach Jason Demetriou couldn't hide his frustrations after the 16=10 defeat.

“It's not the first time we’ve come here and our players have been racially abused," the coach said.

"Where does it end? I shouldn’t have to... lead a group of players in here to be racially abused."

"The NRL, clubs, they have to get rid of it. Life bans. Anyone who wants to racially abuse, get them out of the game. We don’t want their support. It’s got to end."

"I just can’t get my head around it, I don’t understand in Australia how anyone’s raised like that."

It's not the first time the Rabbitohs have endured racism at the foot of the mountains, with Greg Inglis experiencing a similar ordeal back in 2018. Though the Panthers have always acted promptly to address these matters, there is still a mountain of conjecture about the punishments that should be handed out to these individuals, and whether or not they should receive lifetime bans.

It's a sad reflection of the lack of progress that has been made in this respect despite the best efforts of the NRL to incorporate Indigenous culture into the game of rugby league.

Sadly, it's also nothing new for Mitchell, who has been constantly subjected to these kind of actions on and off the football field, from everyday punters to prominent members of rugby league media.