With Latrell deal done, Rabbitohs target Arrow

Latrell Mitchell's South Sydney signing brings to an end one of the game's most public contract sagas, but not necessarily the Rabbitohs' bid to have Jai Arrow join him at Redfern in 2020.

Wayne Bennett described Mitchell's recruitment as being in the same realm as club champions Greg Inglis and Sam Burgess, particularly when the Test and NSW Origin centre had spurned millions of dollars more on offer elsewhere.

Mitchell has inked a two-year contract with the 2021 component an option in the Rabbitohs' favour.

It's understood Mitchell will earn around $600,000 for 2020 from the Rabbitohs on top of the $117,000 he has already been paid by the Roosters since November before being officially released on Monday.

A 2021 upgrade is built into his new deal, which South Sydney has until June 30 this year to enact, while the Roosters eventually backed down from demand to be repaid the past two months of Mitchell's wages.

Both Mitchell and Bennett hinted at the fullback role that has long been desired by the 22-year-old, a scenario that has led to speculation over the futures of Dane Gagai and Alex Johnston.

Bennett acknowledged he faces "a hard decision" as to who makes way from his round one backline to accommodate Mitchell.

But football manager Shane Richardson said the Rabbitohs have enough salary cap space to bring Arrow south immediately without offloading any of their top 30 talent, however, a glut of backline riches could well see at least one player move on to play regular first grade elsewhere.

Richardson said that negotiations around an early Titans release for Arrow remain ongoing, though NRL.com understands that the Gold Coast have knocked back at least one suggested player swap proposed by South Sydney.

"Jai Arrow is a major thing for us, we're still in there trying to get Jai down this year," Richardson said.

"A lot of people misunderstood that signing Latrell would have an effect on Arrow – it doesn’t have any effect at all. A lot of clubs thought that.

"We're keen to bring Jai here but that’s up to the Gold Coast, Mal [Meninga] and Denis Watt and the team up there.

"We'll worry about that as we come along, but we certainly haven't given up hope on it."

Mitchell's move across Anzac Parade adds yet another chapter to the fabled Rabbitohs-Roosters rivalry, and promises a bumper build-up to their Round 3 clash at ANZ Stadium.

He will report to training with his new South Sydney teammates for the first time on Tuesday with an eventual shift to fullback on the cards.

"Me and Wayne will talk about that in the coming weeks but I just want to get back in the routine and start training," Mitchell said.

"I've always come up as a fullback, I was never a centre.

"The potential to play fullback again is exciting and for myself I'm excited to see where I can take my footy now.

"Going back 24 months when I started at centre, I'd never ever played centre so that sort of answers your question."

Bennett added: "I'm sure in his preferred position of fullback, he's not going to have a struggle with making that pretty much his own.

"There's a lot of attributes that I love to see in a fullback and he's got them."