The NRL's head of football Graham Annesley has admitted concern over players milking penalties on the back of Sunday's seven sin bin fiasco between the Sydney Roosters and South Sydney Rabbitohs.
While the Rabbitohs were ultimately able to keep their season alive and move to the semi-finals where they will meet the Cronulla Sharks this weekend, the fallout to the game has seen plenty of fingers pointed and criticism levelled.
The seven sin bins ordered by referee Ashley Klein is an NRL record.
Speaking during his footy briefing on Monday at NRL headquarters, Annesley admitted that the game wasn't a good look for the NRL, but also questioned players who attempting to milk penalties.
“I think yesterday is not a good example of what we’ve seen throughout the course of the year,” Annesley said.
“I am concerned about the issue of players waiting for the intervention of officials, but that’s not isolated to yesterday. That’s something we’re constantly monitoring and reviewing, and we will review that again in the off-season.
“We just have to work hard to find ways of dealing with that so it’s not an ongoing problem. But in some cases when these players stay down, it’s because they are injured. I’m not going to stand here and pretend it’s not something we’re monitoring and unprepared to deal with.
“It’s a co-operative fix and it’s not something we can necessarily just address through mandating certain player reactions. I can’t stand here and tell you today I’ve got the magic solution to the problem, and you can’t force players to get up when they are injured. It’s a delicate balance and something which requires an approach across the game to solve it.”
Both Trent Robinson and members from the Rabbitohs camp have stated they didn't lay down for penalties during the game, and Annesley during the briefing on Monday said that all of the sin bins were the correct decisions.
