Cronulla Sharks half Nicho Hynes has revealed he didn't know whether Penrith Panthers star Nathan Cleary should have been sin binned or not.
Cleary was sin binned for running through the leg of Hugo Savala as he kicked in general play during Sunday afternoon's qualifying final at Allianz Stadium.
The contact was deemed forceful and dangerous, but the NRL's match review committee spared Cleary on Monday morning, simply hitting him with a Grade 1 charge which carries a fine and no suspension.
It means the Penrith star will be free to play in the club's preliminary final in a fortnight against either the the New Zealand Warriors or Newcastle Knights who clash in a semi-final at Eden Park this weekend.
Hynes admitted it was hard to get a read on the match review committee, but said he wanted the best players to be available for the finals.
"I don't know. I actually don't know. Sometimes people get suspended for it and sometimes they don't," Hynes told the media from a Cronulla Sharks recovery session.
"It's above my pay grade to sit here and have an opinion, because whatever I say you are going to write about it. I love Nathan, he is a really good guy and you don't want to see your best players stamped out of the finals series.
"Whatever is warranted is warranted, and whatever it will be, will be."
Pressed further, Hynes said he simply wants to see consistency from the MRC.
"As long as it's equal for every player across the board, then that's all that matters really. You have to treat everyone the same whether it's the face of the game or not," Hynes added.
The MRC have been widely panned throughout the course of the year for a series of baffling charges that seemed to ignore previous precedent.
The Cleary charge could have, however, gone one of a number of ways based on prior similar offences.
