Sydney Roosters coach Trent Robinson has refused to disagree with the decision to send Victor Radley to the sin bin during last night's loss to the Melbourne Storm, but did question how the penalty could be the same as a hit that wiped out James Tedesco the week before.
Playing without their captain, who is recovering from the eighth concussion of his career after being taken out by Bailey Simonsson during a tight win over the Parramatta Eels last Thursday, the Roosters fell heavily to the Storm on the road in miserable weather conditions.
The key talking point to come out of the game, apart from the tri-colours' collapse, was Victor Radley being sent to the sin bin for the seventh time in his 101-game career.
Taking out Cameron Munster late, Radley was given his marching orders by referee Ashley Klein on advice of bunker official Gerard Sutton.
Robinson said during his post-game press conference that had the hit come against his own half Luke Keary, he would have been frustrated, although Munster was never sent for a head injury assessment despite seeming to whip into the ground.
โLook you can't do that, if that happened to Kez [Luke Keary] I'd be really frustrated there, it wasn't necessary and it wasn't the end of the world at the same time,โ Robinson said.
โI want him to fix it but not dwell on it, he's made some really good progressions this year so he's not going to go back to zero on the stuff he's got under control and the way that he's played the game.
โHe's playing good minutes, he's got good vision of play and he made a mistake there but we won't dwell on it for too long.โ
Given the precedent around late shots this year, it appeared obvious from the moment contact was made that Radley would ultimately find himself in the sin bin.
His late shot on Munster allowed the Storm to dance away to an 18-8 lead at halftime - a scoreline that the Roosters would never recover from.
Robinson suggested however that the punishment being the same for Radley's shot as it was for Simonsson last week was frustrating.
โIt's sort of on the pretty light side I would say. We had 10 minutes last week and then 10 minutes this week for this. It's frustrating that there's such a big difference in the 10 minutes," Robinson said.
Robinson's comments could renew calls for the return of a five-minute sin bin.
The coach should have Tedesco back next week ahead of a crunch clash against the Cronulla Sharks, with the Roosters now sitting on a three and two record from their five games.
