Wests Tigers coach Michael Maguire has declared he has no issue with James Roberts' trip to play poker machines as he revealed the centre will miss Friday's NRL game against the Warriors.
Roberts and fullback Daine Laurie were spotted in a Newcastle pub on the evening before the team suffered a lacklustre 26-4 defeat to the Knights, making them 0-2 for the season.
The Tigers' match effort, according to club legend Benji Marshall, "wasn't first-grade standard".
Roberts picked up a cork in that game and won't be cleared to play at Campbelltown Stadium against the Warriors, but Maguire said he had no issue with the centre's evening excursion.
"We all live a life and they were home (at the team hotel) with me at about 8.30," Maguire said.
"Players can wander out and get an ice cream and do the things they want to do. They were prepared very well to go.
"James Roberts was looking a million bucks before the game. In the third set he got wiped out and got a whopping big cork on his leg.
"Most players would've come off with what he went through. He put his body on the line in that game and it goes to show what it means to him."
Maguire said he would not police his players on future away trips.
"If it was ridiculous hours and those sort of things we'd talk about that," he said.
"We understand the situation of where the club is at at the moment.
"We've got to make sure we're diligent about the things we're doing but they were well prepared and ready to go."
Maguire is now in his fourth season at the Tigers and, having started the year with two straight losses, a third on Friday would invite more scrutiny over his future.
The Tigers face a tough run with fixtures against the Gold Coast, Cronulla, South Sydney and Parramatta over the next month.
Maguire isn't helped by the fact that five-eighth Jackson Hastings copped a three-game ban for a dangerous throw stemming from the Knights loss.
It means under-fire halfback Luke Brooks will be partnered with 22-year-old Jock Madden - a veteran of just three NRL games - and tasked with guiding the Tigers to their first win of the season.
Maguire backed Brooks to help Madden and dismissed comments from Andrew Johns that the playmaker wouldn't reach his peak at the Tigers.
"He'll turn up tomorrow and he'll go hard," Maguire said.
"He will reach his potential at this club and I can assure you of that.
"We've got to build our game so it allows our players to do the things we can."
