Trent Robinson did not defend Victor Radley's match-turning act in their loss to Melbourne, but the Sydney Roosters coach still stands by his firebrand player.
Radley was sent to the sin bin and put on report midway through the first half on Thursday for a late shot on Storm playmaker Cameron Munster, with referee Ashley Klein saying it was "considerably late" and there was "no attempt to tackle".
The Roosters were in front by two points but, by the time the lock returned, the visitors were down 18-8 and did not manage to score another point as Melbourne surged to a 28-8 victory.
Robinson conceded it was a turning point for his NRL team, but pointed out that Radley was not responsible for their horror completion rate, missed tackles and poor kicking game at AAMI Park.
The 25-year-old's discipline has proved costly over his 100-plus game career at the Roosters, including double sin-bins in last year's semi-final against Souths and round 11 of 2021, making for five in fewer than two years.
Radley was banned for five games after that 2021 match against Brisbane in the early days of the NRL's crackdown on high tackles. Afterwards, he said he was "really happy" with his tackling and did not think it needed adjusting.
"Just because they decide to change the rules midway through the season doesn't mean I have to change my tackling style," he said after copping the ban that cost him a State of Origin debut that still has not materialised.
Despite Radley's obstinate reaction two years ago, Robinson said his star forward was improving his discipline.
"I want him to fix it, but not dwell on it," Robinson said.
"He's made some really good progressions this year, so he's not going to go back to zero on the stuff that he's got under control and the way that he's played the game.
"He's playing good minutes, he's got good vision of play.
"He made a mistake there but we won't dwell on it for too long."
The Dolphins' Felise Kaufusi was banned for four weeks for a similar, if more forceful, late tackle against the Knights in round three.
But the NRL match review committee only charged Radley with a grade-one offence, meaning he can get away with a $3,000 fine with an early guilty plea.
While frustrated with the sin-bin, Robinson questioned how Radley's late shot, which left Munster unscathed, warranted the same punishment as the brutal hit by Parramatta's Bailey Simonsson the previous week that left Roosters skipper James Tedesco concussed and ruled out of Thursday's match.
"It's on the light side. We had 10 minutes last week for that and 10 for this, it's frustrating that there's a big difference in the 10 minutes," Robinson said.
"We got some things this week from the NRL basically saying you can't do that [a late hit].
"If it happened to Kez [Luke Keary], I'd be really frustrated there, it was really unnecessary. It wasn't the end of the world at the same time."
AAP/ABC
