Who binned the sin-bin?

David Shillington was sent off on Monday night – the first player in more than two years of NRL fixtures to suffer that ignominious exit from the playing area.

Why? due to a head butt to Aaron Woods, who had the temerity to thank Shillington for handing the Tigers the game.

We’ve seen plenty worse than what we saw on Monday night escape immediate dismissal from the match.

This was confirmed by the Match Review Committee handing down a Grade 1 charge, meaning with an early guilty plea David Shillington is free to play again this week.

Willie Mason will sit out two weeks for a shoulder charge and Ben Matulino three for the same offence. Yet both those players remained on the field to finish the game. Add to that the tripping charges that have come out of this season, notably Edrick Lee and Josh Reynolds.

So why was Shillington given his marching orders?

Simple – there were 17 seconds remaining on the clock and the Tigers were going to receive the penalty. The game was effectively over and a head butt is one of those offences that rugby league people find particularly distasteful. Fans will cheer while two players throw haymakers at each other but if you want to head butt someone, bite someone, knee them or spit at them, you can expect the full weight of public opinion to come crashing down on you.

So Shillington’s sending off served two purposes for the referee. Firstly, it gets Shillington out of the way so that potential retribution from the Tigers is eliminated for that last handful of seconds. Secondly, it gives the impression of authority and control for the man with the whistle.

My question is why are we only seeing this in the dying seconds of a match when the result is known? Where are the send offs for the dangerous throws and high tackles that attract multiple-week suspensions? Ben Pomeroy for Catalans Dragons in the UK Super League was sent off early in the second half at the weekend for a shoulder charge. Why not in the NRL?

Part of the answer lies in the use of sin bin, and the fact being that it simply isn’t being used.

Aside from Martin Taupau’s binning for his hit on James Maloney in the Tigers versus Roosters game a couple of weeks ago (where he was punted for much the same reason as I have described), the last time it was used (that I can recall) was Josh Reynolds when he clipped Jamie Soward in a try-scoring situation.

The subsequent review by the game’s hierarchy was that the offence did not warrant a sin binning and the officials erred in giving Reynolds a 10-minute sit down. Since then we have had multiple instances of professional fouls that have gone unpunished other than a penalty awarded to the aggrieved team.

Look no further back than Jeremy Smith for Newcastle on Sunday. Roger Tuivasa-Sheck took a quick tap after Smith had conceded a penalty and he was blocked and potentially tripped by Smith for his trouble.

The effect was a two-fold benefit for Smith and the Knights: he was not sent to the sin-bin, so his team maintained their full complement of players, and he nullified the quick tap for the Roosters. (The second penalty was deemed to be an offside offence for being inside the 10m, which is one of only two occasions the quick tap cannot be taken, the other being within 10m of the opposing goal-line.)

Smith should have been sin-binned, and referee Ashley Klein – whom I count as one of a dwindling number of friends in the refereeing ranks – would agree. Yet he is bound by the collective actions of the officials at every other ground on every other weekend. By binning Smith, Klein would have been operating outside the precedent set by everyone else.

One argument that is used in defence of the sin bin’s non-use is that it is too hard for a team to defend with 12 players for 10 minutes, so they are asking for a five-minute time-out instead of 10.

Spare me. Let’s get some facts around this rather than guesswork or a ‘feeling’ about its impact.

For a start, the ball is not in play for the whole 10 minutes. Add to that the sets in possession the offending team receive and with a balanced share of the ball they are spending fewer than five minutes in defence.

The last time I saw a player binned (Reynolds), Penrith had a lot more fit players than what they have had the last few weeks yet they couldn’t score a point in that 10-minute period against a 12-man Bulldogs.

In the Pomeroy example Catalans were without him for over 35 minutes after he was given his carton rouge, yet still the French side defeated St Helens (a team sitting higher than themselves on the ladder) 26-16. Both teams scored six points apiece after the dismissal.

This ‘can’t defend with 12 for 10 minutes’ idea is a myth; a fabrication of the collective minds of coaches, who should be the last people we listen to as a league-loving public.

All we need to do to avoid any handwringing about who should have gone for 10 who should have been punted for the remainder of the match is to take firm action.

If a player’s actions warrant it, send them to the bin and send them off. Give them their marching orders every single time and we will see teams defending with 12 each round of the NRL.

There will be many benefits of stronger action: it will become far more common so we won’t have the ‘once every two years’ ridicule of the officials; players will be less likely to commit foul play knowing there is an immediate game-time suspension; non-offending teams will receive the benefit of playing against a man down (when they have often lost one of their own through the offence itself); and we will see some more ball movement in games as teams try to expose the numerical advantage.

Now if only one of us could convince the referees.

***

Idiotic behaviour is one thing, alienating one half of the game’s fan-base through finding new ways to offend them is a whole new tier of stupid.

Enter David Minute.

The Bulldogs player was this week given a fine and a 12-month bond for harassing the team’s strength and conditioning coach, who also happened to be a woman.

David was prank-calling her and making suggestive groaning sounds over the phone, which disturbed her enough to call the police. They investigated and found that the calls were made from – wait for it – Minute’s girlfriend’s mobile phone.

What a moron.

I don’t mention this to highlight the player, who will hopefully disappear and think long and hard about his stupid decisions. I want to acknowledge the fact that this went to court and a judgment was found against the player.

The system the Bulldogs have in place for harassment must be working, because in many clubs over many eras you can bet that nothing would have been done. Instead a process was followed, the victim was supported all the way to the issue’s conclusion, and the player will soon be without a job in football.

I can’t imagine this would have been done without the CEO’s knowledge and imprimatur, so credit needs to go to Raelene Castle and her board.

Rugby league needs women in the game serving in every capacity. From match officials to CEOs and chairs of boards, we are making steady progress. Long may it continue.