- Video
-
Club Roar
Captured a great grassroots sporting moment? We want to see it!Content Collections
The Roar Community
- Join
- Login
Penrith’s marquee signing for 2016, Trent Merrin, has criticised the inconsistent application of the rule surrounding the touching of referees.
Merrin said the NRL judiciary “made an example” of teammate Sam McKendry that resulted in a one-match ban for the former Kiwi international prop.
Canterbury prop David Klemmer had a similar charge overturned by the three-man panel despite touching referee Ben Cummins in Canterbury’s after-the-siren win against Penrith back in Round 2.
But McKendry had no such luck last Wednesday night after he was found guilty of a contrary conduct charge for touching referee Jared Maxwell in Penrith’s narrow win over the Roosters last Monday night.
The suspension came as images surfaced on social media that showed North Queensland Cowboys premiership winning skipper, Johnathan Thurston making contact with referee Ashley Klein a week earlier, when the Cowboys rallied late to defeat Penrith at Pepper Stadium.
With Thurston’s incident going unnoticed by the Match Review Committee, Merrin believes, McKendry’s incident a week later, ensured he was made a scapegoat for the game’s need to crackdown on the issue.
“There’s dead set been a few players in the last few weeks that have done the exact same thing but they get let off,” Merrin said.
“But I think they’ve got to make an example sooner or later and they’ve done it with Sammy.
Merrin, who was one of a number of players earlier in the season who avoided punishment for making contact with a referee, questioned how Thurston could escape a similar charge from the match review committee.
“You’ve got the best player in the world that touches the ref and doesn’t get (anything), and then someone else does it and they cop a week,” he said.
“That just goes to explain my point that they’ve just got to be consistent with what they do.”
McKendry, the fourth player to be charged with touching a referee this year along with Canterbury’s David Klemmer, Parramatta’s Kieran Foran and Brisbane’s James Roberts, is set to be replaced by prop Jeremy Latimore for this Sunday’s Anzac Round clash with the red-hot Sharks at Southern Cross Group Stadium.
Reckon you can pick the winning team? Build your own dream team with Draftstars daily fantasy and compete on any match. For great odds on the NRL head on over to PlayUp. Imagine what you could be buying instead. Set a deposit limit.