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Experts Roar: Should the sin bin be used more, less or the same?

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30th March, 2022
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The sin bin is yet again looming as a hot topic for debate on the rugby league landscape.

St George Illawarra’s night was sealed last Thursday when Jaydn Su’A was given 10 in the bin for a high shot and Cronulla ran in two tries while he was off to establish a handy lead they never surrendered.

The Warriors did well to defend when down to 12 in the final 10 minutes of their loss to the Wests Tigers while Marcelo Montoya was off due to a professional foul.

But is the sin bin being used enough, too much or has the NRL got the balance about right?

The Roar experts have their say and if you’d like to do likewise, fire away in the comments section below.

Should the sin bin be used more, less or the same?

Michael Hagan (premiership-winning player and coach)

Less. It is probably too great a disadvantage. The attacking teams that are well organised get too great an advantage. Genuine professional fouls should always result in 10 in the bin but the line-ball ones, I reckon a penalty is sufficient.

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Paul Suttor (Roar expert)

More, in the case of referee abuse. The whistleblowers cop way too much in the way of backchat and outright dissent from players. If they are on the receiving end of verbal abuse, they need to show the player who’s boss – if they don’t respect the referee in a professional way, teach them with a 10-minute lesson.

Matt Cleary (Roar expert)

Keep as is. The game changes too much as it is with knee-jerk reactions. Let each ref adjudicate on the fly. It is, after all, their job. The game can’t be perfect. “Consistency” is impossible. And what people mean is “uniformity”. And who wants that? It’s boring.

Mike Meehall Wood (Roar expert)

More. Sin bins are great. We should use them more. If it were up to me, they’d be used a lot more liberally in the professional foul area, because there is a definite policy of slowing the ruck down that takes too long to have an effect. Yes you, Sydney Roosters. If I were a coach, I’d tell my players to repeatedly slow the play-the-ball down in my own end because currently the punishment is so light that it’s worth the risk.

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Tim Gore (Roar expert)

More. The NRL should use the sin bin more, with professional fouls, repeat infringements and foul play – careless and reckless – all being worthy of 10 on the pine.

Danielle Smith (Roar expert)

More.  If a player has done something that warrants a sin binning, then off they go. 

There needs to be a clear list of actions that receive 10 minutes – contact with the head, cannonball tackle, professional foul that doesn’t result in a penalty try, third man into a scuffle, repeat infringements, dangerous tackles (like lifting) etc, and the referee needs to stick with them. Intentional or not, if the end result is a sin bin then players will quickly realise they need to clean up their acts.

Mary Konstantopoulos (Ladies Who League)

More. Absolutely we should be using the sin bin more.  Player health and wellbeing is important and a tool like the sin bin, which negatively impacts your teammates is a good deterrent to preventing professional fouls and dangerous contact. Refereess should be given the support they need to use the sin bin when appropriate. 

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Stuart Thomas (Roar expert)

Less. Considering the fact that the use of the sin bin remains one of the most inconsistent applications of NRL rules, expanding its use would do little more than worsen that reality and annoy fans even more.

Subtle changes week to week and from referee to referee fuel a mistrust in officialdom. Offences other than professional fouls should see the player reported and out of the game, with a replacement permitted and an interchange wasted.

Joe Frost (Roar expert)

Keep as is. I think they’ve got the amount of sin bins about right. The issue is the inconsistency of when someone cops 10 minutes – they really need to be more consistent around what deserves time off the field and what can be sufficiently dealt with via a penalty.

AJ Mithen (Roar expert)

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Yes, yes and yes. Want to get serious about stopping poor on-field behaviours? Bin everyone who deserves it, bin them early and bin them often. Send them off too if it’s egregious enough. I hope beyond hope the NRL would get serious about bins and send-offs but time after time they shirk it. It’s obviously too hard for them, plus it means they’ll have to back in their referees which they most definitely don’t want to do.

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