North Queensland have been fined $10,000 over coach Paul Green’s sensational claim that the club has lost faith in the NRL match review and judiciary process.
Green said they did not bother to fight backrower Tariq Sims’ shoulder charge because the match review and judiciary lacked consistency.
Sims’ career with North Queensland is officially over after the Newcastle-bound enforcer accepted a five-week suspension for the grade three shoulder charge.
Fellow key finals star Anthony Watmough will miss Manly’s elimination final against Canterbury at Allianz Stadium after he entered an early guilty plea for a grade one dangerous throw charge and was suspended for one week.
“The biggest challenge for this judicial system is consistency,” Green said.
“And me as coach and the club have no faith that there is any consistency in what they do … so we felt it was better to move on.”
NRL head of football Todd Greenberg said the committee’s credibility had been attacked.
He was clearly unimpressed that the Cowboys’ official Twitter account posted Green’s claim.
“Paul Green says the club has no faith in the match review and judiciary process and that was a reason why we didn’t push on with Tariq (Sims),” it said.
Greenberg said there was a system in place for clubs to challenge charges laid against players.
“The members of the match review committee and judiciary have hundreds of games experience and they do not deserve to have their integrity and credibility questioned,” he said.
“If the club wanted to dispute the charge against Tariq Sims they could have gone through an independent process and put their case.
“Instead, they have elected to attack the credibility of the match review committee and that cannot be tolerated.”
It is sure to stoke more conspiracy theories up north after the Cowboys accused the NRL of being “Sydney-centric” last season.
North Queensland have had a strained relationship in the past with the NRL after refereeing howlers marred their ill-fated finals campaigns of the past two seasons.
And in April this year the NRL hierarchy was forced to fly to Townsville on Cowboys boss Peter Jourdain’s request to apologise for another official’s blunder in a round eight loss to Manly and also “to assure disillusioned supporters that the region matters to the league”.
Meanwhile, Test backrower Watmough will be available for a preliminary final clash with Penrith if Manly’s depleted pack helps down the Bulldogs in Saturday night’s semi-final.
If Manly lose, Watmough may have played his last game for the club after being linked to Parramatta.
And Manly captain Jamie Lyon escaped suspension with an early guilty plea for his part in a lifting tackle on South Sydney’s Greg Inglis that landed Watmough in trouble.
