SKD just wants to play football: Robinson

Shaun Kenny-Dowall has put his court case behind him and just wants to play football, according to Sydney Roosters coach Trent Robinson.

Kenny-Dowall was on Monday found not guilty of 11 domestic violence charges brought against him by former girlfriend Jessica Peris.

The Kiwi international will play in the Roosters’ round one NRL fixture against South Sydney at Allianz Stadium on Sunday.

Despite talk he might not be in the right mental state to play, Robinson said his three-quarter was ready to go.

“Shaun is good, he is in a good frame of mind, it has been a tough eight months, very difficult for Shaun and I’m sure for Jess as well,” Robinson said at the Roosters’ Moore Park base on Wednesday.

“Now it has finished they can move on.

“Shaun is ready to play. He is in a better place now than what he was last year. His routine in rugby league needs to continue. The matter is finished for him. Now he just wants to play footy and he wants to get back to things the way they were before.”

NSW Premier Mike Baird was among those who called for Kenny-Dowall to be stood down when the allegations from Peris surfaced last year.

Robinson said the club held no ill feeling about such comments.

“These cases are all grey,” he said.

“We made a call eight months ago based on the information that we had, that was the right of the club and the NRL backed us on that. We were not playing judge and jury, we left that up to someone else and now we can move on.

“People have their opinions and I understand why people do, it is a very sensitive case.

“We talked about it at the time. It is not easy coming out there and saying that in those cases but you can only do what is right and people make comments based on what they thought was right.”

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