Canberra coach Ricky Stuart questions sin-binning of Hudson Young in Newcastle

Canberra coach Ricky Stuart has declared consistency throughout the season will be impossible to achieve after his star forward Hudson Young was sent to the sin bin in Canberra’s shock win over Newcastle.

Stuart said a penalty would have been sufficient for the late shot on Kalyn Ponga, which resulted in a grade one dangerous contract chage and a $750 fine from NRL Match Review Committee, in Thursday nights gritty 28-12 win on the road

Young was marched for 10 minutes in the first half for a high shot on the reigning Dally M Medal winner who had already let go of the ball.

It was a brain snap by Young, who wasn’t to know that his side was about to be awarded a penalty for obstruction that denied Newcastle the first try of the night.

The Raiders weren’t put off by the numerical advantage, with new recruit Zac Hosking flying high to score from the following set, but Stuart fears all games will have players sent to the sin bin if that’s the standard of foul play.

“The buzz word is ‘discretionary’, isn’t it? It was a discretionary decision,” he said.

“Penalise him, but if we’re going to start sin-binning people for that, we’re going to be playing a lot of games with 12 (men).

“If that’s a sin-bin offence and then a week off, it’s got to be consistent every week, every game. But it won’t be.

“That’s not having a crack at anyone because referees have got a very difficult job, but I don’t believe it’s a sin-bin offence.”

The sin bin was a minor blip on the radar for the Green Machine who overcame the loss of key personnel in the off-season to avenge last year’s heartbreaking 30-28 finals loss to Newcastle in extra time.

That game was one of the many reasons why the Knights were raging favourites to extend their winning streak at home, but they lacked any of the polish that made them one of the most exciting teams to watch in 2023.

The hosts made 15 errors on Thursday and looked clunky against a Canberra side that played the percentages and was rewarded with four second-half tries.

“Our game lacked any sort of grit,” Knights coach Adam O’Brien said.

“We were impatient, we wanted the highlight reel, whereas the other mob scored four tries or whatever on the last play – and they were scrappy tries – but that’s what they wanted.

“They wanted to come here and get into a scrap, and I don’t reckon we did.

“We got a lesson in what wins in the first month of footy – that’s high completions and working hard all the way through to the back-end of the set and not looking for the easy way out.

“The other mob were good. They’ve spent their summer dreaming about coming back here, and we’ve been happy with our summer. I’ve probably told them too many times how good a summer we’ve had, so I don’t need to do that anymore.”