Annesley open to five-minute sin bin

Head of football Graham Annesley has opened the door to the possibility of the NRL introducing a five-minute sin-binning rule after minor incidents drew differing opinion over the weekend.  

Annesley backed the match officials' decision to send Jake Trbojevic for a 10-minute spell after ruling he deliberately disrupted Rabbitohs centre Dane Gagai's support play in a potential try-scoring situation. 

The professional foul incident was the biggest talking point to come out of the second week of the finals with Sea Eagles coach Des Hasler believing his side were "dudded" by the call.

An animated Hasler was on the phone to Annesley moments after the Sea Eagles surrendered a six-point lead to be bundled out of the finals.

While continuing to back the decision, Annesley supported a review into certain indiscretions that could result in sin-binning times slashed in half.

Two incidents of slapping involving Rabbitohs five-eighth Cody Walker and Storm captain Cameron Smith in incidents across two games also brought mixed opinions.

"There may be a case to introduce five minutes for some offences," Annesley said on Monday.

"I can see an argument for that. I'm open to it, absolutely. I agree that everything is not the same.

"We used to have five minutes in bins quite a long time ago and the reasons why we went away from that were because there were claims of inconsistency.

"There were similar cases where one would get five minutes in the bin and other cases one would get 10 minutes in the bin.

"In order to try and be more consistent we stuck with the 10. You'd have to define very closely what those offences are so you don't get into this situation of more criticism of referees in being inconsistent for how they use the sin-binning."

Annesley compared media coverage from Channel Nine's commentary team to that of Fox League's commentary team, highlighting mixed views on the Trbojevic tackle and indicating everyone was entitled to expressing an opinion. 

"We have incidents that create diverse views," Annesley said.

"Not everyone looks at the same incident in the same way. It's difficult for the referees to escape controversy because of that diverse view. But they've got a job to do and understand that job comes to controversy.

"We tend to always jump to the view that they're wrong. The loudest noise, and this is human nature, it's the aggrieved party that makes the most noise."

Annesley indicated he and his team had penned a letter to every member of the competition committee asking for their opinions on topics to be discussed in November.

He's sent a similar to message to club chairs and CEOs requesting views from NRL clubs on any changes to be proposed.