An explosive start to the elimination final between arch rivals the Roosters and Rabbitohs has seen three players sin binned in the opening 20 minutes.
Roosters lock Victor Radley was the first to go after he went after Souths winger Taane Milne in back play and was deemed to have thrown a punch.
Radley was tackling Milne who offloaded but the pair went on with it after play moved along and were wrestling on the ground when teammates came running in.
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“It’s all happening here, the oldest rivalry doesn’t take long to turn the temperature right up,” Andrew Voss said on Fox League.
“Four minutes and the red, white and blue lock horns with the red and green.”
Play continued after the melee fizzled out but minutes later Ashley Klein stopped the game after receiving word from the bunker.
Klein then called over Radley and gave him his marching orders, which left Roosters skipper James Tedesco incredulous.
“It’s been identified that a punch and you’re in the bin,” Klein said.
But Fox League commentators Voss, Greg Alexander and Steve Roach weren’t convinced.
“I’ve got to say in my first view of it, I thought there was (a punch) so I thought that’s’ a bit odd they didn’t review,” Voss said.
“It’s a little right hand, does it connect?”
“That wouldn’t have knocked a maggot off a chop,” Roach responded.
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“It was a push. It looked like he got the elbow back but didn’t go through with it. How do you call that a punch? Anyway, he’s off the field for 10 minutes,” Alexander added.
“It was a push punch. Unbelievable.”
The Rabbitohs scored the opening try on the next set through Alex Johnstone but the Roosters crossed for two of their own with Radley off the field.
The fireworks didn’t stop there, with Souths enforcer Thomas Burgess binned in the 18th minute for consecutive high shots on James Tedesco and Matt Lodge.
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Burgess was joined in the sin bin just one minute later by Milne who marched for a high shot on Joseph Suaallii.
Incredibly, the 11-man Rabbitohs scored the next try through superstar fullback Latrell Mitchell.
“Somehow South Sydney come up with a try, what an enormous boost and isn’t it a change in momentum,” Alexander said.
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