Roosters enforcer Victor Radley has revealed exactly what coach Trent Robinson said to him after his costly late shot on Cameron Munster which saw him sent to the sin bin.
The 25-year-old bumped the Storm five-eighth in the 27th minute as the Roosters held an 8-6 lead on Thursday night.
By halftime Craig Bellamy’s side took an 18-8 lead going into halftime and the Tricolours never recovered, eventually losing 28-8 and failing to score another point.
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Radley escaped suspension and was hit with a $3000 fine for the tackle — and the gun lock said his coach was less than impressed.
“I’ve been working hard on it for probably the last two seasons now, my emotional control, he kind of pulled me aside and said ‘that was stupid’, which it was,” Radley said on Triple M.
“That can’t happen, I can’t end up sitting inside for 10 minutes and leaving us down to 12 men, it is as simple as that.
“Not much else he can really say, but he did say ‘keep doing what you are doing, keep working hard at what you are doing because you are improving’.
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“It was good for him to say that to me yesterday in review, so that’s what I am going to do.”
Radley also opened up on how it feels to sit in the dressing rooms whilst your team attempts to compete with only 12 players on the field.
During his 10 minutes sidelined, Melbourne ran in two tries with both Nick Meaney and Cameron Munster scoring.
“It is really difficult, you have got to sit in the sheds by yourself and unfortunately watch two tries put against us when we were down to 12 men, you are really responsible for that,” Radley said.
“It’s difficult I tried to sort of wipe it and worry about my job and try make up for it in any way I can, but it wasn’t the case, we started poor in the second half too.”
Speaking post-match, Robinson said he was “really frustrated” with Radley’s decision but said it was “on the pretty light side” of offences which deserved a sin bin.
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Radley also said he understands his actions constituted 10 minutes on the side line, however he explained it is difficult to pull out of the tackle.
“It is hard, definitely need to find a way not to touch Munster there, I understand where the rule lies there,” Radley said.
“Like you said I was king of cover tackling without making excuses, I was sort of looking to tackle him with my right shoulder, but as he passed even I relaxed a bit but laziness and fatigue, I didn’t shorten my feet and make sure I got out of the way.
“I bumped into him in a lazy form… it is difficult, it happens really quickly.
“I have been working so hard mentally and physically to make sure that these things don’t happen and when something like that does happen it is really disappointing.
“It cost us the game in the end because it was hard to come back from that point, but I’m working hard on it.”
