Roosters star Victor Radley is free to play in next week’s NRL Grand Final after the aggressive lock forward avoided a ban for a tackle on Herbie Farnworth in Friday night’s win over the Dolphins.

Roosters fans across the country were nervously waiting for the match review committee (MRC) charges to drop on Saturday morning given what was at stake.

But Radley has nothing to worry about with the MRC issuing him with a grade one dangerous contact charge which means he will pay a $3000 fine if he takes the early guilty plea.

The two-time premiership winner would cop a two-game ban if he fights the charge at the judiciary and loses, but there is a zero per cent chance he does that for what was his third and subsequent charge.

Radley was placed on report for the incident in the first half but it wasn’t a textbook hip-drop tackle given where Farnworth was and where the initial contact was made.

“No I don’t (think he has a problem) because he went to his knees before there was weight on that. That’s how I saw it,” Roosters coach Trent Robinson said after the game.

“So there wasn’t any force on that, so I’d say he’ll be right on that.”

Radley was enormous in the victory with a try, an assist and several bone-jarring tackles as the Roosters dominated their rivals through the middle.

It’s not all smooth sailing for the Tricolours who will be without bench utility Connor Watson unless they can successfully challenge his category one head knock.

Watson was forced off after just a minute on the field and was initially deemed a category two, only for the independent doctor to come over the top.

A category one would ordinarily mean a mandatory 11-day stand down for a player, but clubs do have the power to challenge these rulings if the player doesn’t have a history of concussions and proves that the original decision was wrong.

“That was a hard one because it came out as a category two,” Robinson said.

“And then he went in to do it (the head injury assessment) and they changed it to a category one after a couple of minutes.

“He’s in the middle of doing his tests now to see where he’s at because he got ruled out of the game, so I’d say it’s still a case of watch this space with Connor.”

Originally published as Victor Radley avoids grand final ban as the Roosters seek an exemption for Connor Watson to play