{"id":906086,"date":"2026-09-26T10:24:15","date_gmt":"2026-09-26T10:24:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/906086\/"},"modified":"2026-09-26T10:24:15","modified_gmt":"2026-09-26T10:24:15","slug":"nrl-2026-victor-radley-cleared-as-roosters-sweat-on-connor-watson","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/906086\/","title":{"rendered":"NRL 2026: Victor Radley cleared as Roosters sweat on Connor Watson"},"content":{"rendered":"

Roosters star Victor Radley is free to play in next week\u2019s NRL Grand Final after the aggressive lock forward avoided a ban for a tackle on Herbie Farnworth in Friday night\u2019s win over the Dolphins.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Radley was placed on report for the incident in the first half but it wasn\u2019t a textbook hip-drop tackle given where Farnworth was and where the initial contact was made. <\/p>\n

\u201cNo I don\u2019t (think he has a problem) because he went to his knees before there was weight on that. That\u2019s how I saw it,\u201d Roosters coach Trent Robinson said after the game.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo there wasn\u2019t any force on that, so I\u2019d say he\u2019ll be right on that.\u201d<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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\u2019t have a history of concussions and proves that the original decision was wrong. <\/p>\n

\u201cThat was a hard one because it came out as a category two,\u201d Robinson said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd then he went in to do it (the head injury assessment) and they changed it to a category one after a couple of minutes.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s in the middle of doing his tests now to see where he\u2019s at because he got ruled out of the game, so I\u2019d say it\u2019s still a case of watch this space with Connor.\u201d<\/p>\n

Originally published as Victor Radley avoids grand final ban as the Roosters seek an exemption for Connor Watson to play<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Roosters star Victor Radley is free to play in next week\u2019s NRL Grand Final after the aggressive lock…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":906087,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[423204,390985,432218,387555,385886,474018,467828,377373,474026,474036,382272,474044,474033,379284,385815,380349,474021,398846,394367,381022,474032,474035,474022,474017,474025,64,63,22475,474023,422347,2025,23816,101691,63714,4568,162,456593,39598,11288,474040,28081,474045,474034,474038,474041,474020,12979,378476,474029,5660,13053,273188,761,762,187436,43961,51485,35062,392561,158,474030,8207,9747,9120,380296,310619,474039,46907,474031,85,474042,474037,379344,313300,54179,474043,377453,377510,74713,420644,474019,377724,474024,390316,387599,378499,288453,474028,420158,474016,388231,376521,174850,474027,417994,382136,402397,474015,460835,1107,4534,6009],"class_list":["post-906086","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nrl","tag-s-nrl-grand-final","tag-s-win","tag-a-3000-fine","tag-a-ban","tag-a-case","tag-a-category-one","tag-a-category-two","tag-a-couple","tag-a-grade-one-dangerous-contact-charge","tag-a-hard-one","tag-a-history","tag-a-key-rooster","tag-a-mandatory-11-day-stand","tag-a-player","tag-a-problem","tag-a-tackle","tag-a-textbook-hip-drop-tackle","tag-a-try","tag-a-two-game-ban","tag-a-week","tag-a-zero","tag-all-smooth-sailing","tag-an-assist","tag-an-exemption","tag-any-force","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-bans","tag-bench-utility-connor-watson","tag-cent-chance","tag-charges","tag-clubs","tag-concussions","tag-connor","tag-connor-watson","tag-dolphins","tag-farnworth","tag-friday","tag-grand-final","tag-grand-final-ban","tag-herbie-farnworth","tag-his-category-one-head-knock-watson","tag-his-grand-final-fate","tag-his-knees","tag-his-tests","tag-his-third-and-subsequent-charge-radley","tag-injuries","tag-its-findings","tag-just-a-minute","tag-minutes","tag-morning","tag-mrc","tag-national-rugby-league","tag-nationalrugbyleague","tag-newswire-news","tag-newswire-sport","tag-next-week","tag-night","tag-no-i","tag-nrl","tag-radley","tag-report","tag-robinson","tag-roosters","tag-roosters-coach-trent-robinson","tag-roosters-fans","tag-roosters-star-victor-radley","tag-saturday","tag-several-bone-jarring-tackles","tag-sports","tag-stake-but","tag-the-aggressive-lock","tag-the-charge","tag-the-country","tag-the-dolphins","tag-the-early-guilty-plea-the-two-time-premiership-winner","tag-the-field","tag-the-first-half","tag-the-game","tag-the-grand-final","tag-the-head-injury-assessment","tag-the-incident","tag-the-independent-doctor","tag-the-initial-contact","tag-the-judiciary","tag-the-match-review-committee","tag-the-middle","tag-the-middle-it","tag-the-mrc","tag-the-original-decision","tag-the-player","tag-the-power","tag-the-roosters","tag-the-top-a-category-one","tag-the-tricolours","tag-the-victory","tag-their-rivals","tag-these-rulings","tag-this-space","tag-verdict","tag-victor-radley","tag-weight"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/906086","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=906086"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/906086\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/906087"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=906086"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=906086"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=906086"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}