Sydney Roosters enforcer Jared Waerea-Hargreaves has refused to take a swipe at the NRL judiciary process, declaring he needs to be a cleaner player.
The Roosters talisman admitted watching his side’s grand final qualifier victory against Melbourne last week was the toughest night of his career, but has refused to take issue with being rubbed out for tripping.
South Sydney hard man Sam Burgess courted controversy during the finals when he described the judiciary as a “Kangaroo court”, for which he was slugged with a $10,000 suspended fine.
Burgess was left frustrated by what he saw as inconsistencies after being suspended for his side’s week one finals game against the Roosters for a hair pull.
Waerea-Hargreaves contested his grade one tripping citation at the NRL judiciary but failed and it came just one week after he was cleared of a careless high tackle on Souths prop Liam Knight.
After being charged 19 times in his career and missing 13 weeks, Waerea-Hargreaves said he needed to abide by the rules.
“I don’t have anything to say (about the judicial process) bro,” Waerea-Hargreaves said.
“For me it’s just choosing my times.
“We players know there’s a match committee and as players we need to be better or cleaner. That’s all I can really say.”
Waerea-Hargreaves has been charged six times in 2019, including twice being exonerated at the judiciary, spending four weeks on the sidelines.
He will return for Sunday’s grand final against Canberra after the Roosters won through against the Storm without him and he admitted to being a nervous wreck on the SCG sidelines.
Usually when a player is out through injury or suspension, he will join their coach in their box, however Waerea-Hargreaves revealed that Trent Robinson had banned him because: “I can’t shut up.”
“I didn’t go up to the box because the coach would have kicked me out,” Waerea-Hargreaves said.
“Because the emotion was pretty damn high. I would have given the commentators a good run for their money.
“I stayed down here (on the SCG sidelines) but it’s hard man because I couldn’t do anything about it.
“When I knew who are opponent was, then it sunk in.
“Game day was tough bro. Someone asked me if it’s the hardest I’ve ever experienced and I said no doubt.”
