Dean Young Backs 5-Minute Sin Bins for St. George Illawarra Dragons
Dean Young has asked the NRL to cut sin-bins from 10 minutes to five as st. george illawarra dragons prepare to face Newcastle in Wollongong on Saturday. The Dragons coach said the current penalty is having too much influence on scorelines and that the game is still being decided by who copes best with the bin.
Young on the bin
Young called the rule confusing and said he is still trying to understand why some players are sent off while others are not. He said the issue is not just the sanction itself, but the way it swings momentum inside a match.
“There are big momentum swings throughout the game. The biggest thing to overcome is the sin bins, and I'm still trying to get my head around why some are being put in the bin, and some aren't,” Young said on Friday ahead of the Newcastle Knights clash.
He added: “It's a little bit confusing, and I think it's too big an impact on the score line when someone does go in the bin.”
Dragons, Knights and WIN Stadium
The coach went further, urging the NRL to revisit the length of the punishment. “I think the NRL need to look at going back to a five-minute sin bin, so yep, you want to put someone in the bin, OK, well, that's for five minutes, not 10 minutes, because the 10 minutes is just killing teams, we've seen that across the game in the first 10 rounds,” he said.
That line came on the eve of a match Young framed as a reset point for his side. St George Illawarra were chasing their first win of the season, and a victory would end an 11-game losing run that stretched back to August 9 last year.
Young said he gave the players three days off after the Roosters match, then the squad had a bye, some training and another weekend away before beginning Newcastle preparation on Monday. The setup underlined how long the Dragons have had to sit with the opening stretch of their season before getting another chance to change it.
St George Illawarra reset
Young said the loss to the Roosters still hurt, but the group had moved on. “The result against the Roosters wasn't what we wanted, and the scoreline certainly hurt all the players and staff, but we've moved on from that,” he said. He added: “The boys are in a good headspace, but we've gotta go out there and do it now.”
He also drew a line between the team and its supporters. “The players and the staff feel for our fans because times are tough out there, and our fans are spending their hard-earned money to come and watch us play, and we've been putting up performances that we haven't been proud of,” Young said. “But we're really focused on going out there and competing really hard, being consistent, being disciplined, and we hope that they walk away from WIN Stadium tomorrow afternoon, really proud of the team that runs out.”
For the Dragons, the immediate issue is simple: turn the noise around the sin-bin rule into a cleaner performance against Newcastle and stop the losing run that has followed them since August 9 last year.
