Victor Radley is at a career crossroads – and he’s received some timely advice from some NRL legends.
The 25-year-old has been sin-binned three times already this season, while his latest on-field indiscretion will see the Roosters star miss three games due to a headbutt in Round 12.
Radley was hit with a grade one striking charge after lashing out at Dragons prop Blake Lawrie during the Tricolours’ 24-22 loss at Kogarah Oval, leaving a massive hole for the struggling outfit.
With three losses in a row and pressure mounting on the club, Radley’s absence is an untimely setback and one that will leave head coach Trent Robinson feeling a little frustrated.
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Radley has had his fair share of run-ins with the judiciary during his NRL career, but has opted to take the early guilty plea for the latest incident.
Speaking on Channel Nine over the weekend, Andrew Johns claimed the English international should have been given his marching orders by the match officials.
“He should have been sent off – I can’t believe he wasn’t sent off,” he said.
“The bunker looked at it, you could see it was a headbutt… he totally loses his cool. You just can’t do that.
“I think it’s frustration going in, there’s a lot of noise outside the Roosters about how poorly they are going and whether that was in his subconscious.
“But it doesn’t matter what happens on the field, you can’t react like that.”
Paul Gallen, Brad Fittler urge Victor Radley to change his ways
With frequent penalties, sin-bins and suspensions stemming from Radley’s playing style, there have been major calls for the talented lock-forward to change his ways, while some have even questioned his long-term future.
According to former NSW skipper and enforcer Paul Gallen, who had a poor reputation early in his career, Radley needs to turn things around quickly and pointed to his own career crossroads while playing for Cronulla.
“He’s such a quality player and it’s so frustrating,” he said on 100% Footy.
“I had issues earlier on in my career for eight or nine years, and it took a conversation with Ron Massey for me to pull my head in. He called me a ‘soft cock’ and he hammered me, tore shreds off me for an hour.
“It was this old bloke and it was the first time I’d ever met him, I was so excited to meet him because my dad knew exactly who he was and what he’d done.
“I did pull my head in at the back-end of my career, I was pretty good and went on to do some good things.
“Victor is probably in that position at the moment – he is such a good player. I was surprised he wasn’t sent off, it was a blatant headbutt and he’s just so ill-disciplined.
“You just want to shake him and say ‘mate you’re so good, you’re hurting yourself’. He should be playing for NSW in my opinion, he’s a good enough player to be there… he’s just got to fix his ill-discipline.
“In saying that, so does the whole Roosters side.”
Radley’s struggle to control his aggression has been the only thing holding the No.13 back from becoming one of the league’s best players – but there are ways to fix it.
Origin coach Brad Fittler suggested learning different processes to help Radley and stop him from becoming a liability for the Roosters.
“Victor most probably needs to change… he needs to learn to control,” he told Channel Nine.
“There are processes that you can do actually, game control – and whatever it is, Victor needs to do it.
“The fact he headbutted Blake Lawrie, who has played front-row his whole life and he’s a pretty tough fella, he didn’t react. I reckon if he takes a dive, he [Radley] gets eight weeks.
“The fact is, he was most probably having a scuffle with the bloke you’d want to have a scuffle with, because he’s not taking a backward step from anyone.
“I don’t think it hurt him – it was more frustration… I think three to four weeks is fair.”