Taylan May: Paul Kent questions NRL integrity over Penrith Panthers winger’s delayed ban

In a scathing assessment of the NRL’s decision-makers, Paul Kent questions the league’s integrity after Taylan May’s two-match ban for assault was delayed until next year so he could play finals.

Once again the NRL School of Modern Management embarrasses the game.

This current style employed by head office is like hippies trying to parent children; no boundaries, adjustable standards, which ultimately ends in no understanding of good or bad.

Can you assault anyone or not in the game nowadays?

The answer, you will see, depends all on the timing.

Taylan May was found guilty on August 31 of assault occasioning bodily harm on an 18-year-old man last October.

The NRL Integrity Unit finalised its investigation on Tuesday and announced, with some chest beating, that May was suspended for two games and fined $7500.

But all is not what it seems in this modern NRL world.

The fine print reveals May can play the finals and then serve the two matches next season, although the fine is expected soon.

Penrith Panthers player Taylan May leaves Maroochydore magistrates court after sentencing for assault. Picture Lachie Millard.

It is one of the most embarrassing decisions the game has ever made.

What sort of world is this we live in?

In an absurd turn, the NRL tried to explain the delayed sentence was the court’s fault, the conviction coming right on the eve of the finals, of which it had no choice.

Imagine the temerity of the court, waiting 10 months for a decision right before the finals!

Maybe, privately, they suspect the magistrate was a rascally Parramatta fan.

Given the late verdict the NRL then thoughtfully considered that finals games were to be valued under a higher threshold than your garden variety home and away games, so the delayed suspension was allowed.

Taylan May is free to play in Penrith’s premiership push.

Anywhere else, that’s called bad luck. Not in the modern NRL world, though.

Even if this argument was accepted as feasible, which should be argued is irrelevant, why not one finals game now, instead of two delayed next year?

Privately, several inside the NRL accepted this as a rational option, unable to explain the decision finally arrived upon.

Instead the NRL operates from some kind of moral high ground that has little consistency to the real world.

Rival clubs were angered at first yesterday but, once they calmed down, they rightfully began worrying about the game’s long term future.

Strong, solid sports management is sorely missing inside headquarters.

Too many decisions are made according to how the wind blows. Andrew Abdo and his men sticking their head out a window and feeling the vibe, man.

Taylan May crosses for a try.

Meanwhile, back in the real world, the Sydney Roosters’ Lindsay Collins is sitting out four games for a hip drop tackle.

The NRL will argue it happened on the field, whereas May’s was an off-field incident.

Yet the Roosters could rightly argue, using the NRL’s logic, that Collins is sitting out his games, including as many as three finals games, weighted the same as the four home and away games that Pat Carrigan (referred) was forced to miss for a hip drop tackle.

You could argue neither tackle carried the malice of a pub assault.

Yet May’s games were weighted differently, apparently, because his assault happened off the field, so he is allowed to play finals.

The Dragons could argue that Jack de Belin missed as much as six Origin games, and two full seasons of club games, while waiting for a trial where, ultimately, no verdict was able to be found and the charges against him were dropped. The one verdict from the six charges that was found was of not guilty.

After May was charged last year the Panthers quickly got it out early that some kid, a South Sydney supporter, was harassing the players, taunting them a week after Penrith beat the Rabbitohs in the grand final.

What he could have said remains a mystery, given the Rabbitohs actually lost the grand final.

In the video the kid, short and chubby, 18 years old, is outside a bar talking to two young men while behind him lurked May, sucking on a vape.

Down the stairs and out the door comes Nathan Cleary who points at the chubby kid, which attracts May’s interest, as the kid turns to talk to Cleary and May’s brother Tyrone.

Taylan May, after pleading not guilty, testified what happened next was because the kid earlier took a video of him and he wanted it deleted, which the kid refused, which is not what Penrith claimed had happened.

Regardless, May feels appropriately offended, enough to walk up behind the kid and, from behind, violently throw him to the ground.

The kid didn’t even see it coming. It was an old fashioned dog shot.

The Magistrate called it “cowardly”.

But in this new NRL the bosses say play the finals, have a shot at a premiership, and serve the time next year when the stakes are less important.

It is the ultimate buy now, pay later scheme.

All it costs is your integrity.