NRL: Full force of long ban on Bird angers Titans boss

Greg Bird has been banned four times since 2013. Photo / NZME.

Gold Coast Titans NRL coach Neil Henry can see no reason why the Titans should bear the full brunt of Greg Bird's lengthy suspension.

Bird has been slapped with an eight-game ban after being found guilty of a dangerous throw on New Zealand wing Jason Nightingale during last Sunday's transtasman test.

The grade two offence, as well as Bird's history, mean the back-rower won't be seen on a league field for the next two months.

Convention means only matches where Bird is available for his NRL club count towards his ban, meaning the three State of Origin fixtures he also misses aren't part of his suspension.

Henry believes that is harsh on the Titans, given Bird was playing for Australia at the time of the incident and he is an incumbent NSW player.

The Titans coach says if Bird's ban included Origin games he would miss only six games for the Titans, not eight. Henry thinks who he was representing at the time of the offence should be taken into account.

"It's one of those things where should he miss out on nine, 10, 11 games?," he said.

"That's the reality of it. He's not a fringe player. He's an incumbent player and, being fit, he would be picked [for NSW]. We know that.

"That's an area maybe to look at, we could possibly explore that, but we're still missing him for a large period.

"It's certainly an area, even though it's a grey area. The responsibility, even though it's a representative game, it falls straight back on the club to defend it."

Henry said Bird had addressed his teammates before training yesterday and expressed his remorse.

The 30-year-old has been banned four times since 2013 for dangerous throws and although Henry believes the grading for last Sunday's incident was too severe, it is clearly an issue Bird needs to resolve.

"He needs to temper the lifting side of it," Henry said.

"He's been caught out a few times. It's about being aggressive, stopping the ball and putting the man on his back.

"He's just got to take that lifting out of it ... he needs to look at that. His loading will still be there so he only has to have a minor grade one again and he's got a holiday. It's a concern and he understands that."

Meanwhile, Manly coach Geoff Toovey says he is waiting on a please-explain from the New Zealand Rugby League on how Kieran Foran's hamstring injury was handled in last Sunday's test against Australia.

The Kiwis five-eighth was this week ruled out of NRL action for Manly for up to a month after aggravating a hamstring problem in the first half of the test.

Toovey said the club was aware that Foran had carried the issue into the test but expressed disappointment in the Kiwis allowing him to finish the match.

"He nursed himself through it to play in the test, which is obviously a big honour for him. But in the first half he hurt it there. Bit disappointed on how things eventuated in the second half," Toovey said yesterday.

"Hopefully there isn't any more damage done. But that's football.

"Obviously they won the game which made it worthwhile."

Toovey said he would wait on a full report before deciding on a course of action.

- AAP