North Queensland premiership-winning coach Paul Green has slammed the NRL's heavy punishment on veteran backrower Scott Bolton.
Green echoed the thoughts of Cowboys chairman Laurence Lancini by saying a 10-game ban for Bolton was "too harsh".
Bolton was slapped with the sanction last week after the NRL announced a policy shift cracking down on bad off-field behaviour in the wake of several incidents involving players in the past few months.
The 31-year-old was placed on a 12-month good behaviour bond earlier this year after pleading guilty to common assault following an incident involving a woman at a Sydney pub last May.
Bolton's punishment was halved after he agreed to address all 16 clubs during the NRL's Magic Round in May.
"I thought that's too harsh a penalty what they came up," Green said.
"Unfortunately the timing of it, he's probably paid a heavier price than others simply because of the timing of what else has been going on in the game."
The Cowboys have reluctantly accepted Bolton's sanction, although Lancini subsequently revealed he'd held a face-to-face meeting with NRL chief executive Todd Greenberg, ARL Commission chairman Peter Beattie and NRL chief operating officer Nick Weeks last Thursday to express his disappointment.
Greenberg was sympathetic to the Cowboys' position but stood by the sanction.
"Clubs, quite rightfully, should always stand up for their players and I'd expect the Cowboys to do exactly that," he said.
"My job is different to that. My job is to stand up for the game and where we feel sanctions are needing to be applied, we'll do it and we'll do it without fear or favour."
