Hull FC boss Tony Smith willing to accept disciplinary pain amid crackdown but left dumbfounded by Liam Sutcliffe ban

The centre will sit out Hull's next two games after his appeal against a grade D charge of 'deliberate or reckless physical contact with a match official' in last week's loss to Warrington Wolves was rejected at a disciplinary hearing on Tuesday night.

Sutcliffe made accidental contact with referee Marcus Griffiths and has every reason to feel hard done by, according to Smith.

"If there's contact with the referee, accidental or not, they're going to hit you with a ban,” said Smith.

"That's the message. Accidents aren't acceptable for mere mortals, I think. It was an accident that cost us two weeks.

"If you watch Liam, he bumps into him and realises the ref is going down so he grabs hold of his jersey and tries to hold him up. That's not someone who is trying to do anything sinister.

"That's worth the same as somebody who's maybe hitting someone around the head. It is what it is and we've got to add it to the list."

The Black and Whites have been the hardest-hit club after receiving four cards and eight charges in the opening two rounds.

Smith’s men had two players sent off in the round one derby against Hull KR and lost Nu Brown to a costly red card at Warrington, which has since been acknowledged as an error by the Rugby Football League.

Smith is philosophical about the overall situation as the game ramps up the efforts to reduce head contact.

"We all knew we were going to get some of this right and some of this wrong," he said.

"Some of the things that have happened to us we brought on ourselves and some of it we haven't.

"When you make changes to laws, some interpretations are going to be wrong sometimes or not as accurate as what we want them to get to.

"Unfortunately, it causes a bit of pain along the way. We've copped a bit of pain but we're willing to accept some of that as long as we get to the right answers. Hopefully we'll get to that.

"We all need to be taken on this journey of transition from where it's been to where we want it to go to. There's going to be the odd bump in the road – and we've hit a couple of those bumps."

Smith had the chance to air his views at a meeting between head coaches and the RFL on Wednesday afternoon, which followed his weekly press conference.

The governing body has amended its framework for penalising head-on-head contact following Brown’s wrongful dismissal, while director of operations and legal Robert Hicks was quick to address the major disciplinary issues in the opening two rounds.

Smith is encouraged by the early transparency and accountability, which he believes will continue to improve under new head of match officials Phil Bentham.

"I think anyone who has had anything to do with Robert Hicks will say he’s a reasonable guy who is willing to do what’s right and say what’s right – not just to say it but mean it," said Smith.

"I think we all respect him and understand he’s trying his best under the circumstances.

"I felt like Phil Bentham was one of those referees back when he refereed. He used to say if he thought he got something wrong and put his hand up and said sorry. Respect.

"I think he will do a wonderful job in cleaning up and training those young referees. There are some terrific young referees that probably haven’t had a lot of direction for a long time.

"This transition of the referees’ department has taken a long time to come around. It probably hasn’t been functioning at the highest of levels for a number of years now.

"I think Phil will endeavour to get it back to what it should be."