'Wasting his time': Wayne Bennett's advice to Benji Marshall amid questions over sin bin

Benji Marshall is "wasting his time" calling for consistency from NRL referees according to veteran coach Wayne Bennett.

Following the Tigers' 33-14 win over Canberra on Thursday, Marshall called out "inconsistency" in the refereeing this season after Api Koroisau was cited for a hip drop tackle on Noah Martin, which led to a three-match suspension.

Speaking to reporters on Friday, Bennett said the sin bin is "overused" while passing on some advice for the Tigers coach.

READ MORE: Ciraldo shuts down Galvin question amid 'Dogs slide

READ MORE: Lomax's next step revealed on road to World Cup

READ MORE: Retired cricketer banned for cocaine use during match

"I just realised what a hip drop is the other day, to be honest with you. Benji is a young coach so if he's a bit confused about the rules, wait until he gets another 10 years into the job," Bennett said.

"If he's asking for consistency, he's wasting his time. You're never going to get that."

Bennett believes the constant use of the sin bin raises too many questions.

"The sin bin is the worst thing for me personally because of the inconsistencies that is applied," he added.

"It has a huge impact on games. I don't believe it's fair. We have a judiciary that does a pretty good job reviewing all the games, and they get charged the next day.

"I can't get into my head why you can't do that the next day. Whatever you want to do, I don't care. But don't send a guy to the bin for a hip-drop and don't send another guy.

"I saw a tackle the other night (where) he got two weeks for it but he didn't end up in the bin... another guy hit somebody high, doesn't get charged and finished in the bin," he said.

"We had a situation in the game the other night, our player goes to the sin bin for 10 minutes for a hip-drop, another player gets charged with a hip-drop but doesn't go to the bin.

"It was the same ref, same bunker officials and one rule for you and one rule for another person.

"They (the NRL) come back with the line about, 'this looked worse' or whatever. The bottom line is, if you do a hip-drop tackle, are we all going to the bin or are we not?

"The refs and the Bunker refs aren't qualified enough to judge regarding severity, amount of pressure put on, whatever.

"If they deem it to be that tackle then let's have a rule for that, you're in the bin or you're not."