And in the red corner ..

Simmering tension between last year's NRL grand finalists spilled over yesterday when Sydney Roosters coach Ricky Stuart hinted Penrith was playing games over the severity of Luke Swain's injury.

Swain lost four teeth and suffered a fractured jaw in a high tackle by Roosters hooker Stuart Webb during Friday night's grand final rematch at Aussie Stadium - an incident which led to Webb being suspended for three weeks.

That prompted Stuart - who also lost Adrian Morley to suspension - to take a thinly veiled swipe at the Panthers.

Stuart said he had heard conflicting reports over the nature of Swain's injury.

"We hear differing reports like that Luke Swain said he would be able to play this weekend if he can get a special mouthguard made," Stuart said.

"Then we hear the Penrith club is loading up and ready to send in medical reports if we did try and fight the charge.

"So you do hear differing reports on the extent of the injury."

Roosters chief executive Brian Canavan met with match review commissioner Greg McCallum on Monday to discuss the grading of the incident.

McCallum admitted the extent of the injury had played a part in the grading, but said Swain's ability or inability to play was not a factor.

However, Penrith chief executive Shane Richardson reacted angrily to Stuart's comments, saying he objected to the intimation that nothing was wrong with Swain.

"The first thing is this was never loaded up," Richardson said.

"We were rung by the NRL on Monday and they requested the medical report on the player.

"We never rang them up, they rang us up.

"Luke Swain was never going to play this week. The bottom line is he had two surgeries.

"They are making out we caused a problem because Luke Swain got his teeth kicked out.

"We never rang the league. Luke Swain didn't hit himself in the head."

Richardson was emphatic that Swain could miss up to a month of rugby league.

"I have a great admiration for Ricky Stuart but it's all about these conspiracy theories," Richardson said.

"The bottom line is their player did the action, the reviewers did the review and the NRL was asked us to back it up with medical stuff.

"We have never tried to influence the grading of the decision."