The Sydney Roosters will re-address their attitude towards alcohol, but club boss Steve Noyce has denied claims the tri-colours should revisit their decision not to sanction bad boys Jake Friend and Sandor Earl.

Friend and Earl were on Tuesday selected to play against St George Illawarra on Friday night, just a day after the pair were charged with assault following an early-morning incident at a Sydney nightclub in which a woman was punched in the face.

The duo had been expected to be stood down pending their appearance in Downing Centre Local Court on July 20, but Noyce both players deserved presumption of innocence.

"There is a large degree of dispute surrounding the facts of this case and the players are entitled to present their case to the proper authorities," Noyce said.

"In fairness to them, they have been completely open with the police and voluntarily assisted police yesterday ... they are entitled to expect that they have the chance to have these matters judged in court.

"Nobody wants to see anything like this take place and everyone is entitled to be upset at the fact that a woman has been hurt.

"But the emotion of that can't stop us ensuring that we accurately establish the true cause."

But Noyce warned of severe sanctions should either Friend or Earl be convicted.

"If it is established that our players are in the wrong, then they can expect to be dealt with and with dealt harshly under our code of conduct, as well as by the court," he said.

The NRL backed the Roosters' wait-and-see approach despite earlier this year encouraging the club to suspend Friend when he was charged with drink driving.

The club banned him for two matches with Friend subsequently convicted of the high-range offence last week.

"The NRL has conducted its own enquiries as well as receiving a report from the Roosters and, at this stage, as opposed to other situations this year, it seems that there is considerable dispute over every aspect of the incident," the NRL said in a statement.

It's not the first alcohol-related episode to engulf the club this year, with coach Brad Fittler fining himself $10,000 following a drunken incident in Townsville just over a week ago.

Earlier this year, Willie Mason and Nate Myles were fined and suspended for drinking on a non-sanctioned day, that incident leading to the club relaxing its one-day-a-week drinking policy.

NRL boss David Gallop joined Noyce in admitting the policy again needed reviewing.

"The Roosters' approach to alcohol this year appears to have been confused and inconsistent and this is something that Steve Noyce acknowledges needs to be addressed," Gallop said.

"We've made it clear today that we believe this is now a critical issue for the club, its players and fans."

Noyce said finding the right mix of strict guidelines and allowing the players to take responsibility for their own actions was a tough one.

"I think my honest comment there is the policy we had in place wasn't going to achieve the objectives that we had set and so I think if you have things in place that aren't working, you're best to scrap them and go backwards," Noyce said.

"(Are the players) confused?, I would say no. I think there's a bit of grey and the players know that I hate grey and you are always better with black and white."

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