While NRL officials were satisfied with the way referees Gerard Sutton and Alan Shortall dealt with Reynolds' behaviour on Friday night, this column has been told they would have supported a decision to send the NSW Origin playmaker off for tripping former Bulldogs teammate Ben Barba in the 41-10 loss to Brisbane at Suncorp Stadium.

The force with which he struck Barba in the right ankle after being side-stepped by his opposite number before later hitting Alex Glenn high should also have negated any benefit of the doubt Reynolds may have been afforded for earlier lashing out at Broncos skipper Sam Thaiday with his feet after being tackled.

In isolation, the Thaiday incident could be dismissed as lacking any real malice, but the way he acted afterwards, including his violent kicking of a chair in the dressing room after finally being despatched to the sin bin, suggested Reynolds was in a rage from the outset of the match.

He was placed on report for all three on-field incidents but only spent three minutes in the sin bin after being despatched by Sutton for his 77th minute high shot on Glenn.

However, if the NRL had a similar on-field disciplinary system to football, Reynolds would have been shown a yellow card for kicking Thaiday in the head and then sent off after receiving a second yellow for his trip on Barba – culminating in a red card.

The match-review committee charged Reynolds for both of those incidents but senior NRL officials considered the tripping offence to be worthy of a straight red card on its own.

Some within the game have compared Reynolds' meltdown to the way Burns self-destructed while playing for Penrith against Sydney Roosters in 2012.

Burns, who was also a self-confessed "niggling player", was released by the Panthers after receiving a 12-match ban for a chicken wing on Roosters forward Mose Masoe and a high shot on Martin Kennedy that resulted in him being sent off and becoming the first player in NRL history to be charged with an intentional high tackle.

Like Reynolds, Burns seemed to lose control of his emotions during the match and was a ticking time bomb before being given his marching orders in the 71st minute for the tackle that broke Kennedy's nose.

Penrith coach Ivan Cleary said Burns' role had been to "try and fire up his teammates" but admitted he had gone too far, and it appears Reynolds was attempting to do the same thing for a Canterbury team that had been struggling without him for all but three matches since round 10 because of Origin commitments and suspension.

After successfully having a dangerous-throw charge from Origin I downgraded, Reynolds received a three-match ban for a shoulder charge on Will Chambers in the series finale and had only returned in the previous weekend's 22-16 loss to Penrith.

Bulldogs and NSW teammates enjoy playing with Reynolds because of his passion and competitiveness, and he has been good to deal with from a media perspective.

However, he appears to have become frustrated by the lack of energy and intensity within the team during their four-game losing streak and the 25-year-old went too far on Friday night in his attempts to lift those around him.

Canterbury skipper Michael Ennis said on Monday Reynolds was "certainly not a player who goes out there to get involved in those kind of incidents" but he was clearly "frustrated" after watching the team slump from equal first before his suspension to eighth place.

"You get that feeling, I think anyone does whether you have been out injured or out suspended or whatever the case is and your team has lost a couple of games, that you really want to try and turn it around for them," Ennis told Sky Sports Radio.

"I think that is probably where Josh was at. You saw the incident where he kicked the chair, that was probably that frustration where he felt like he was finally back in the team, we didn't get the win and to compound that he was placed on report a few times and felt like he had let us down."

Having faced only one judiciary charge in four years before this year's Origin series, Reynolds has also let himself down and will have more time on the sideline to consider his recent behaviour.

Twitter: @bradwalterSMH