North Queensland are set to take Tariq Sims’ shoulder charge ban to the NRL judiciary on Wednesday night in a bid to keep the hard-hitting forward’s season alive.
Sims was hit with a grade three shoulder charge by the NRL match review committee on Monday for a 59th minute tackle on Brisbane utility Justin Hodges in the Cowboys’ 32-20 win in Townsville on Saturday night.
The 24-year-old Sims faces a five-week ban if he takes the early guilty plea, which would end his season and his time with the Cowboys given he has signed with Newcastle for 2015 and 2016.
If he faces the judiciary and is found guilty, Sims faces a seven weeks stint on the sidelines.
But with finals conspiracy theories again flying around Townsville, the Cowboys will likely attempt to have the charge downgraded, with three weeks remaining of the NRL season.
Sydney Roosters host the Cowboys in Friday’s first semi-final at Allianz Stadium.
In their only public comment on the issue, the Cowboys wrote on their official Twitter feed on Monday: “Re Tariq: We are considering our options and have until noon tomorrow to come to a decision”.
They also retweeted a number of comments on the social media platform claiming the grading of the tackle on Hodges was “harsh”.
The season of Manly’s representative forward Anthony Watmough could also be over after he was hit with a grade one dangerous throw emanating from Friday’s 40-24 qualifying loss to South Sydney.
Watmough and teammate Jamie Lyon were both slapped with the charge following a first half tackle on Souths fullback Greg Inglis.
Lyon is free to play in Saturday’s semi-final against Canterbury, but due to loading from prior offences Watmough is set for a week’s rest.
Watmough, who remains under contract at Brookvale, has been linked to an end of season move to Parramatta and could have played his last game for the club he claimed the 2008 and 2011 premierships with.
Roosters prop Jared Waerea-Hargreaves is free to play the Cowboys after being cleared of a high tackle on Brent Kite in the premiers’ 19-18 loss to Penrith on Saturday evening.
Bulldogs duo Josh Morris and David Klemmer also avoided sanctions after being put on report in the 28-4 shellacking of Melbourne on Sunday.
Brisbane’s Ben Barba will be free to play the opening game of the 2015 season if he takes the early plea on a grade one dangerous contact – unnecessary leg pressure charge emanating from a tackle late in the game on Cowboys winger Kyle Feldt.
In the Under-20s competition Wests Tigers’ Tyler Cassel is likely to be rubbed out of the rest of the joint venture’s finals campaign after being charged with a grade four dangerous contact – contact with kicker charge in their qualifying win over South Sydney.
Cassel faces four matches out if he takes the early guilty plea.
Joel
Guest
Have you started that cup of tea yet?
Joel
Guest
Well, there was no reason to give the advantage to the Broncs when they knew they could give the advantage to the chickens, do you believe that the Refs are that stupid?
Pot Stirrer
Guest
He wasnt Binned becuase the Whinging from the Cowboys claiming it as a conpiracy would be worse than critiscism for the ref's by ingoring it.
The Barry
Roar Guru
Ashton has been killing it. He's become one of my favourite players. The Thor jersey was the making of him.
The Barry
Roar Guru
It wouldn't have been the end of the matter. Sims was always going to the judiciary.
Trenno
Guest
$20K fine for the Broncos?
Trenno
Guest
Problem with that is the rules don't allow for sin-binning on high shots/shoulder charges - only send offs. It wasn't enough to send Tariq off.
up in the north
Guest
The poor old blokes in pink are on a hiding to nothing with this one. If they start to use sinbins or sendoffs now the tinfoil hat brigade will be having conniptions. They got it right, put it on report and play on. Let someone else worry about it on Monday morning. What is kind of kooky to me is Hodges needed stitches in his head, but didn't need observation for concussion. Go figure. If they were fair dinkum with that rule then the offending player should go off for the same amount of time.
Elron
Guest
If he was rightfully binned, 24-14 score with 20mins to go and Broncos with all the momentum. Brisbane were definitely dudded by the indecision of the on field officials. In my opinion, that is more controversial than the correctly deemed Storm 'no try'!!!
Trenno
Guest
With Ashton playing out of his skin, maybe the Cowboys should be throwing every cent they have at him to stay instead of going to Warrington. maybe they could ship Tamou off to the Sharks, Dragons or Broncos and use that money to keep Thor.
cedric
Guest
OK, the hit by Sims on Hodges was way late, then why oh why didn't the ref penalise Sims and maybe sinbin him then. It was all plain for everyone to see. That would be the end of the matter, and the Broncos' would have got the advantage then. Now the Bronco's get no advantage and the Cowboys are hugely disadvantaged and we have to fly guys south and wait four days tooing and frowing and waiting on an outcome. Why wasn't the incident dealt with there and then. It's now become the norm where refs don't want to, or are not allowed to , make a simple call right there on the field. Lucky we have the video ref or we might have to wait until Wednesday to see who won the game!!!!!!!!!!!!! Being put on report used to be for bad stuff now it's for everyday, penalty type stuff. I think it's getting a little silly.
Trenno
Guest
Unless the Cowboys can get a reduction to a maximum 2 weeks there is no point fighting it. I believe they have a great case for reduction however if it reduced to 3 weeks then he still wont have any chance of playing for Cowboys again this year and it will only only be helping the Knights. The ace up there sleeve will be the rulings that Tony Williams had no case to answer and Dylan Napa's 2 week suspension for shoulder charging Sutton in the head (Tariq's shoulder impacted Justin's body). What will go against him is the fact it was very late and will be seen as intentional given what was happening at that point of the game.
up in the north
Guest
Give it a rest James, there's no suggestion of any conspiracies with that late hit. Because that is exactly what it was. I could have read the local newspaper in the time Sims had to pull out from colliding with Hodges. Crikey. The silly chap has let his team down badly for no real gain, just plain dumb in my view. The Cowbies should accept that he is out for the rest of the year and move on. Which brings me to Big Jimmy, it's well past time for him to dig deep and give us some love. Someone needs to slap him around the head a bit before the game to make him angry, maybe that way we'll see a bit of mongrel. Whatever it takes.
The Barry
Guest
It was a poor hit but 5 / 7 weeks is outrageous. Especially when JWH gets off for whacking someone in the face for the 100th time this season. Cowboys fans will be screaming conspiracy and I can't say I blame them.
Jay C
Roar Guru
5 weeks might be harsh. Although if it's something worth 5 weeks in the eyes of the panel, then he should have been sent off. Anything over a 3 week ban should have involved a sin bin IMO.