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Souths prop Tom Burgess could be banned for the rest of the season after copping a grade-two careless high tackle for a contentious hit late in the loss to Cronulla.
Burgess was sin-binned in the 76th minute after his tackle on Tom Hazelton left the Sharks prop dazed. There was contact with the head but it appeared to be incidental and Fox League analysts Cooper Cronk and Mal Meninga said they thought there was little untoward in the incident.
Meninga thought the sin-binning was “a bit harsh” while on Nine commentary, Phil Gould said “I don’t see anything wrong with that tackle” and Andrew Johns claimed “he doesn’t hit him in the head, it was chest on chest”.
But he now faces three weeks out if he submits an early guilty plea or risks four matches if he takes on the judiciary.
Souths coach Jason Demetriou did not dispute referee Todd Smith‘s decision to sin bin Burgess. “I liked the intent but you can’t make contact with the head,” he said. “It wasn’t clear if he made clean contact with the head but I’m not going to argue. I’m not going to argue with a single (refereeing) decision tonight.”
Souths only have three regular-season matches left, plus the bye, and after dropping to eighth after the loss to Cronulla, they could fall out of the top eight if Parramatta beat the Dragons by 22 later on Sunday.
Burgess may not play again this year if he gets suspended.
The inconsistency of the judicial process has been a major talking point throughout the round after Panthers star Jarome Luai can avoid a suspension despite appearing to shoulder charge a player in the head while Titans prop Moeaki Fotuaika will cop a small ban at the most despite being sent off against the Warriors.
The match review committee charged Luai with a grade-one careless high tackle for a shot on Storm forward Nelson Asofa-Solomona during Penrith’s win over the Storm on Friday night.
He was placed on report during the game and has subsequently been handed a lenient punishment by the match reviewers despite this being a “third and subsequent offence”.
Luai can pay a fine of $3000 to avoid a two-match ban.
Fotuaika was banished in the 17th minute of the Gold Coast’s defeat to the Warriors for his heavy contact on Charnze Nicoll-Klokstad which rubbed the fullback out for the rest of the match.
He was charged with a grade-two careless high tackle and is facing a ban of only 1-2 matches depening on whether he submits an early guilty plea.
“I think if you compare the one from last night I don’t think it’s the same sort of thing,” said Titans interim coach Jim Lenihan.
“I don’t think Mo is coming out of the ground or coming recklessly out of the ground, Mo is pretty much bracing for contact. Yes, there may have been a bit of contact to the head and maybe 10 minutes was sufficient.
“I don’t know it justifies at that point to probably ruin the game but it put us under a hell of a lot of pressure and pretty much the game was over at that point.”
His light punishment follows Roosters prop Nathan Brown copping the same sanctions 24 hours earlier after he was sent off in Thursday night’s victory over Manly.
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