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Sharks stars Addin Fonua-Blake and Ronaldo Mulitalo have been cleared to play against North Queensland as they fight to keep their season alive in week one of the finals.
Cowboys co-captain and Queensland Origin mainstay Reuben Cotter is, however, facing a one-game ban for his high shot on retiring Raiders great Josh Papalii from the opening kick-off in Townsville on Saturday.
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Cotter and Cowboys coach Todd Payten both claimed the heavy contact that rocked Papalii was a “head-on-head” collision, but the NRL match review committee issued the North Queensland lock with a grade 2 careless high contact charge on Sunday morning, which carries a 1-2 game punishment.
The Cowboys will have until midday on Monday to issue a plea and decide whether they risk an extra game’s suspension by challenging Cotter’s ban at the judiciary.
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Fonua-Blake was cited for dangerous contact and an alleged hip-drop on Melbourne’s Cooper Clarke in Saturday night’s 24-20 loss to the Storm, but will be free to lead Cronulla’s pack with an $1800 fine.
Combative winger Mulitalo was also issued a grade 1 contrary conduct charge for lashing out at Storm skipper Harry Grant in a first-half melee.
He too can avoid suspension with a $1000 fine, though Sharks centre Michael Gabrael is facing a 2-3 game ban for the high tackle that hospitalised Storm winger Siulagi Tuimalatu-Brown.
Strike centre KL Iro will come back into Cronulla’s line-up for week one of the finals, while Melbourne reported on Sunday that Tuimalatu-Brown had suffered; “no severe spinal injury on initial assessment, but he will undergo further scans today due to concerns for some ongoing numbness to the arm.”
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With a fifth-place finish locked in despite losing four of their last five games, the Sharks have earned elimination final hosting rights for next weekend against the eighth-placed Cowboys.
The where and when of their clash won’t be locked in until Sunday night, with the NRL pushing for Cronulla to host the out-of-towners at the larger Allianz Stadium rather than their suburban home ground of Ocean Protect Stadium, which has a limited capacity of 15,000.
The match review committee’s findings came after Grant, Sharks skipper Cameron McInnes and his coach Craig Fitzgibbon all took aim at the officiating after 24 infringements were ruled alongside 26 errors on Saturday night.
Grant, the Australian Test vice-captain, was particularly scathing after Melbourne’s last-gasp 24-20 win, saying the NRL needs to work out “do we want to play touch football or rugby league” after a season plagued by confusion over ruck interpretations and the widened six-again remit.
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“I think everyone in the game is getting quite frustrated with it, I know I am,” Grant said after eight penalties, 10 set-restarts and two sin-bins in the first half alone.
“I’ve talked to other players in the game, and you don’t know what constitutes a quick play-the-ball or what constitutes a slow play-the-ball.
“We’re playing rugby league; we’re not playing touch out there, and sometimes it just feels like we are. No wonder why we get so many people on report or all these penalties. It’s because the game is getting to a pace where players are just doing their best.
“For me, I worry about the welfare of all players across the board. You go talk to anyone, and everyone would be feeling the same. I think we need to collectively look at what that is and what we really want.
“Do we want to play touch football or rugby league? We can stay strong, stay together on that, and keep pushing that forward. There’s certainly a lot of frustration throughout the whole game at the minute.”
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Dan Walsh is a sports reporter for The Sydney Morning Herald.Connect via X or email.AdvertisementAdvertisement