South Sydney prop George Burgess faces at least 10 matches on the sideline if found guilty of an alleged eye-gouge on Wests Tigers hooker Robbie Farah in Thursday night's clash at Bankwest Stadium.
Burgess has been referred to the judiciary without a grading on a dangerous contact charge (eye contact) and has 50 per cent loading from a previous eye-gouge ban over an incident involving New Zealand captain Dallin Watene-Zelezniak in England at the end of the last season.
With the base penalty for grade 3 dangerous contact being 500 demerit points, which equates to a five-match suspension, Burgess is facing a longer ban as the match review committee considers the incident to be of a higher grading than detailed in the NRL judiciary code.
As each grade is scaled up by 200 demerit points for dangerous contact charges, the base penalty for a grade 4 offence would be 700 demerit points and any penalty imposed on Burgess would include a 50 per cent loading for the incident in last year's Test which cost him a four-match ban.
The judiciary is free to determine a different grade to what the match review committee has recommended.
The England forward missed the third Test of the series against the Kiwis and the first three rounds of this year's Telstra Premiership.
It is understood Burgess apologised to Farah, a former Souths team-mate, immediately after the match on Thursday night, won 14-9 by the Tigers.
However, the match review committee considered it be more serious than the 2019 eye-gouge by Canberra forward Hudson Young on Canterbury prop Aiden Tolman, which resulted in a five-match suspension.
NRL.com has seen unreleased footage of the Young incident, which shows him digging his thumb into Tolman's eye, and the Raiders rookie pleaded guilty to a grade three dangerous contact charge and accepted a five-match ban after loading and carry-overs from previous offences were added.
Young would have been suspended for seven matches but he received a 25 per cent discount for an early plea – an option which will not be available to Burgess as his case has been referred directly to the tribunal.
Cowboys lock Josh McGuire has twice this season been fined for grade one contrary conduct after putting his hand in the face of opponents but there was insufficient video evidence to suggest either incident was an eye-gouge and warranted a more serious charge of dangerous contact.
The charge against Burgess follows signalling by the NRL this week of a tougher stance on incidents of foul play by referees and the match review committee.
The ARL Commission approved recommendations by the NRL Competition Committee for crusher tackles which are deemed reckless or intentional to be directly referred to the judiciary by the match review committee, without a grading.
In addition, players can be sin-binned or sent off for serious crusher tackles from round 15, which began on Thursday night.
The match review committee was also instructed to apply a higher grading for more serious late tackles – those deemed to be forceful and unnecessary – without being restricted by precedent.
