Ross outed for seven matches
March 26, 2008
CRONULLA prop Ben Ross has been suspended for seven matches by the NRL judiciary over his late hit on Melbourne half-back Cooper Cronk.
Ross had been referred straight to the hearing after collecting Cronk with a late, high elbow in Sunday's 17-16 win over Storm at Olympic Park.
NRL prosecutor Peter Kite called for a penalty of between seven and nine weeks and the judiciary panel of former players Darrell Williams, Royce Ayliffe and Bob Lindner agreed with their verdict.
The Sharks prop reiterated to the judiciary that the hit was an accident and described it as a "mistimed" push.
He said he wanted to harass the kicker and thought Cronk was going to run the ball rather than kick it.
His defence representative Jim Barnett referred to similar striking charges on St George Illawarra's Adam Peek and former Dragons half Trent Barrett that were deemed grade two and five striking offences respectively.
Barnett argued Ross's hit was no worse than Barrett's offence and more similar to Peek's, which incurred a two-week suspension.
He added Ross's remorse over the incident should be taken into account.
Kite in turn said the matter was more serious because the NRL was cracking down on offences involving kickers and asked the panel to take Ross's poor disciplinary record into account.
The fact Ross had one previous striking offence in the past year counted against him but he received a small discount for entering an early guilty plea.
He has 75 carry-over points which will count towards any future offences.
http://www.foxsports.com.au/story/0,8659,23437776-23214,00.html
