Taylor banned for five weeks
Updated June 29, 2011 19:51:00
Coal train derailed ... Taylor will miss the next five rounds of the NRL season. (AAP/Action Photographics: Colin Whelan)
Queensland's faint hopes were dashed and South Sydney's devastated after Rabbitohs forward Dave Taylor was rubbed out for five games by the NRL judiciary on Wednesday night.
Taylor was unsuccessful in his bid to have a grade two dangerous throw charge downgraded, a result which would have meant him missing just one game.
He had been charged over a tackle on Brisbane's Scott Anderson in the fifth minute of Friday night's win by the Rabbitohs in Perth.
Sitting out Souths' clash with Cronulla on Sunday would have allowed Taylor to play for the Maroons in next Wednesday's State of Origin decider - but only if one of their squad had suffered a genuine injury.
That small chance was obliterated by a panel that, this week, included a Queenslander - Bob Lindner - as well as Ian Roberts and Darrell Williams.
With virtually the entire South Sydney starting pack sidelined long term, the "Coal Train's" absence is a massive blow to the club.
He now will not play until the round 22 clash with Parramatta, missing half of the Rabbitohs' final 10 games.
"At the moment I've got no comment on it and I'll just let these guys here speak for me," Taylor said as he emerged from the hearing.
Souths chief executive Shane Richardson, who had repeatedly shaken his head as prosecutor James McLeod summated up during the hour-long hearing, was also saying little as he made a quick exit from NRL headquarters.
"We're bitterly disappointed in the decision, it's just as simple as that," he said.
"You saw it all, you get to write your opinions tomorrow, we're bitterly disappointed.
"We've been without a forward pack for most of the season so we'll get somebody else to step up, simple as that."
Taylor lawyer Geoff Bellew's argument hinged on a tackle by Newcastle's Akuila Uate on Wests Tigers player Tim Simona four weeks ago.
Uate was charged with a grade one offence for the ugly tackle, which Bellew contended was worse than Taylor's.
In what may have been a telling factor, judiciary chairman Greg Woods advised the panel it could come to the view that previous gradings, for example the Uate tackle, were wrong before the three former players took 20 minutes to decide Taylor's fate.
Earlier, the panel was shown four angles of the incident as well as three "comparables" - the Uate tackle, another grade one offence by Knights half Ben Rogers and a grade two from Souths' Eddy Pettybourne.
Bellew called "pocket" referee Steve Lyons to give evidence, and the whistleblower said Anderson had contributed to the tackle's outcome by twisting and had landed initially on his shoulder.
Bellew argued the tackles by Uate and Rogers had been worse because Taylor could be shown to have intended to make a legitimate tackle, whereas the other shots were always going to be illegal.
He said if Taylor's tackle was graded higher than Uate's, the grading system was "completely out of kilter".
Prosecutor McLeod suggested that, "in the fair dinkum department", the tackle's potential for injury meant it constituted a grade two offence.
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AA
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2011/06/29/3256967.htm?site=sydney
