Smith to face NRL judiciary decision - Sports News - Fanatics - the world's biggest events

Smith to face NRL judiciary decision

24/09/2008 05:52:24 AM Comments (0)

Melbourne captain Cameron Smith will front the NRL judiciary in a bid to beat a grapple tackle charge and save his season.

Smith faces a two-game ban for unnecessary contact with the head or neck of Brisbane's Sam Thaiday last week and will miss the Storm's preliminary final with Cronulla on Friday and possibly next week's grand final if found guilty.

Storm chief executive Brian Waldron said the club would put forward a strong case to defend the Test hooker and hoped to have him cleared to play the Sharks on Friday.

"We've said all along we wouldn't waste the judiciary's time," said Waldron.

"We think there's an argument that the findings aren't correct so we'll see how we go.

"Whether it was round one or a prelim we'd be doing this.

"We can't be confident, it's no more than a toss of the coin as far as we're concerned. All you can do is have confidence that putting forward the right case and if you're doing that you'll get a fair hearing."

Teammate Jeremy Smith Tuesday accepted a one-game ban for unnecessary arm pressure on Thaiday in the same tackle and the Storm may argue that contributed to their captain's awkward and ugly actions.

Storm coach Craig Bellamy has already made two changes to the side which produced a stunning last-gasp win over Brisbane last week with Test forward Ryan Hoffman (ankle) also left out of the 17-man squad.

Rookie Aiden Tolman and fellow inexperienced forward Scott Anderson were drafted onto the bench with Sika Manu named in the second row.

If skipper Smith is banned then retiring veteran Matt Geyer will move from centre to hooker and another player will be called into the team.

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