New Zealand Warriors centre Brent Tate hopes Cameron Smith's season-ending suspension helps eradicate the grapple tackle from rugby league.

The Melbourne captain was found guilty of a grapple tackle by the judiciary on Wednesday, his two-match ban brought about because of 93 carryover points from a similar round one tackle on Tate.

The pair are teammates in the Queensland State of Origin team and while Tate sympathises with Smith for missing the climax of the season, he can't overstate enough the danger of grapple tackles.

"I know Smithy quite well and know how much this would hurt him. They've got a big game like us with a huge prize at the end of it and to miss out on it would be devastating," said Tate Friday.

"(But) if you do it you run the risk of that happening to you.

"(Grapple) is something that shouldn't happen. You don't want to get to a point where someone gets really hurt from a grapple tackle with a neck injury because with those sort of things there is no turning back."

Tate was hopeful the media frenzy over grapples and Smith's suspension would help rid the game of the wrestling technique.

"Obviously there's been a precedent set that if you do do it you will find yourself sitting on the sidelines," he said.

"We don't want to get to a point where someone gets really hurt with the grapple tackles before we go to stamp it out.

"I think it's a good thing they've done, but again I am feeling for Smithy as well."

With such intense focus on grapple tackles this week the Warriors are not expecting a crackdown from referee Shayne Hayne in Saturday's NRL preliminary final with Manly.

"It hasn't been spoken about from our point of view," said Warriors captain Steve Price.

"As players you just want player safety to be first and foremost.

"I don't think there will be any extra focus on it. They have been focusing on it all year and whenever there is contact with the head they deal with it."

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