NRL Finals: Judiciary Results

By Peter Roy

Sonny Bill Williams has tonight successfully defended his 2 match ban, with the NRL judiciary downgrading the original sentence to only a 1 match ban. Williams will now only miss the Cowboys game this weekend and even if the Bulldogs lose - he may get a second chance, if both the Bunnies and Brisbane lose.

Jim Hall representing Williams, argued that the SBW tackle resulted in only light contact to Thurston and Williams was actually committed to the hit before the ball left Thurston's foot. The judiciary defence was a sound one and in comparison to similar tackles this year, the Bulldogs argued successfully to get the charge reduced.

Things weren't so good for South Sydney's David Fa'alogo. The defence was centred around Fa'alogo being 'disoriented' by the grapple tackle and not realising what he was doing. An amazing and bold play by Souths, the judiciary rightly laughing the case out of the room. If there was any truth in the case of 'disorientation' I am sure the heavy right hook from Fa'longo would have missed its target. The 'king hit' was a shocker and the Bunnies bad boy has rightly copped 7 weeks for his trouble.

In other NRL News today:

Jarrod Mullen has agreed to stay with the Newcastle Knights until 2011.

Eel Luke Burt paying his own way to Auckland just to cheer on his teammates. A real eye opener and a refreshing thought considering todays age of limited club loyalty by many players.

Stay tuned for more NRL News articles through-out the day during our NRL Finals week coverage.