Gold Coast forward Luke Douglas has earned the unwanted title of the first NRL player suspended in 2016, after he was outed by the match review committee for one week on Tuesday.

Douglas will miss the Titans’ season opener against Newcastle on March 6 after taking the early guilty plea on a grade one careless high tackle on Daniel Alvaro in the trial match against Parramatta last weekend.

The 29-year-old Douglas earned 67 penalty points for the tackle, which when added to his carryover points of 75 pushed him over the one week threshold.

Manly prop Brenton Lawrence was the only other player charged in last weekend’s trial action, for a ‘crusher’ tackle on Cronulla’s Matt Prior.

The early guilty plea earned Lawrence 75 points, short of the 100 point threshold for a week’s suspension.