Stephen Kearney isn’t expecting NRL referee Matt Cecchin to overcompensate with the whistle when his New Zealand Warriors face Cronulla, despite coming under siege for last week’s Sia Soliola debacle.

Cecchin – who has refereed both State of Origin games and NRL grand finals – failed to send off Canberra’s Soliola for a crunching, high and late tackle on Billy Slater while overseeing the Raiders’ loss to Melbourne.

The tackle rendered Slater unconscious, and has ruled the star fullback out of the Storm’s blockbuster clash with Manly this weekend.

Cecchin has escaped sanction for the oversight, which the judiciary rectified via a five-match ban for Soliola, and will referee in Auckland on Friday.

Review official Bernard Sutton and assistant referee Chris Butler were not so lucky, however, and were demoted from this weekend’s first-grade action.

Nevertheless, Kearney expected Cecchin to referee to his usual high standards, and not be scarred or affected by the experience.

“He’s one of the top referees in our game. I’m sure Matt will do what Matt does – his job,” Kearney said.

“They’re important parts of our game, those ball players, no doubt about that. But I haven’t seen a tackle like that in a long time.”

Kearney said the five-week ban for Soliola, a former Kiwis forward, was fair.