St George Illawarra forward Matt Prior admits his five-match suspension for striking North Queensland co-captain Johnathan Thurston is “about right”.
Prior was sent off for the nasty elbow and forearm to Thurston’s head in last Friday night’s match at Dairy Farmers Stadium and became the first player referred straight to the NRL judiciary without a grading charge since Ben Ross in 2008.
NRL counsel Peter Kite on Wednesday night recommended to judiciary panel members Sean Garlick, Mal Cochrane and Bob Lindner that Prior be outed for five to seven matches to act as a deterrent to all levels of the game.
Prior’s representative Bill Neild argued that a two or three-week ban was just and that the incident was simply coaching instructions gone wrong.
After hearing evidence, it took the panel just a few minutes to decide that Prior would receive 550 points and a five-match suspension, meaning he won’t be back in the NRL until round 16.
Prior’s clean record and early guilty plea helped bring the eventual penalty down.
Neild presented to judge Greg Woods that Prior was simply following the instructions of his coach Matt Price to get in the face of the Cowboys star all match.
Prior said it wasn’t his intention to strike Thurston high in the 54th minute and it happened because the No.7 had slipped in the moments before collision.
“I think that’s about right,” Prior said of his penalty.
“It was unintentional but, in saying that, I still hit him high and I’m regretting it now.
“But I’m just glad he’s alright and I’m looking forward to getting on with my life and getting on with my football.”
Prior said he’d been told by Price that it was his job to continually get off the line quickly, put pressure on Thurston and try and “bump” him when he went to the line to pass.
“My role was to put pressure on Thurston,” said Prior.
To illustrate their point, Neild successfully requested the judiciary consider a tackle from Prior on Thurston from the first half, where legal chest-high contact was made on the Queensland star.
Prior said the second-half incident was reckless but not intentional.
“I was surprised to see him like that (unconscious) … it was a split second thing,” he said.
Price himself testified and said of Thurston’s slip: “Johnathan Thurston’s head clearly drops five or six inches.”
NRL counsel Kite argued Thurston “hadn’t slipped that much”, Prior’s eyes were focused on Thurston and that Prior needed to accept responsibility for attempting such a high-risk tackle.
Judge Woods quoted super coach Jack Gibson in saying that following a coach’s instruction should not be taken into account as a mitigating factor – because coaches will do whatever they can to defend their players.
“Coaches, as Jack Gibson once said, don’t regard winning as life and death – it’s more serious,” said Woods.
In other judiciary news, Cowboys hooker James Segeyaro was unsuccessful in his bid to get a downgrade for a grade-two careless high tackle – meaning his one-match suspension remains.