South Sydney captain Sam Burgess has come to the defence of younger brother George, labelling his elbow on Newcastle’s Mitch Barnett out of character.

The Rabbitohs suffered a triple blow on Monday as Burgess, Hymel Hunt and Braidon Burns all accepted NRL bans following the fiery win over Newcastle on Saturday.

Burgess will miss two matches after accepting the early guilty plea for a grade two striking charge.

Centre Hunt will be out for the next four matches for a grade-two reckless high tackle that left Brendan Elliot dazed while winger Braidon Burns will miss Thursday’s derby with the Sydney Roosters for a shoulder charge.

Burgess could consider himself lucky not to be sitting on the sidelines for longer after he lashed out with his elbow at Barnett in an incident which marred his side’s second win of the season.

Burgess has been well below his best this year and began the season in reserve grade before receiving a call-up from coach Michael Maguire the last two weeks.

Sam Burgess defended his brother on Monday, saying while he did the wrong thing he wasn’t prone to violent outbursts.

“He was obviously disappointed,” Sam said.

“I think it’s out of character for George. He knows he let the guys down but it didn’t cost us the game in the end.

“We’re a tight group, we all support George and he’s a big part of our team, and my brother, so we’ve got a lot of care and love for him.

“We just get around him, acknowledge he did the wrong thing, he’s big enough and smart enough to understand that.”

Burgess was sin-binned for 10 minutes for throwing a punch but was fortunate not to be sent off after the referees and initial replays missed his elbow on Barnett.

His piece of ill discipline means the Rabbitohs will go into big clashes against the Roosters and North Queensland undermanned, but their captain was forgiving.

“He’s disappointed with what he did on the weekend, as a team we lost him for 10 minutes,” Sam said.

“As a team I know we’ll back him and support him and come back a better player and a better person.

“People forget he’s only a young fella and it’s relatively early in his career.”

Meanwhile, Brisbane announced on Monday they will fight forward Sam Thaiday’s grade-one contrary conduct charge for squeezing the injured thumb of Melbourne prop Jesse Bromwich.

Thaiday is free to line up in the Broncos’ match against Canberra on Friday, but he faces a maximum $2100 fine, having been charged after the Storm’s win on Thursday night.

The hearing will be held on Tuesday evening.