Brisbane will head to the NRL judiciary to fight a contrary conduct charge levelled against club captain Sam Thaiday.
On the line will be Thaiday’s place in Friday night’s local derby with the Gold Coast at Skilled Park.
The Queensland forward has been hit with a contrary conduct charge by the NRL’s match review committee arising from an incident involving referee Adam Devcich early in Brisbane’s 32-26 loss to Melbourne last weekend.
Thaiday grabbed and tugged on Devcich’s shirt as he tried to demonstrate how he’d been held back in a scrum by Melbourne prop Bryan Norrie, as Storm fullback Billy Slater ran through a big gap to score a try.
Replays showed Thaiday trying to break free of Norrie’s hold during the scrum, and after the try was scored he angrily remonstrated with Devcich over the incident not being penalised.
Thaiday needs to beat the charge to play on Friday night as he has loading from a dangerous tackle suspension in 2011 which means an early guilty plea would not save him.
Brisbane decided to challenge the charge after consulting legal representatives on Monday night and again on Tuesday morning.
It’s understood they will argue whether Thaiday’s actions constituted contrary conduct.
NRL rules say if a referee is assaulted or unduly harassed by a player he should submit a report of the incident.
But Brisbane believe in Thaiday’s case there was no malice or intent.
Losing Thaiday, back to his best against Melbourne, would be a damaging blow to Brisbane already under pressure following a disappointing 1-3 start to the season and battling injuries to experienced forward David Stagg and winger Josh Hoffman.
It’s put added pressure on young prop Josh McGuire to make a hurried comeback from a torn calf suffered against St George Illawarra in round two last month.
Gold Coast front rower Luke Bailey has taken the early guilty plea for a similar offence to Thaiday and will be free to face the Broncos.
Manly prop Brenton Lawrence is clear to meet Canterbury on Friday after taking the early guilty plea for a dangerous throw on Wests Tigers centre Blake Ayshford last Thursday.
Canterbury centre Krisnan Inu took the early guilty plea for his grade four dangerous throw charge and will miss five weeks.
