Manly coach Geoff Toovey says he’s shocked by the severity of the charge levelled against star forward Tony Williams, but the Sea Eagles are yet to decide whether to fight for a downgrade at the NRL judiciary on Wednesday night.
Toovey says the club will continue to seek legal advice before the midday deadline when they must alert the NRL of their plea.
Williams faces seven weeks on the sidelines with an early guilty plea, or five if he’s successful in having the charge downgraded from a grade four to a grade three dangerous throw after he put Cronulla hooker Isaac De Gois in a dangerous position during Monday night’s loss at Toyota Stadium.
However, the risk is a massive 10 weeks out of the game if he’s unsuccessful in challenging the grading handed down by the NRL’s match review committee.
Despite Williams’ poor record with dangerous tackles contributing to the severity of the penalty, Toovey described the incident as “overbalanced.”
“No it’s not the loading, just the grading of the whole incident. I think it’s way over the mark but that’s only my personal opinion,” said Toovey.
“We’re still taking further advice and some more legal advice and weighing up our options.
“Personally, (having been) around for a little while, the penalty is very, very severe and way overbalanced for the incident. But that’s only my opinion.
“It was a strange tackle, there’s no other real incidents you can compare it with but looking at the charges and the charge sheet I think it’s fairly severe.”
Toovey said the damaging second rower is “shattered” at the prospect of missing out on being considered for Australia’s April Test against New Zealand and the start of NSW’s State of Origin campaign in May.
Manly will have to weigh up whether fighting the charge is worth the risk of Williams being rubbed out for nearly half the season.
“That’s how the whole system is set up, in my opinion, but that’s the risk you run. You think he’s hard done by and all of a sudden you fight the good fight but (if you are) unsuccessful the poor kid gets double the amount,” Toovey said.