Melbourne Storm star Nelson Asofa-Solomona has failed in his bid to overturn a ban and feature in Sunday’s grand final against Penrith.
Asofa-Solomona flew to Sydney on Monday to face an expedited NRL judiciary hearing, where the Storm attempted to downgrade the high tackle that knocked out Sydney Roosters prop Lindsay Collins.
The Storm always faced an uphill battle in their attempt to downgrade the charge from a grade three offence to a grade one offence for the incident in the opening minute of the Storm’s win over the Roosters last week.
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Storm counsel Nick Ghabar cited a tackle by Queensland centre Val Holmes on NSW prop Payne Haas during Origin II as a comparison. Holmes pleaded guilty to a grade one high tackle.
They also argued the tackle was at the lower end of the range of careless as his arms are outstretched, the tackle is front on, he doesn’t rush out of the line, and his feet remain on the ground.
Ghabar also claimed that Collins had a chance to protect himself and “didn’t raise his bumpers” when coming into contact.
NRL judiciary counsel Lachlan Gyles SC said Asofa-Solomona showed “no duty of care” and the Holmes tackle was not comparable because Haas played on whereas Collins was ruled out for the remainder of the game.
The panel took just over 20 minutes to dismiss the Storm’s appeal and uphold the grade-three charge.
It means Asofa-Solomona will be suspended for five matches. Beyond the grand final, three of those matches would likely be absorbed by New Zealand’s Pacific Championships campaign.
That would allow Asofa-Solomona to return in the Storm’s second match of next year’s regular season.
He joins club legend Cameron Smith as Storm players to miss a grand final through suspension, while Issac Luke, Carl Webb and Luke Ricketson are among others to have been rubbed out of deciders.
Either Joe Chan or Lazarus Vaalepu appears the likeliest to come into the 17 in that case, but between them, the pair have played only 21 NRL games and neither has featured yet in this finals series.
More to come