George Burgess faces huge ban for eye gouge
South Sydney Rabbitohs prop George Burgess faces at least a 10-game ban if found guilty of an alleged eye gouge of Wests Tigers hooker Robbie Farah.
The England international has been referred to the judiciary without a grading on a dangerous contact charge.
He has a 50% loading from a previous eye-gouge ban over an incident involving New Zealand captain Dallin Watene-Zelezniak in England at the end of last year.
The base penalty for Grade 3 dangerous contact is 500 demerit points – which is a five-match suspension.
However, Burgess is facing a longer ban as the match review committee considers the incident to be of a higher grading than detailed in the NRL judiciary code.
Something very wrong with the system when a disgraceful act like this from George Burgess doesn’t result in a send off. pic.twitter.com/kQc4hLUAMk
— Russell Jackson (@rustycj) June 27, 2019
Each grade is scaled up by 200 demerit points for dangerous charges and the standard penalty for a Grade 4 offence would be 700 demerit points and any penalty handed to Burgess would include a 50% loading for the incident in last year’s Test on Watene-Zelezniak – which cost him a four-match ban at the time.
Wonder what sort of suspension George Burgess would be facing in the NRL for this … half the season?! #EngvNZ pic.twitter.com/ueQUFUB2to
— James Gould (@thenamesgould) November 4, 2018
The judiciary are able to dish out a different grade to what the match review committee has recommended.
The Tigers ran-out 14-9 winners against the Rabbitohs at the Bankwest Stadium on Thursday night.
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