- Both players set to miss NRL games after recent trial matches
Penrith superstar Nathan Cleary is set to miss the opening two rounds of the NRL season in a major blow for the Panthers, while the Dolphins are facing a hit to the engine room after Friday night’s trials.
Cleary was sin-binned in the Panthers’ 26-12 trial loss to Wests Tigers on Friday after collecting teenage winger Heamasi Makasini flush on the jaw.
On Saturday, the NRL’s match review committee hit the halfback with a grade two dangerous contact charge.
Cleary would miss just two games if he takes the early guilty plea, meaning he would sit out Penrith’s season opener against Brisbane and their round two meeting with Cronulla.
In the unlikely event he challenges the decision and then loses, Cleary would face an additional one-game suspension.
Jack Cogger, who did not play Friday’s trial against the Tigers with a niggle, looms as the likeliest man to replace Cleary.
Nathan Cleary is facing a ban for this shot on Wests Tigers teenage winger Heamasi Makasini
Cleary will miss two matches with an early guilty plea or face a three-match ban if he fights the charge and loses
Dolphins star Francis Molo has been charged by the NRL for two hits on Warriors prop Jackson Ford
Meanwhile NRL analyst Andy Raymond has called on the NRL to throw the book at Dolphins forward Francis Molo.
‘Francis Molo NEEDS an extended suspension,’ Raymond posted.
‘These shoulder charges cannot continue, he should have learned his lesson a few years back.’
Molo was left facing a three-match ban for a high shot on Warriors front-rower Jackson Ford.
It was his third offence and comes after he was involved in a tackle that resulted in the accidental death of James Ackerman in a Queensland Cup match in 2015.
Molo was charged for two separate hits on Ford, the second set to rule him out of the Dolphins’ opening three fixtures against South Sydney, the Gold Coast and Cronulla.
Ford was charged for a hip-drop tackle on Selwyn Cobbo but will escape a ban if he agrees to take a $3000 fine.
Dolphins coach Kristian Woolf said that Hamiso Tabui-Fidow will start the season at fullback, despite the claims of Trai Fuller during the trials.
‘Hammer is our fullback and I have never deviated from that. Hammer will be right for round one,’ Woolf said.
‘If we were playing in a final this week Hammer is playing … but unfortunately he got a knock on his shoulder.
‘It is a big year for him. He is hopefully going to play Origin as a fullback and he is going to play for Samoa at the World Cup.
‘I just don’t want Hammer having to start the year thinking about niggles.
‘We are giving him a freshen-up at the moment but he will get a couple of weeks of full training from next week and will be ready to go round one.’