Former Newcastle and Gold Coast halfback Beau Henry is set for a week on the sidelines after being sent from Henson Park for smearing blood on a Glebe-Burwood opponent.
While playing for President's Cup outfit Wentworthville in Sunday's 53-16 defeat to the Wolves, Henry was given his marching orders after wiping blood from a nose injury onto Glebe centre Addison Demetriou as he celebrated one of his side's 10 tries.
The referee's attention was drawn to the indiscretion after Demetriou immediately alerted him to the foreign claret on his 'Dirty Red's' jersey.
Initially, the commentary pairing of former Rooster, Dragon and Panther Jamie Soward and erstwhile Dally M Lock of the Year Shaun Timmins were confused as to why Henry had been sent for an early shower.
"Is it 10 [in the sin bin] or is it the blood bin?” began Timmins, before Soward added “Beau Henry was sent off. You'd have to think it was for giving the referee a bake, but he's been sent off from the ground and will not be back."
According to reports from Adrian Proszenko of The Sydney Morning Herald, the 30-old former NRL half has accepted the early guilty plea for grade one contrary conduct and will miss the bottom of the table Magpies' fixture against North Sydney this weekend.
Interestingly, had Henry's record contained no carry over points, he would have been fit for selection.
Henry's actions have been described as "dumb" by former referee and NRL MRO chief Greg McCallum and have been slated as "unacceptable at any time" by NSWRL CEO David Trodden.
Despite declining to comment on Henry's reckless act, Glebe officials are said to be unhappy with the sentence.
Their belief is that sidelining Henry for the remainder of the season would act as an appropriate punishment due to his actions placing the already precarious competition under further strain.
Their views were echoed by McCallum who added that "the NSWRL have worked really hard to get the footy back on" and that "I just think it's an unprofessional thing to do in the current environment."
Neither Demetriou or Henry have commented on the incident as of yet.