Taane Milne has been charged for a high shot that saw him sin binned on Saturday evening, but will avoid a suspension.
Milne, who already has three offences on his rolling 12-month record, needed a Grade 1 offence to avoid a suspension, and that's exactly what he has received from the NRL's match review committee.
With a Grade 1 careless high tackle offence, Milne will be eligible for a $3000 fine if he takes the early guilty plea, or risk two matches if he heads to the judiciary and loses the challenge.
The charge from the MRC over the tenth minute incident that saw Milne sin binned and Canterbury forward Ryan Sutton taken to hospital but later cleared of injury, came after coach Jason Demetriou said he didn't believe Milne would have a case to answer for.
“Anyone who watches that can clearly see the injury doesn't come from Taane Milne,” the coach said during his post-game press conference.
“I've got my contacts in so I'm pretty confident I can see it, there is no way that comes from Taane Milne.
“It's an accidental contact as he ducks his head and you can clearly see that - it's a neck injury. But for some reason we get a guy in the sin bin because someone stayed down injured.
“It's unfortunate that he's injured and I hope he's ok and I don't want to take anything away from the Bulldogs, they had a tough week and responded well.
“We're just finding things to do. Finding ways to get people who aren't even on the field to make big decisions. The live decision was what it was, but for whatever reason we want to look at it again and again and again, slow it down and manufacture an opinion and send a bloke into the sin bin.
“We're out there with more than half our cap missing and we can't get a fair crack, honestly.
“I'll be very surprised if Taane has anything to answer, very surprised.”
Meanwhile, the MRC have also handed a Grade 1 dangerous contact charge to Parramatta forward Shaun Lane for tripping in the 71st minute of the clash against the New Zealand Warriors on Saturday.
The offence, on Mitchell Barnett, will see Lane pay just $750 with a three-year incident free discount applied. That fine is increased to $1000 if he heads to the judiciary.
