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Suspension escape: Three players charged for Friday tackles

The match review committee have handed down their findings. 👇

Published by
Scott Pryde

Lachlan Ilias, Jake Clifford and Dominic Young have all escaped with fines after being charged by the NRL's match review committee for offences on Friday night.

While the dour affair between the Wests Tigers and Gold Coast Titans on Thursday evening didn't attract any charges, the match review committee charged two Newcastle players and one South Sydney player for tackles on Friday evening.

In the early game, which the Knights lost to the Sharks, both Jake Clifford and Dominic Young found themselves on report for separate offences, with Young spending ten minutes in the sin bin for his.

Despite that, both players escaped with Grade 1 charges and $1000 fines, provided they take the early guilty plea. That fine becomes $1500 if they are to fight the charges at the NRL judiciary during the week and lose.

Clifford was pinged for a careless high tackle on Ronaldo Mulitalo in the 35th minute of the clash, while Young was given his marching orders by the referee for a spear tackle, also on Mulitalo, with just 20 minutes to go in the game.

Mulitalo landed awkwardly well above the horizontal, however, despite being a sin binnable offence, the match review committee ruled a Grade 1 charge.

In the later game, Lachlan Ilias was pinged for dangerous contact after he gave away an eight-point try to the Penrith Panthers youngster Taylan May.

The Panthers went on to win the game, with Ilias making unnecessary contact to the head of May with his leg as he scored in the 60th minute of the game.

Under the NRL's new judiciary system, loading points no longer occur, meaning the fine is the only form of punishment the players will face, and the three charges won't impact future games.

Published by
Scott Pryde