Cowboys' double blow as crackdown continues

North Queensland faces the prospect of being without both Jason Taumalolo and Lachlan Burr for next week's match against the Warriors, after both were charged by the NRL's match review committee.

Taumalolo was hit with a grade two careless high tackle charge for his shot on Newcastle's Tyson Frizell in the 25th minute of last night's match.

He'll be suspended for one week if he takes the early guilty plea, and two weeks if he fights the charge at the judiciary and loses.

Burr is facing a grade one careless high tackle charge for an incident in the 30th minute involving Jayden Brailey. Because Burr has two previous offences, he's looking at the same penalty as Taumalolo, despite the lower grading on his tackle.

Both players were sin-binned during the Cowboys' 36-20 win over the Knights, leaving North Queensland with just 11 players at one stage.

Speaking on Nine's coverage of the match, Andrew Johns hit out at the decision to sin-bin Burr for what he said was an innocuous tackle.

"What is happening? He just puts a loose arm out, honestly, it wouldn't bruise a grape," Johns said.

"It just takes the whole contest out of the game. Watching the game, the contest and how the game is playing out, I just feel deflated watching it.

"It's going to continue, and if someone loses an Origin series or a grand final for this, I just, I don't know what we want the game to be…they've made their bed.

"Coming into Origin III, the game is on the line, the series is on the line, there's more fatigue in the game. They can trot out all the spin and BS they want at the NRL. The players are under more fatigue because of the six-to-go.

"Defence is about footwork, under fatigue, game on the line, everything at stake – you get wrong-footed in the grand final with 10 minutes to go in desperation you clip someone, the contest goes out of it.

"It's a brutal game, I just don't know, mate, I just don't know. I'm sitting here just scratching my head."

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