{"id":128967,"date":"2021-09-14T10:53:06","date_gmt":"2021-09-14T10:53:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=128967"},"modified":"2021-09-14T18:00:54","modified_gmt":"2021-09-14T18:00:54","slug":"bold-roosters-bid-to-free-young-gun-fails","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=128967","title":{"rendered":"Bold Roosters bid to free young gun fails"},"content":{"rendered":"

The one-game suspension dealt to Roosters hooker Sam Verrills for his high shot<\/a> has been increased to a two-match ban, after he failed in his appeal at the NRL<\/a> judiciary.<\/p>\n

After Verrills<\/a> was hit with a one-match ban for his high hit on Titans<\/a> centre Brian Kelly in Saturday's elimination final win<\/a>, he and the Roosters<\/a> entered an early guilty plea but attempted to downgrade the charge from a suspension to a fine.<\/p>\n

Verrills' unsuccessful challenge means the 22-year-old will not only miss the Roosters' knockout semi-final clash with the Sea Eagles<\/a> on Friday night, but the Tricolours' preliminary final match if they get that far.<\/p>\n

Therefore, Verrills will only take to the field again this season in the unlikely event of the resilient but heavily undermanned Roosters reaching the grand final.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> 'Priceless' moment in Wayne Bennett-Ivan Cleary feud<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Verrills' representative, lawyer James McLeod, argued the dummy-half "did very little wrong".<\/p>\n

McLeod insisted that Roosters second-rower Sitili Tupouniua, who made contact with Kelly before Verrills, shifted the ball-carrier "probably 20 or 30 centimetres" and into the path of Verrills' right shoulder, creating mitigating circumstances.<\/p>\n

"(Verrills) is entitled to set himself before the contact with Tupouniua and Kelly a split second before," McLeod said.<\/p>\n

"He doesn't have time to adjust after the contact between Tupouniua and Kelly."<\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> The Mole weighs in on Michael Maguire-Wests Tigers stand-off<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

But NRL prosecutor Peter McGrath argued that Tupouniua's contact did not cause a drop in Kelly's head height or redirect his running line.<\/p>\n

"There is very little in the way of mitigating features that would reduce the seriousness of the tackle," McGrath said.<\/p>\n

The panel that upheld Verrills' original charge consisted of Queensland Maroons<\/a> and Test Kangaroos<\/a> great Bob Lindner, 2010 Dragons<\/a> premiership back-rower Ben Creagh and former Storm<\/a> and Cowboys<\/a> lock Dallas Johnson.<\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> Former champ salivating for shot at 'fat dosser' Tyson Fury<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Verrills only locked in a regular spot in the Roosters' 17 this season due to the concussion battle of Jake Friend<\/a>, which led to the Tricolours co-captain retiring from the game in April<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

As coach Trent Robinson<\/a> weighs up how to fill Verrills' void, he can give Ben Marschke the No.9 jumper, inject Freddy Lussick into the side or shift Drew Hutchison from five-eighth to hooker.<\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> Final plot twist looms in Zlatan Ibrahimovic's storied football career<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Rugby league Immortal Andrew Johns said on Nine's post-match coverage of the Roosters-Titans clash<\/a> that he didn't even think Verrills' high shot on Kelly warranted a penalty.<\/p>\n

"Kelly is falling, he cannot disappear, Sam Verills is committed to the tackle," Johns said.<\/p>\n

"But, if you look at Brian Kelly \u2013 his nose is broken. And if they're going to be consistent … And you can compare them to other hits we've seen recently …<\/p>\n

"For me it's not even a penalty. Brian Kelly's falling, Sam Verrills committed to the tackle, unfortunately there are collisions that are going to happen.<\/p>\n

"But, if they're going to be consistent, Sam won't be playing next week, because they can't change the decisions they've made over the last month or two."<\/p>\n

If the Roosters lose to the Sea Eagles this week, Verrills will serve the second game of his two-match suspension in the opening round of next season.<\/p>\n

For a daily dose of the best of the breaking news and exclusive content from Wide World of Sports, subscribe to our newsletter by clicking here!<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The one-game suspension dealt to Roosters hooker Sam Verrills for his high shot has been increased to a two-match ban, after he failed in his […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/128967"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=128967"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/128967\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":128969,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/128967\/revisions\/128969"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=128967"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=128967"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=128967"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}