{"id":95798,"date":"2021-07-06T10:10:37","date_gmt":"2021-07-06T10:10:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=95798"},"modified":"2021-07-06T11:03:27","modified_gmt":"2021-07-06T11:03:27","slug":"fifita-ruled-out-of-origin-iii-through-suspension","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=95798","title":{"rendered":"Fifita ruled out of Origin III through suspension"},"content":{"rendered":"

Queensland will be without David Fifita<\/a> in next week's State of Origin<\/a> finale after the Gold Coast Titans star was found guilty of dangerous contact at the NRL judiciary.<\/p>\n

Fifita had come under scrutiny after he put a late shot on Sam Williams<\/a> during the first half of Gold Coast's win over Canberra<\/a>, which dropped the Raiders halfback to the ground.<\/p>\n

The Titans star's Origin suspension means Queensland's 18th man, Francis Molo, will replace him on Paul Green's interchange for the Game Three.<\/p>\n

He was initially charged with grade one dangerous contact and was pushed above the suspension threshold by loading from past offences, with the 140 points for a guilty verdict resulting in a one-match ban.<\/p>\n

Two previous offences meant an early guilty plea would not have reduced the penalty to a fine, which gave Fifita no choice but to fight the charge after once again being named in Maroons coach Paul Green's squad for Game Three<\/a> on July 14.<\/p>\n

\"David<\/p>\n

Due to Gold Coast having a bye this weekend, Fifita is unable to serve the one-match suspension at club level, meaning he will miss the State of Origin finale.<\/p>\n

Fifita did not give evidence, and was represented by Titans' GM of football, Anthony Laffranchi, who argued that the 21-year-old did not have enough time to pull out of the contact on Williams.<\/p>\n

"[Williams shows] positive body language, looking to engage defenders, and in this case, he does with player Fifita," he says.<\/p>\n

"Fifita is then committed to tackle Mr Williams \u2026 this engagement – as a ball-runner, he has done his job, and Mr Fifita has limited time to change his directive.<\/p>\n

"Fifita is committed with his right foot planted on the ground and eyes for the target.<\/p>\n

\"David<\/p>\n

"[Williams] does turn himself and does braces himself for contact, in my opinion."<\/p>\n

However, NRL prosecutor Peter McGrath argued that "in rugby league terms, there was ample time for Fifita to not make contact" adding that there was a "heightened risk of unacceptable injury" to Williams.<\/p>\n

Tuesday was the second occasion this season that Fifita has fronted the judiciary after being handed a two-match ban for a grade two careless high tackle in Round 9, which caused him to miss the NRL's Magic Round.<\/p>\n

Fifita was not the only NRL star to have an unsuccessful judiciary appearance, with Roosters prop Jared Waerea-Hargreaves fined $2550 after failing to convince the judiciary his actions to protect a teammate in a scuffle were warranted during the Roosters' 46-0 defeat at the hands of the Storm.<\/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<\/strong><\/em> clicking here!<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Queensland will be without David Fifita in next week's State of Origin finale after the Gold Coast Titans star was found guilty of dangerous contact […]<\/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\/95798"}],"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=95798"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95798\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":95800,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95798\/revisions\/95800"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=95798"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=95798"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=95798"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}