Jack Wighton has received a three-game ban for his divisive shoulder charge on Toby Rudolf in a blow to depleted South Sydney's hopes of avoiding the wooden spoon.
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See subscription optionsVideo replays cast doubt as to whether Wighton made high contact with his shoulder or whether he'd simply clashed heads with the Cronulla prop in Souths' 14-12 loss on Saturday night.
"Contact is head on head but it's a shoulder charge with no attempt to wrap (your arms to make a tackle)," referee Belinda Sharpe told Wighton as she sin-binned him.
Wighton has since been cited for a grade-two shoulder charge and will miss upcoming games against Brisbane, Gold Coast and Parramatta with an early guilty plea.
The second two of those fixtures shape as pivotal for the Rabbitohs in their fight to avoid the first wooden spoon of Wayne Bennett's coaching career.
Wighton would miss a fourth match against St George Illawarra if he unsuccessfully challenged his charge.
The suspension compounds Souths' well-documented personnel crisis; a total of 13 first-graders missed Saturday night's gallant loss to the top-eight hopeful Sharks.
Wighton joins Latrell Mitchell, Cody Walker, Campbell Graham and Cameron Murray among other big names on the sidelines at last-placed Souths.
Jamie Humphreys looms as the likeliest man to join Lewis Dodd in the halves next week provided he shakes off concussion symptoms.
Rudolf went from the field for a head injury assessment and was deemed unable to return so will miss Cronulla's next match against North Queensland.
Wighton and Bennett were both tight-lipped on the shot after Saturday's game but Souths found an unlikely ally in rival coach Craig Fitzgibbon.
"I don't really have an issue," said the Sharks coach.
"He was just trying to shift energy for his team. Sometimes you get it right, sometimes you get it wrong."
Fitzgibbon noted Cronulla had "been on the wrong end" of similar calls in the past.
Now retired, Sharks forward Dale Finucane received a two-game ban for a similar shot on Stephen Crichton in 2022.
Finucane avoided the sin bin on that occasion and took his case to the NRL judiciary to plead that he had only clashed heads with the then-Penrith centre.
But the forward's guilty verdict was upheld on appeal.
Elsewhere, Gold Coast rookie Sean Mullany has been offered a one-game ban for his hip-drop tackle on Demetric Vaimauga from the final minutes of the Titans' shock win over the Warriors.
Australian Associated Press
