Kikau accepts NRL’s suspension decision

Sydney: Fijian Bati strongman Viliame Kikau will miss Penrith’s preliminary final against either Parramatta or South Sydney after a being found guilty of a grade one dangerous throw charge at the NRL judiciary on Tuesday night.

Kikau was charged over a lifting tackle on Roosters prop Jared WaereaHargreaves and now needs Penrith to make the grand final to be able to play again this year.

“While I’m obviously disappointed with the outcome, I respect the decision of the NRL Judiciary,” Kikau said in a club statement.

“I’ll now focus on doing everything I can at training to help the team prepare for the Preliminary Final.”

Kikau’s grade two charge in round 15 for dangerous contact on Braydon Trindall left him with loading and carryovers, ensuring the grade one charge he received against the Roosters would result in a ban unless he was successful at the judiciary.

After 42 minutes of presentations from NRL counsel Peter McGrath and defence counsel, Nick Ghabar, a threeman panel of Sean Garlick, Ben Creagh and Dallas Johnson deliberated for 17 minutes before arriving at their conclusion, which rubs Kikau out of his side’s next match.

NRL counsel Peter McGrath argued the tackle met all three criteria for a dangerous throw – namely that there was elevation beyond the horizontal, the tackle involved an

unacceptable degree of risk and that the tackle was careless on behalf of Kikau. – NRL.com