Burgess decision puzzles

MELBOURNE Storm forward Brandon Smith has questioned the NRL judiciary’s consistency after South Sydney skipper Sam Burgess won his right to play in Sunday’s clash in Gosford.

The judiciary’s decision on Tuesday night to clear Burgess for his shot on Matt Moylan has been met with dismay by several figures within rugby league.

Burgess was facing the eighth ban of his Australian career after being charged with a grade two high tackle on the Cronulla full back.

But the Souths star will face Storm after the panel reduced his offence to a grade one misdemeanour.

A week earlier, Sea Eagle Jake Trbojevic avoided a suspension after taking an early plea for a bad tackle which saw Storm’s Jahrome Hughes forced off after landing on his head.

“To be honest I’m not really that surprised [about the Burgess ruling],” Smith said yesterday. “I don’t want to rap the jury [judiciary] or anything but it has been inconsistent throughout the year and anything can happen.

“The Jake Trbojevic thing, that kind of opened my eyes to it. Anything can happen, calls can be reversed, as long as you plead a good case.

“But I reckon it’s better for us as a squad to be facing someone like Burgess and the Bunnies team, so that we’re getting used to how they’ll be with a full-strength team [in the finals].”

Storm front-rower Nelson Asofa-Solomona, who will have to do battle with Burgess through the middle on Sunday, said he preferred Burgess to be out there on Sunday.

“I want all teams to always be at their full capacity so no one has any excuses to say why they didn’t win or whatever,” he said.

“It’s definitely dangerous what he did and I think that’s something that needs to come out of our game.

“But I don’t feel like it’s my place to talk about it.”