St George Illawarra star Teuila Fotu-Moala's NRLW season is over after she became the first player to be suspended in the league's flagship competition.
Photo: PHOTOSPORT
The Kiwi prop was unsuccessful in downgrading a level-two dangerous contact charge on Brisbane's Lavina Gould, leaving her banned for three weeks.
The ban is likely to put pressure on the NRL to reconsider it's women's judicial system, which carries the same points penalties for the men's in every charge.
In effect though the punishments are much tougher, given there are only three rounds in a regular season and a grand final, as opposed to the 25-week men's competition.
The ban could also carry into Fotu-Moala's New Zealand representative commitments, if the Dragons do not make the grand final.
In a watershed case for the women's game, the 25-year-old was the first player charged with an offence in the competition.
It took the three-person panel 10 minutes to make a decision, ending Fotu-Moala's season and dealing the title favourites' a crucial blow.
Meanwhile another Kiwi, Jared Waerea-Hargreaves won't play again this year unless the Sydney Roosters make the men's grand final after he was found guilty of a trip at the NRL judiciary.
Facing his fourth conviction of 2019, the prop claimed he'd simply overbalanced when he made contact with South Sydney's James Roberts on Friday night.
In a 50-minute hearing, he insisted he had not been reckless in his action, as he pleaded his case to play in the Roosters' preliminary final on Saturday week.
But it took the three-man panel just seven minutes to disagree, rubbing the Roosters prop out for one week.
It will leave the Roosters without their most dangerous prop when they face the winner of Melbourne and Parramatta next Saturday, after he topped the yardage count against Souths.
They have won just four from nine matches without him in the past two years.
Waerea-Hargreaves is largely paying a penalty for his past sins, with his three prior convictions this year making him ineligible for the fine the offence usually carries.
AAP
