Things have gone from bad to worse for the bottom-placed Panthers with Scott Sorensen suspended for three games after losing at judiciary on Tuesday night.
Sorensen was contesting the grading after he was cited for a shoulder charge on Manly enforcer Nathan Brown who was returning a kick-off from the back fence on Saturday.
But the judiciary upheld the grade two charge and Sorensen copped an extra game on his original two-game ban.
He will be unavailable for Penrith’s Magic Round clash against the Broncos on Sunday, as well as matches against the Cowboys and Knights.
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Players are paying a high price for foul play this year, with fines through the opening eight rounds surpassing Australia’s average annual salary rate.
Players have paid $104,650 in fines less than a third of the way through the season, while they’ve missed collective 54 matches through suspension.
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Players will miss 16 matches for offences stemming out of Round 8 alone where there were 18 sin bins dished out by the officials.
That’s easily the most matches served out of one weekend in 2025, with players forced to pay at least $10,000 in fines in all but one round.
It’s well above last year’s figures when players had paid $86,850 in fines and copped 35 games in suspensions after eight rounds.
The eye-watering sums suggest that the perceived crackdown is somewhat justified given the match review committee has had to deal with a record number of cases this season.
“We’re the first to acknowledge that there have been some inconsistencies with how some of these matters have been dealt with,” NRL head of football Graham Annesley said, with 107 charges laid this season.
“The large majority have been justifiable because we’ve actually seen a pretty significant increase in high tackles this year.
“We’ve seen a 90 per cent increase in the number of high tackles being reviewed by the match review committee, we’ve seen a 95 per cent increase in the number of charges for head high tackles and a 71 per cent increase for high tackles.
“It is a concern for us that we’re seeing an increase in this type of tackle and a disturbing number of shoulder to the head types of tackles which can be quite serious.
“We’re not backing away from our existing and past policy of contact with the head and neck.”
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