Scott guilty at judiciary, Graham free to play Bunnies

North Queensland co-captain Matt Scott has been found guilty of a shoulder charge by the NRL judiciary and will miss the Cowboys' clash with Manly on Thursday but Cronulla's Wade Graham is free to play the Rabbitohs after being found not guilty.

Graham successfully challenged his one-match suspension for making dangerous contact to the head/neck of Knights fullback Kalyn Ponga last Sunday but Scott was unable to overturn his one-match ban for a shoulder charge on Melbourne's Young Tonumaipea.

Under the rules of the NRL, even though Scott misses Thursday night's game, he cannot be called into the Queensland Origin team for the June 6 game even if a Maroons forward is injured in the lead-up.

Scott and his coach Paul Green both addressed the judiciary, made up of chairman Geoff Bellew and former players Mal Cochrane, Sean Garlick and Dallas Johnson.

Scott maintained Tonumaipea was looking at Cowboys prop Scott Bolton but then changed direction suddenly by stepping off his left foot. That caused Scott to also react.

"Because of that stumble and the attacker's change of direction I was concerned about a head clash. So what I am doing is trying to turn away from him," Scott said.

NRL counsel Peter McGrath suggested there was no attempt by Scott to wrap his right arm around Tonumaipea until later in the tackle.

"You started to tuck your right arm up just before contact," McGrath said.

Scott denied the accusation.

"I'm always attempting to wrap my arm throughout the whole tackle," he said. "The time I thought I had was greatly reduced by his change of direction. At all times I'm attempting to use both arms in the tackle."

Later Scott said he felt hard done by with the judiciary decision.

"It's disappointing. I thought I had a pretty good argument," Scott said. "I've seen a lot of tackles recently that were a lot more dangerous and resulted in injury.

"So it's quite frustrating to be given a week for what, in my opinion, was a pretty innocuous tackle. I thought I did as much as I could to make that situation not dangerous."

In stark contrast, Graham was delighted to be able to face the in-form Rabbitohs.

"Obviously I've missed plenty of footy at the start of the year [hamstring injury], which hasn't been ideal for me. So to be able to play this weekend is certainly a bonus," Graham said.

"It's always tough coming here but I'm glad we did as I thought we had a good case. There was a stage there we thought about taking the early guilty plea."

Graham told the four-man judiciary panel his right arm became stuck underneath Ponga's chin and he felt the tackle was "becoming awkward".

Teammate Matt Moylan then joined in and grabbed hold of Ponga's jersey pulling the Knights player backwards.

"My arm was stuck but I told Matt, 'Watch his head; watch his head'," Graham said in evidence.

"Instead of falling on top of him [Ponga] I tried to take my weight out of the tackle by pulling him towards the sideline, and going down on my left knee.

"I pulled my right arm out at the first opportunity. You can see how high my arm comes out. And I recall he said to me, 'Thanks mate'."

Judiciary chairman Geoff Bellew, QC, reminded the panel that Ponga was not present to give evidence.

"So he cannot be questioned about what he allegedly said," Bellew added. "Therefore you are to give that evidence little, or no, consideration."

Knights forward Herman Ese'ese received a one-match ban for making dangerous contact on Sharks half Chad Townsend, while Storm prop Sam Kasiano and Penrith's Jack Hetherington also received one-match suspensions for dangerous contact charges.