{"id":15799,"date":"2025-07-23T11:07:19","date_gmt":"2025-07-23T11:07:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/15799\/"},"modified":"2025-07-23T11:07:19","modified_gmt":"2025-07-23T11:07:19","slug":"andrew-fifita-facing-suspension-for-referee-abuse-cronulla-sharks-job-in-danger-the-mole-exclusive","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/15799\/","title":{"rendered":"Andrew Fifita facing suspension for referee abuse, Cronulla Sharks job in danger, The Mole Exclusive"},"content":{"rendered":"

Cronulla<\/a> will be under pressure to sack local hero Andrew Fifita<\/a> as coach of their Tarsha Gale women’s junior representative side if he is found guilty of swearing at a match official during an A Grade game in the Shire last weekend.<\/p>\n

One of the stars of the the Sharks’ grand final victory in 2016, Fifita was sent off and charged for allegedly calling a match official a c— while playing for De La Salle against rivals Gymea on Saturday afternoon.<\/p>\n

The 36-year-old former Test prop faces a five-match suspension if found guilty, but his position as coach of a team of promising young women would also be put in jeopardy.<\/p>\n

READ MORE: ‘Didn’t work out’: Why the Roosters recalled young gun<\/a><\/p>\n

READ MORE: Wallaby swings back at ‘ridiculous’ sledge as crunch call looms<\/a><\/p>\n

READ MORE: ‘Every game matters’: Eddie’s ‘exotic’ AFL fixture shake-up<\/a><\/p>\n

“It’s an awkward situation because of his profile and the coaching position,” a source close to the club told Wide World of Sports.<\/p>\n

“But no decision will be made until he fronts the judiciary.”<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Andrew Fifita\u00a0Instagram<\/p>\n

NSW Rugby League confirmed that Fifita had been dismissed for foul language.<\/p>\n

“De La Salle player Andrew Fifita has been charged with grade two offensive language directed at a match official against Gymea Gorillas at Captain Cook Oval on Saturday 19 July,” a spokesperson said in a statement.<\/p>\n

Watch the 2025 NRL premiership live and free on Nine and 9Now<\/a>.<\/p>\n

“He has pleaded not guilty and will face a judiciary hearing tomorrow night.<\/p>\n

“The NSWRL will make no further comment until the judicial matter is complete.”<\/p>\n

As well as being coach of the Tarsha Gale team, Fifita is employed by the Sharks in a culture and welfare role, further complicating the situation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Cronulla will be under pressure to sack local hero Andrew Fifita as coach of their Tarsha Gale women’s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":15800,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":["post-15799","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nrl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-national-rugby-league","tag-nationalrugbyleague","tag-nrl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15799","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15799"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15799\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15800"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15799"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15799"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15799"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}