{"id":752349,"date":"2026-06-22T06:50:10","date_gmt":"2026-06-22T06:50:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/752349\/"},"modified":"2026-06-22T06:50:10","modified_gmt":"2026-06-22T06:50:10","slug":"asu-kepaoa-sent-straight-to-the-nswrl-judiciary-for-alleged-homophobic-slur-in-nsw-cup-match","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/752349\/","title":{"rendered":"Asu Kepaoa sent straight to the NSWRL judiciary for alleged homophobic slur in NSW Cup match"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Newcastle\u2019s Asu Kepaoa has been referred directly to the NSWRL judiciary for allegedly using a homophobic slur towards a rival player last week that led to him being sent off in a NSW Cup match.<\/p>\n<p>Watch every game of every round of the NRL Premiership LIVE with no ad-breaks during play on FOX LEAGUE, available on Kayo Sports | New to Kayo? <a href=\"https:\/\/kayosports.com.au\/en-AU\/welcome\/nrl?extcamp=fsaeditoriallinkleague-edt-fsp-lnk-awr-grc-nrl-kyo&amp;channel=fsa&amp;campaign=fsacontra\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">Join now and get your first month for just $1.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>The NSWRL confirmed via a statement on Monday the Knights player would have to front the judiciary for the alleged slur directed towards Dragons winger Nathan Lawson. <\/p>\n<p><img class=\"i-amphtml-fill-content i-amphtml-replaced-content\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/poster-fallback.png\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Kepaoa was sent off just before half-time of Friday\u2019s NSW Cup match against the Dragons. It\u2019s unclear what was said, but officials heard the comment and made the call to send him from the field.<\/p>\n<p>Asu Kepaoa has been referred directly to the NSWRL judiciary for an alleged homophobic slur. Picture: Chris Hyde\/Getty ImagesSource: Getty Images<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNewcastle Knights back-rower Asu Kepaoa has been referred to the NSWRL judiciary for an alleged homophobic slur in the 39th minute of The Knock-On Effect NSW Cup match against St George Illawarra Dragons at McDonald Jones Stadium, Newcastle, on Friday 19 June,\u201d a NSWRL spokesperson said. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cKepaoa has until midday tomorrow (Tuesday 23 June) to enter a plea with a NSWRL judiciary hearing scheduled for Wednesday night.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Marcelo Montoya was suspended for four matches back in 2022 for an on-field homophobic slur during an NRL match.<\/p>\n<p>Kepaoa played 43 NRL games for the Wests Tigers and then moved to the Panthers where he was stuck in reserve grade before he signed a two-year deal to join the Knights in 2026.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Newcastle\u2019s Asu Kepaoa has been referred directly to the NSWRL judiciary for allegedly using a homophobic slur towards&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":752350,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[360938,64,63,25994,7992,761,762,158,360937,85],"class_list":["post-752349","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nrl","tag-asu-kepaoa","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-judiciary","tag-knights","tag-national-rugby-league","tag-nationalrugbyleague","tag-nrl","tag-nsw-cup","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/752349","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=752349"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/752349\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/752350"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=752349"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=752349"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=752349"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}