{"id":752423,"date":"2026-06-22T07:43:13","date_gmt":"2026-06-22T07:43:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/752423\/"},"modified":"2026-06-22T07:43:13","modified_gmt":"2026-06-22T07:43:13","slug":"newcastle-knights-player-facing-judiciary-after-alleged-homophobic-slur-in-nsw-cup-match","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/752423\/","title":{"rendered":"Newcastle Knights player facing judiciary after alleged homophobic slur in NSW Cup match"},"content":{"rendered":"

Newcastle forward Asu Kepaoa has been referred directly to the NSW Rugby League judiciary for allegedly making a homophobic slur in a NSW Cup game.<\/p>\n

The former Wests Tigers forward was sent from the field just before half-time in the Knights’ reserve-grade defeat of St George Illawarra on Friday.<\/p>\n

He has until midday tomorrow to enter a plea ahead of Wednesday night’s hearing.<\/p>\n

Players are typically referred directly to a judiciary hearing for the most serious offences, or those for which an exact appropriate punishment is not immediately clear.<\/p>\n

While playing for the Warriors’ NRL side in 2022, Marcelo Montoya notably received a four-game ban for using a homophobic slur against North Queensland winger Kyle Feldt.<\/p>\n

Kepaoa has played 43 NRL games, all for the Tigers between 2020 and 2024.<\/p>\n

Latrell Mitchell suffers another injury setback<\/p>\n

NSW Blues hopeful Latrell Mitchell is set to miss South Sydney’s last game before teams are picked for the State of Origin decider after suffering a fresh injury.<\/p>\n

\"NRL<\/p>\n

Latrell Mitchell is set to miss this Thursday’s match between the Rabbitohs and Eels. (Getty Images: Hannah Peters)<\/p>\n

The superstar centre hurt his calf and did not participate in today’s field session after warm-ups in a big blow to his hopes of a NSW recall for Game III in Brisbane on July 8.<\/p>\n

Mitchell stretched and performed light drills with the team before leaving the pitch at Heffron Park with a trainer, and later going for scans.<\/p>\n

The 29-year-old had told Fox League last night that he was “pushing” to play in round 17, pending the back injury that has sidelined him since round nine.<\/p>\n

ABC NRL Daily podcast<\/a><\/p>\n

Andrew Moore and the ABC NRL team bring you your daily dose of NRL conversation. The team give you the context and depth beyond the headlines.<\/p>\n

Souths had initially expected Mitchell would recover within a fortnight and be fit for the State of Origin series opener.<\/p>\n

But as his recovery dragged on, Mitchell subsequently telephoned NSW coach Laurie Daley to rule himself out<\/a> of Game I last month.<\/p>\n

The new injury means he is expected to miss Thursday’s clash against Parramatta, with Souths fullback Jye Gray describing it as a “devastating” new setback.<\/p>\n

“Devastating that he had to go off,” Gray said after training.<\/p>\n

“You just want to see all your teammates get out on the field and not have these injury setbacks. But he we will be back.<\/p>\n

“We’re just hopeful, obviously we don’t know how bad anything is at the moment. Obviously devastated for him.”<\/p>\n

Stream NRL live on ABC listen<\/a><\/p>\n

Stream every game of the 2025 NRL season live and ad free on the ABC listen app. The Grandstand Rugby League team brings you 100% Pure Footy.<\/p>\n

Kotoni Staggs (Brisbane) and Tolu Koula (Manly) were the centre pairing for the Blues in their 44-24 loss to the Maroons in Game II.<\/p>\n

There are a handful of leading options to come into the team if Blues selectors wish to make a change in the centres but opt against taking a chance on Mitchell.<\/p>\n

Canterbury’s Stephen Crichton returned from a shoulder problem to kick the game-winning field goal against Manly on Saturday night.<\/p>\n

Bradman Best set up a try on his return from a calf injury in Newcastle’s defeat of St George Illawarra and has been excellent in two previous Origin games.<\/p>\n

Ruled out of Origin II during camp, Penrith centre Casey McLean is considered unlikely to recover in time for this weekend’s clash with North Queensland.<\/p>\n

Bears find new football boss to run NRL roster build<\/p>\n

North Sydney Bears boss Gareth Holmes has been tasked with invigorating Perth’s inaugural NRL roster recruitment amid rumours of infighting.<\/p>\n

\"Man<\/p>\n

Gareth Holmes has been appointed general manager of football for the incoming Perth Bears. (Supplied: Perth Bears)<\/p>\n

Holmes was announced as the club’s new general manager of football today after David Sharpe left the role in April.<\/p>\n

Sharpe’s style reportedly ruffled a few feathers with chief executive Anthony De Ceglie, but inaugural coach Mal Meninga, who was crucial in getting Sharpe to the Bears, was quick to dismiss the rumours.<\/p>\n

Holmes’s most pressing task will be building the expansion club’s inaugural roster ahead of their 2027 entry into the NRL.<\/p>\n

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Perth has yet to find a marquee player and suffered a demoralising blow when the club and Meninga were this month fined $40,000 for breaches of the league’s anti-tampering rules.<\/p>\n

The fines relate to media comments made by Meninga about the Bears’ hopes of signing Penrith star Nathan Cleary and Canterbury duo Matt Burton and Jacob Preston.<\/p>\n

Holmes reunites with Meninga after managing the NRL elite programs, which included the Kangaroos.<\/p>\n

Serving as the North Sydney Bears’ chief executive for five years, Holmes also has three decades of experience in senior management roles at Parramatta, Manly and Canterbury.<\/p>\n

In a club statement, Holmes said the Perth Bears were “something genuinely special”.<\/p>\n

“This is an incredibly exciting opportunity, and one I haven’t taken lightly given what North Sydney means to me and to rugby league history,” he said.<\/p>\n

“I am looking forward to working with Mal and the team to build elite pathways and a high-performance culture from the ground up.”<\/p>\n

The Bears’ only signing with Origin experience is Siosifa Talakai, who played two games for NSW in 2022.<\/p>\n

Their only premiership players so far are Penrith bench forwards Liam Henry and Scott Sorensen.<\/p>\n

AAP<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Newcastle forward Asu Kepaoa has been referred directly to the NSW Rugby League judiciary for allegedly making a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":752424,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,360945,1082,761,762,158,192994,22798,4439,85,6405],"class_list":["post-752423","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nrl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-game-iii","tag-latrell-mitchell","tag-national-rugby-league","tag-nationalrugbyleague","tag-nrl","tag-nsw-blues","tag-perth-bears","tag-south-sydney-rabbitohs","tag-sports","tag-state-of-origin"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/752423","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=752423"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/752423\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/752424"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=752423"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=752423"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=752423"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}