{"id":814799,"date":"2026-07-21T17:31:34","date_gmt":"2026-07-21T17:31:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/814799\/"},"modified":"2026-07-21T17:31:34","modified_gmt":"2026-07-21T17:31:34","slug":"nrl-judiciary-reach-verdict-on-david-fifitas-kick","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/814799\/","title":{"rendered":"NRL judiciary reach verdict on David Fifita’s kick"},"content":{"rendered":"

South Sydney Rabbitohs<\/a> second-rower David Fifita<\/a> will miss two games after being found guilty at the NRL<\/a> judiciary on Tuesday evening.<\/p>\n

Fifita attended the judiciary in a bid to have a Grade 2 dangerous contact charge downgraded.<\/p>\n

The incident, which came during South Sydney’s surprise loss to the Canberra Raiders<\/a> on Saturday afternoon in the nation’s capital, saw Fifita run the ball and, before getting up from the ground, launch his leg and foot into the head of Hudson Young<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The kicking motion caused contact with the side of Young’s face, although no penalty was blown despite immediate protest from the Raiders.<\/p>\n

Fifita’s Grade 2 charge would have seen him miss only a week if he had accepted the early guilty plea, but the Rabbitohs elected to attent the NRL’s judiciary in a bid to have the charge downgraded and Fifita only cop a fine.<\/p>\n

Instead, he will now miss two games after a unanimous panel decision – with the Rabbitohs to the Melbourne Storm<\/a> at home this weekend and the Cronulla Sharks<\/a> on the road next weekend.<\/p>\n

David Fifita will miss two games. Decision was unanimous<\/p>\n

\u2014 Martin Gabor (@MartinJGabor) July 21, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n

The crucial games form part of a tricky run home for the Rabbitohs, with their top eight spot anything but a guarantee. They will likely need to win at least three or four of their remaining games to qualify.<\/p>\n

To make matters worse for head coach Wayne Bennett<\/a>, the Rabbitohs will also be without Cameron Murray<\/a> and Tallis Duncan<\/a> for this weekend, with both players to miss the coming weeks after suffering injuries.<\/p>\n

The Rabbitohs have named Euan Aitken<\/a> in the second-row alongisde Fifita for this weekend’s crunch clash against traditional bogey team the Storm, but will now need to replace him.<\/p>\n

Bennett could use either Liam Le Blanc<\/a> or hooker who has spent time in the second-row this year Bronson Garlick<\/a> to start the game, while Thomas Fletcher<\/a> is the most likely name to come onto the bench.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"South Sydney Rabbitohs second-rower David Fifita will miss two games after being found guilty at the NRL judiciary…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":814800,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":["post-814799","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\/814799","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=814799"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/814799\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/814800"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=814799"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=814799"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=814799"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}