{"id":815779,"date":"2026-07-22T04:13:01","date_gmt":"2026-07-22T04:13:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/815779\/"},"modified":"2026-07-22T04:13:01","modified_gmt":"2026-07-22T04:13:01","slug":"nrl-news-2026-latu-fainu-suspended-three-weeks-nrl-judiciary-david-fifity-adam-doueihi-resutlts-reaction","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/815779\/","title":{"rendered":"NRL News 2026: Latu Fainu suspended three weeks, NRL Judiciary; David Fifity, Adam Doueihi resutlts, reaction"},"content":{"rendered":"

Wests Tigers<\/a> will be without Latu Fainu for three weeks after the NRL<\/a> judiciary<\/a> upheld a grade-three dangerous contact charge for a tackle on Bulldogs<\/a> prop Leo Thompson that had several greats wondering what he\u2019d done wrong.<\/p>\n

Fainu upended Thompson into a dangerous position \u2013 beyond the horizontal \u2013 and was sent to the bin in the second half of his side\u2019s 32-0 loss on Saturday<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Latu Fainu will miss three weeks for this tackle on Leo Thompson.\u00a0Fox Sports<\/p>\n

The young half dived low at Thompson\u2019s legs and flipped him over, but never grabbed or lifted the Kiwi enforcer in the tackle. An early guilty plea carried a two-game ban.<\/p>\n

On Tuesday night, defence counsel Nick Ghabar argued it was a normal tackle around the legs, the contact wasn\u2019t dangerous or careless, and Thompson flipped because of an accidental series of events.<\/p>\n

But NRL counsel Lachlan Gyles countered strongly, arguing the tackle was \u201chorrendous and high risk\u201d, which could have left him with a severe knee injury or even \u201cbroken his neck\u201d.<\/p>\n

The panel of Tony Puletua and Paul Simpkins upheld the ban, and then dismissed a subsequent bid for it to be reduced by a match because Gyles tendered evidence Fainu had previously been given two act notices warning him about similar tackles.<\/p>\n

On Nine\u2019s The Sunday Footy Show, Immortal<\/a> Andrew Johns<\/a> was furious Fainu had even been penalised, let alone charged and suspended.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re so paranoid about hitting players in the head now,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt looks awkward, he goes low and makes the tackle low and unfortunately, Leo Thompson gets in a bit of a dangerous position. What\u2019s he done wrong? He\u2019s done nothing wrong \u2026 you can\u2019t take accidents out of the game.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo penalty whatsoever, honestly. You can\u2019t tackle high in case you chin them, but you can\u2019t go below the knees now, so where are you supposed to hit them?<\/p>\n

\u201cNot even a penalty for mine, you can\u2019t take the accidents out of the game.\u201d<\/p>\n

Eels<\/a> legend Nathan Hindmarsh was equally furious.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is ridiculous \u2026 that\u2019s bullshit,\u201d he said on Fox Sports\u2019 Sunday Night with Matty Johns.<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought there was nothing wrong with that and to get two weeks for that? That is a joke. Absolute joke.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re teaching our kids to go low and tackle like that. Obviously the wrapping motion helps, but that\u2019s how we\u2019re teaching our kids. A smaller guy on a bigger guy?<\/p>\n

\u201cGo low, wrap him up, done. And he\u2019s getting two weeks for that just because he\u2019s fallen over him.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fainu\u2019s ban opens the door for Javon Andrews to make his debut against Canberra<\/a> on Saturday. He was initially named at No.7, but will likely come off the bench after Adam Doueihi<\/a> successfully had a one-game ban for a careless high tackle downgraded.<\/p>\n

Doueihi was put on report for a high shot on Harry Hayes. His grade-two charge was downgraded to a $1000 fine, and he is free to play against the Raiders.<\/p>\n

In the other judiciary case of the night, David Fifita was banned for two weeks after the Rabbitohs<\/a> failed to have a dangerous contact charge downgraded.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

David Fifita was suspended for two weeks for kicking out at Hudson Young.\u00a0Fox Sports<\/p>\n

Fifita kicked out at Canberra\u2019s Hudson Young just after half-time, and made contact with his neck. Gyles argued the level of carelessness was high, particularly given Young had no way to protect himself.<\/p>\n

The Rabbitohs \u2013 already without Cameron Murray<\/a>, Tallis Duncan and Latrell Mitchell<\/a> \u2013 will now also be without Fifita for this weekend\u2019s clash with the Storm on Friday night, and the Sharks<\/a> on Sunday week.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Wests Tigers will be without Latu Fainu for three weeks after the NRL judiciary upheld a grade-three dangerous…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":815780,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":["post-815779","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\/815779","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=815779"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/815779\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/815780"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=815779"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=815779"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=815779"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}