{"id":909705,"date":"2026-09-29T11:04:13","date_gmt":"2026-09-29T11:04:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/909705\/"},"modified":"2026-09-29T11:04:13","modified_gmt":"2026-09-29T11:04:13","slug":"nrl-2026-phoenix-crossland-banned-from-grand-final-after-judiciary-hearing-how-long-was-he-banned-hip-drop-tackle-on-nathan-cleary-grand-final","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/909705\/","title":{"rendered":"NRL 2026: Phoenix Crossland banned from grand final after judiciary hearing, how long was he banned?, hip-drop tackle on Nathan Cleary, grand final"},"content":{"rendered":"

A devastated Phoenix Crossland has apologised to Nathan Cleary and footy fans across the country after he copped a four-match ban for his hip-drop tackle on the Panthers champion that will cost him a spot in Newcastle\u2019s grand final side.<\/a><\/p>\n

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Crossland was referred directly to the NRL judiciary for the first-half incident in Sunday\u2019s preliminary final that saw him sent off and resulted in Cleary suffering a shocking compound fracture of the ankle.<\/p>\n

The judiciary panel of Ryan James and Paul Simpkins sat through an 80-minute hearing and then deliberated for a further 17 minutes before delivering their unanimous verdict.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want to thank everybody inside for a fair hearing,\u201d a remorseful Crossland said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI apologise to Nathan and the Panthers and more importantly the game and the fans.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a terrible start to the most important week of the year due to myself.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs soon as I walk out of this building, my focus goes to the Newcastle Knights and winning this grand final, helping Harrison Graham prepare as best he can and to get a win on Sunday.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Knights hooker had already pleaded guilty on Tuesday, with NRL counsel Patrick Knowles seeking a four-match ban, while defence counsel James McLeod was pushing for 2-3 games.<\/p>\n

Crossland was named in the No.9 jersey for Sunday\u2019s grand final against the Roosters, but Harrison Graham is expected to make just his third start of the season.<\/p>\n

That could open up a bench spot for 19-year-old Diesel Hagan who could become the first player since Eddie Lockhart 90 years ago to make his first-grade debut in a grand final.<\/p>\n

It was an emotional hearing that saw Crossland in tears at one stage as he explained how much he looks up to Cleary and how the incident had ruined what was supposed to be the best week of his life.<\/p>\n

Cleary faces long road to recovery | 04:40<\/p>\n

No player made more tackles than Crossland in 2026, but Sunday\u2019s hip drop is the only one that everyone will remember.<\/p>\n

\u201cI called him yesterday. It was a tough phone call,\u201d he said during the hearing.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had to apologise and make sure he was doing all right. It was a horrific incident and he\u2019s our best player. I reached out to his dad as well. I apologised to him. It ruined a great game and left a sour taste in everyone\u2019s mouth. <\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s such a gentleman. He told me to stop saying sorry. He understood the situation, he was a class act and he was really good about it. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been the worst couple of days of my life. I\u2019m a fan of the game before I\u2019m a player. He\u2019s my favourite player by a mile, so to be the reason he\u2019s in hospital is killing me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Phoenix Crossland at the Judiciary hearing at Rugby League Central in Moore ParkSource: News Corp Australia<\/p>\n

Crossland apologised to everyone in the room for making them be there in \u201cthe best week of the year\u201d and vowed to practise his tackle technique at training to ensure this never happens again.<\/p>\n

The Danny Buderus Medal winner has received vile messages on social media which led to Cleary calling on footy fans to leave the Knights star alone.<\/p>\n

\u201cPlease don\u2019t be one of these people writing comments like this to Phoenix, it was a complete accident and he doesn\u2019t deserve this unwarranted hate,\u201d Cleary posted on social media.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe reached out to apologise and I have nothing but respect for him. He\u2019s a competitor and our game is made up of split second moments that sometimes lead to unfortunate circumstances.<\/p>\n

\u201cComments like this are so unfair. Spread love not hate.\u201d<\/p>\n

Does the injury matter? Send off debate | 02:06<\/p>\n

McLeod tendered evidence of Cleary\u2019s Instagram post which included a series of abusive message sent by trolls to Crossland\u2019s account.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not great, but my family sees it. I can deal with it, but they can\u2019t,\u201d he said as he teared up.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s the best player in the game. I look up to him. <\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s in hospital and he\u2019s going to miss a World Cup so it\u2019s not a great place to be knowing I\u2019m the reason for that. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s meant to be the best week of my life, but at the moment it\u2019s far from it.\u201d<\/p>\n

It was an emotional night at Rugby League Central where Crossland was forced to sit through 12 angles and 24 clips of the tackle.<\/p>\n

Knowles said the tackle brought about a \u201chigh degree of carelessness, was not deliberate and did not intentionally cause injury.\u201d<\/p>\n

Phoenix Crossland arrives at the Judiciary hearing with his lawyer at Rugby League Central in Moore Park. Picture Thomas AnnettsSource: News Corp Australia<\/p>\n

But he pointed out that Crossland got the tackle wrong and that the incident featured the three main components of a hip drop and had a high risk of injury.<\/p>\n

Both Knowles and McLeod agreed that a large chunk of Crossland\u2019s body weight landed on the ground before he made contact with Cleary\u2019s left foot.<\/p>\n

McLeod used a comparable tackle from round three when Dragons forward Ryan Couchman was sent to the sin bin and copped a four-match ban for a tackle that saw J\u2019maine Hopgood suffer a season-ending ACL tear.<\/p>\n

But the NRL\u2019s counsel implored the judiciary to protect players and to send a \u201cvery serious message\u201d because tackles like this one can\u2019t be tolerated.<\/p>\n

Crossland was supported by Knights director of football Chris James and received character references from club legends Mark Hughes and Michael Hagan for his strong standing in the community.<\/p>\n

McLeod argued his client should receive a discount given the guilty plea and the fact he already missed 45 minutes of a preliminary final, as well as the fact that Crossland was copping so much vitriol online.<\/p>\n

Crossland will miss the grand final, with New Zealand to make a submission to the IRL to see if he can miss three games for them at the World Cup as part of the ban. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A devastated Phoenix Crossland has apologised to Nathan Cleary and footy fans across the country after he copped…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":909706,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":["post-909705","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\/909705","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=909705"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/909705\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/909706"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=909705"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=909705"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=909705"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}