Homophobic slurs in the NRL are rare.
The last player to be charged was the New Zealand Warriors’ Marcelo Montoya in 2002. He received a four-match ban.
In contrast, there have been nine similar incidents since the start of 2024 in Australian Rules football, most recently this month when the Gold Coast Sun’s Max Knobel was banned for four games.
Kepaoa’s punishment came just weeks after former rugby league hard man Kane Evans came out as gay – only the second man from the sport in Australia to do so, and the first since 1994.