{"id":613964,"date":"2026-09-28T04:22:11","date_gmt":"2026-09-28T04:22:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/613964\/"},"modified":"2026-09-28T04:22:11","modified_gmt":"2026-09-28T04:22:11","slug":"knights-star-to-learn-fate-over-sickening-cleary-tackle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/613964\/","title":{"rendered":"Knights star to learn fate over sickening Cleary tackle"},"content":{"rendered":"

Phoenix Crossland has been referred straight to the NRL judiciary for the hip-drop that left Penrith superstar Nathan Cleary<\/a> with a compound ankle fracture.<\/p>\n

Newcastle hooker Crossland is set to miss Sunday’s grand final with the Sydney Roosters after he was sent off in the Knights’ preliminary final win over the Panthers.<\/p>\n

Cleary was immediately taken to hospital and is facing a lengthy recovery.<\/p>\n

\"Nathan<\/p>\n

Nathan Cleary of the Panthers is taken from the field on a medicab after injuring his leg. (Source: Getty)<\/p>\n

On Monday, the NRL’s match review committee referred Crossland to the judiciary, meaning the length of the No. 9’s suspension will be dictated by the panel.<\/p>\n

Ryan Couchman was the last player to be referred to the judiciary for a hip-drop tackle in March. <\/p>\n

The St George Illawarra forward was handed a four-game suspension after Parramatta lock J’maine Hopgood was left with a ruptured anterior cruciate ligament.<\/p>\n

Crossland will miss the grand final, but could be back as soon as round one, if the Knights are able to count Rugby League World Cup fixtures in his suspension.<\/p>\n

The 26-year-old Crossland is a six-cap New Zealand international and was locked in a three-way with the Dolphins’ Jeremy Marshall-King and Brandon Smith of South Sydney for the Kiwis’ No. 9 jersey.<\/p>\n

Crossland’s absence will open the door for Harrison Graham to start in Sunday’s grand final. <\/p>\n

Graham has been a bench specialist for the Knights this season and has only started two games in 2026.<\/p>\n

The morning’s headlines in 90 seconds, including terror close to a British air base, and an unlikely win for the Wallabies. (Source: 1News)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Phoenix Crossland has been referred straight to the NRL judiciary for the hip-drop that left Penrith superstar Nathan…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":613965,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[85,111,139,577,69,213],"class_list":["post-613964","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-australia","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nrl","tag-nz","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/613964","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=613964"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/613964\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/613965"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=613964"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=613964"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=613964"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}