Titans back-rower Greg Bird was tonight unsuccessful in having his dangerous throw charge downgraded.
This means he will miss eight NRL matches, not returning until the round 19 clash with Newcastle Knights. It also puts Bird out for the entire State of Origin series.
Bird was charged with a grade two dangerous throw from his tackle in last Sunday's Test match on Kiwi winger Jason Nightingale.
Bird appeared before the NRL judicary panel this evening with Jim Hall as his legal representative and argued that the tackle should have been downgraded to a grade one. However the panel upheld the original charge.
Head coach Neil Henry, who accompanied Bird to Sydney for the hearing, said:
“We are obviously very disappointed at the outcome, we thought we mounted a strong case for a downgrade from a grade 2 to grade 1, and had evidence to prove that but unfortunately that wasn’t the case with the judiciary.
"As a club we are very disappointed to lose the services of Greg for an extended period of time now but we accept we had a fair hearing in there.”
