Gold Coast Titans star Greg Bird has been ruled out of the entire State of Origin series after he was hit with an eight-game ban at the NRL judiciary on Wednesday.
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According to AAP, the judiciary took just nine minutes to come to its conclusion to uphold Bird’s grade two dangerous throw charge for his lifting tackle on New Zealand’s Jason Nightingale during Sunday’s ANZAC Test.
Aside from missing the entire State of Origin series, the star forward will not be available until the Titans’ round 19 clash against the Newcastle Knights.
Bird appeared before the NRL judiciary panel on Wednesday night and argued that the charge should have been downgraded to a grade one dangerous throw.
The panel upheld the charge, and Titans coach Neil Henry said the club was disappointed with the result as the legal team believed it had a strong case.
“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,” Henry said in a club statement.
“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.”
Origin I will be played on May 27 in Sydney.
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