Viliame Kikau suspended: Penrith Panthers’ NRL premiership push cops blow
He’s been their most damaging forward all year, but it took just 17 minutes for the NRL Judiciary to ban Viliame Kikau. Now the Penrith Panthers are now without a key strike weapon as they look to break a 16-year premiership drought.
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Penrith’s premiership hopes have suffered a huge blow with Viliame Kikau to miss next week’s preliminary final after he was found guilty of a dangerous throw at the NRL judiciary.
The destructive back-rower was penalised in the eighth minute of last Friday’s thrilling 29-28 win over the Roosters for a lifting tackle on powerhouse prop Jared Waerea-Hargreaves.
He was slapped with a grade one dangerous throw charge that would have seen him miss a game even if he’d taken the early guilty plea.
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The three-man panel of Sean Garlick, Ben Creagh and Dallas Johnson took 17 minutes to reach the guilty verdict, with Kikau to miss next Saturday’s preliminary final against the winner of this weekend’s clash between the Eels and Rabbitohs.
The minor premiers will still start red-hot favourites as they chase a 17th win on the trot, with Kurt Capewell the most likely option to replace him in the back row as the club looks to qualify for their first grand final since 2003.
NRL counsel Peter McGrath had to satisfy three elements in order to prove Kikau’s guilt after the Fijian big man pleaded not guilty to the charge.
“There must have been some degree of elevation of the tackled player. There’s a high degree of elevation; more than what we might find in a fair one-on-one driving tackle,” he explained during the 42-minute hearing that featured eight camera angles of the tackle.
“Second element is that as a result of that degree of elevation, the tackle became dangerous with an unacceptable degree of injury to the tackled player’s head, neck and spinal cord.
“The third element is that the play was careless. The duty he had was to avoid the possibility of dangerous contact from the head or neck of the attacking player with the ground.”
McGrath said that while Waerea-Hargreaves had the ability to protect himself, Kikau’s actions still placed the Roosters enforcer in a dangerous position.
“The head or neck of the ball-carrying player dips below the horizontal. The trajectory that is caused by Kikau … there is no attempt to stop or pause that trajectory.
“There was no attempt to arrest the dangerous position Kikau had put the tackled player in.”
Kikau’s lawyer Nick Ghabar argued extensively that the Panthers star did not lift Waerea-Hargreaves into a dangerous position and that Penrith five-eighth Jarome Luai had affected the tackle.
Rather, he found the tackle going in such a manner that he managed it to avert the risk of injury, therefore making his actions not careless.
“First contact was around the hip region,” he said.
“Almost immediately after the contact occurs, Waerea-Hargreaves makes a concerted attempt to get to ground. There can’t be any suggestion that his body is past the horizontal.
“As he does so, he puts his left arm on the ground and dives forward. This creates the impression of a lift. Kikau does have his right arm around the thigh, but it’s Waerea-Hargreaves diving toward the ground that creates the impression.”
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Mr. Ghabar said his client had attempted to roll Waerea-Hargreaves onto his back, but the one-on-one tackle was affected by his opponent’s desire to get a quick play the ball coupled with Luai’s late involvement.
He finished his case by pointing out six factors that proved Kikau’s innocence, highlighting there was no unacceptable risk of injury and that Waerea-Hargreaves had a “significant ability to protect himself at all times”.
“It started as a legitimate driving tackle that was handled as well it could be in those circumstances,” he argued.
Kikau, who appeared by video link, did not comment.
Originally published as Viliame Kikau suspended: Penrith Panthers’ NRL premiership push cops blow