NRL 2022: James Tamou cops one-week ban, contrary conduct charge downgraded at judiciary

Tigers skipper James Tamou will play at least one more game in his NRL career after securing a downgrade on a contrary conduct charge at the NRL judiciary.

James Tamou fronted the NRL judiciary on Tuesday. Picture: Scott Gardiner/Getty Images

Wests Tigers skipper James Tamou is free to play in Round 25 after he had his grade three contrary conduct charge downgraded by the NRL judiciary on Tuesday night.

The veteran prop will now miss just one game with fears a two-match ban could have ended his NRL career considering he doesn’t have a contract for 2023.

Tamou was hit with a grade three contrary conduct charge for calling referee Ben Cummins “f---ing incompetent” in the final minute of Saturday’s soul-destroying 72-6 loss to the Roosters at the SCG.

He was initially sin-binned for dissent but was then sent off for the slur as frustrations got the better of him after a record-breaking loss that has the club on the cusp of claiming its first wooden spoon.

The 33-year-old arrived with wife Brittney and Tigers CEO Justin Pascoe for the lengthy 80-minute hearing in front of the judiciary panel of Michael Hagan and Bob Lindner.

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James Tamou and his wife Brittney arrive at the NRL judiciary on Tuesday night.

Tamou had to endure a marathon 56-minute deliberation before he found out the downgrade was successful after the panel unanimously agreed that his actions didn’t warrant two weeks on the sidelines.

It means he’s free to play the Raiders in the final game of the season.

“I’m pretty excited with what happened. I accept my guilty plea and don’t condone that kind of behaviour,” Tamou said after the hearing.

“I’m pretty happy I get to play with the boys one last time.

“If the result didn’t go well tonight, it’d be hard to live with myself knowing that was my last game just gone on the weekend.

“That was in the forefront of my mind, letting the boys down, especially being such a young group. Acting like that in a way I don’t want them to portray [was disappointing] and I don’t condone my actions.”

Tamou appears keen to play again next season, but said retirement was still an option after 14 seasons in the NRL.

“To play one more time with them would be unreal, if it’s my last game in the NRL,” he said.

“Once I feel like I’m behind the eight ball, I’ll be the first to put my hand up. But I still feel like I can compete at a high level and contribute to a team.

“We’ll see how the off-season goes because there’s a lot to digest with this year.

“Who knows? It could be the last time I suit up on Sunday. Everything is on the table, including retirement.”

NRL counsel Lachlan Gyles pointed to the fact that it wasn’t an isolated incident and that Tamou’s frustrations with Cummins started in the third minute when he felt Roosters players had their hands on the ball every time he carried it forward.

James Tamou is off-contract at the end of the season. Picture: Scott Gardiner/Getty Images

Tamou remonstrated at the time and Cummins told him clearly “don’t start early with me”.

There was another incident two minutes from full-time when Tamou dropped the ball and blew up at Cummins, who penalised him for backchat.

“If I had a clear mind, I would’ve thought to challenge that,” he said during the hearing.

“Everything that had happened had clouded my mind. I’ve gone completely out of character, thrown a ball at him (Terrell May) and not said anything about a captain’s challenge.”

The premiership winner said he was “embarrassed and appalled” and was clearly distraught when shown the vision of him being sent off in the final minute for the first time.

“In 304 games that I’ve played, I can put my hand up and say I’ve never sworn at a referee,” he said.

“I was very remorseful after the game, not for the fact that it’d help me, but for my core values because I wanted him to know that that’s not what I thought of him.

“It was completely out of character.”

Tamou said he immediately realised the enormity of the situation when legendary trainer Ron Palmer told him to calm down and breathe.

He sat with his head sin his hands in the sheds as his teammates walked in, listened to interim coach Brett Kimmorley’s address and then told and NRL official and then the club’s media manager that he wanted to do the post-match media conference so he could apologise.

Tamou didn’t have the opportunity to apologise to Cummins on the night because he’d already left the stadium by the time Tamou left the media room.

“I’m embarrassed and appalled by that behaviour,” he said. “I can’t watch it.

“I coach kids so how am I supposed to explain that behaviour to them and how are they supposed to look up to me when they see that on TV?”

James Tamou was sent off for abusing referee Ben Cummins in the Tigers’ heavy loss to the Roosters at the SCG. Picture: Scott Gardiner/Getty Images

Nick Ghabar, who represented Tamou, used a comparable incident from Round 11 when Roosters enforcer Jared Waerea-Hargreaves was sent to the sin bin for using a profanity while arguing a decision with referee Gerard Sutton.

That verbal spray received a grade one charge, and Ghabar argued that it was a far more serious misdemeanour given Waerea-Hargreaves questioned Sutton’s integrity and essentially of having a vendetta against him for a number of years.

But Gyles argued that someone with Tamou’s experience shouldn’t have “thrown the toys out of the pram” and that he acted in a hostile and aggressive manner.

“It (a three-game ban) sends a strong deterrence to players of all levels and a downgrade would send the opposite message to how officials should be treated,” arguing that junior players would see it as acceptable behaviour if Tamou wasn’t properly punished.

It’s not the first lengthy ban for player dissent this season after Melbourne’s Brandon Smith copped a three-game suspension for calling Adam Gee a “cheating bastard”.

Originally published as NRL 2022: James Tamou cops one-week ban, contrary conduct charge downgraded at judiciary