Rooster Jared Waerea-Hargreaves fails miserably at NRL Judiciary
Roosters veteran Jared Waerea-Hargreaves’ bid to have his NRL suspension reduced has backfired spectacularly.
Roosters prop Jared Waerea-Hargreaves has failed in his bid to have a careless high tackle charge downgraded and will miss four crucial matches for the Bondi Junction club.
In his club-record 307th game, which ended with celebratory scenes at bringing up the milestone, Waerea-Hargreaves was sin binned and placed on report for a high shot on Dragons outside back Max Feagai, which you can see in the video player above.
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The tackle was met with a grade two charge and as it was the 35-year-old’s third offence of that type.
Waerea-Hargreaves would have missed three games had he taken an early plea, but the NRL club opted to challenge the grading in the hope of it being downgraded to only a $3000 fine.
The gamble failed big time, however, and the giant Kiwi will miss matches against the Storm, Sea Eagles, Dolphins and Eels for the Roosters, who are sitting third on the ladder.
With the Tricolours also having two byes during that stretch, Waerea-Hargreaves won’t be back on the field until round 25 against the Titans on the Gold Coast on August 25.
After that match, the Roosters face the Raiders and Rabbitohs before the finals series gets underway.
This latest penalty takes the veteran to a total of 27 weeks on the sidelines through suspensions.
It also takes some of the shine off a massive day against the Dragons, which included a 42-12 victory and the forward moving his name to the top of the proud club’s all-time playing list.
Waerea-Hargreaves, who began his career with Manly before joining the Roosters in 2010, has won three premierships with the club and also represented his country 33 times.