RIVAL props Ben Ross and Brett White may be referred directly to Wednesday night's judiciary on ungraded charges after a wild weekend of on-field incidents culminated in the pair being sent off yesterday at Melbourne's Olympic Park.
The dramatic double dismissal, the first since John Hopoate and Dragon Terry Lamey were simultaneously given their marching orders in 2000, occurred after Ross struck Storm halfback Cooper Cronk late with a raised elbow and then White flattened his Cronulla counterpart in retaliation.
After being suspended last year for a grade-four reckless high tackle that left Bulldogs prop Kane Cleal with a season-ending broken jaw, Ross faces a lengthy stint on the sideline and is unlikely to again be afforded the opportunity to enter an early plea that would reduce the length of a possible 12-match ban.
White's actions will also be viewed dimly when the match review committee meets today, and he may also be referred directly to the judiciary on a striking charge considered higher than grade five.
After the controversy last weekend over Riley Brown's shoulder to the back of a defenceless Craig Wing that left the South Sydney playmaker with a dislocated shoulder, and a number of other ugly incidents this weekend, the drama in Melbourne is certain to prompt tough action.
Like the Wing incident and Brisbane fullback Karmichael Hunt's mistimed shoulder charge on Brown's Roosters teammate Braith Anasta on Friday night, the Ross-White clash was seen by a large national audience on free-to-air television and is considered bad for the game's image.
Sharks playmaker Brett Kimmorley, whose field goal snatched his side a 17-16 victory, called for "an eye for an eye" and said Ross and White should get the same penalty for their involvement in the 66th-minute incident - although that seems unlikely.
"Both of those incidents are as bad as each other - Ben's shot on Cooper and then the other one - so whatever one gets, I think the other should get," said Kimmorley, who was a leading voice in the campaign last year that led to rule changes aimed at offering kickers more protection from late tackles.
So easily had Cronk got his kick away before Ross hit him on the left side of the jaw that Israel Folau scored off the cross-field bomb to draw the scores level at 16-16.
After the Sharks had surrendered an early 14-0 lead, Kimmorley felt Ross may have become "panicky".
"Maybe Ben went for a charge down, I'm not sure. It's just one of those things," he said.
Ross declined to comment after the match, while Cronulla captain Paul Gallen and coach Ricky Stuart said they hadn't seen the incident clearly.
But Stuart rejected any suggestion that Ross, who was knocked to the ground by White's punch, shouldn't have played after being taken to hospital following a head clash with Manly prop Josh Perry the previous weekend.
"I've seen him for about two minutes and he seems to be OK," Stuart said. "I don't think there's any further worries in regards to his concussion."
Storm coach Craig Bellamy and captain Cam Smith said they would have preferred White not get sent off but accepted he had acted on the spur of the moment out of concern for Cronk.
"I didn't really see too much but you want to protect your teammates," Smith said.
"Whitey decided to go and help Cooper out. It was late and high and he had his elbow up. They brought in a rule for late hits on kickers so obviously the referee has got it right there."
Meanwhile, a head-butt by Perry on Newcastle prop Danny Wicks, and Cowboys forward Luke O'Donnell's punching of Wests Tigers lock Liam Fulton - both widely considered acts of retribution - will also come under close scrutiny today by the match review committee.
After O'Donnell hit out during the summer at the season-ending "wishbone" tackle on him by Tigers players that he labelled a "weak act", Fulton was warned during the week of the possibility of a "get square" and told not to retaliate.
The Knights insist their players were also told not to bait Perry after he left the club in unhappy circumstances but tensions boiled over in both instances.
"We actually talked about it towards the end of the week," Knights coach Brian Smith said."I talked to some of the senior boys about if this [niggle] came up in the game - and everybody thought it was likely to - how we would handle it."
