THE NRL's war on the grapple tackle claimed its most high-profile victim last night after Melbourne hooker Cam Smith was suspended for two matches - potentially becoming the first captain to be banned from a grand final in three decades.

Melbourne pioneer John Ribot last night led the chorus of discontent over the suspension, saying he was "embarrassed for the game" while claiming supporters would be turned off the NRL as a result of the most significant judiciary hearing in years.

The Storm late last night were believed to be preparing to appeal against the decision but, for now, will head into tomorrow night's clash with Cronulla without their skipper and hooker after the three-man judiciary panel of Darrell Williams, Darren Britt and Royce Ayliffe decided Smith's fate in 18 minutes.

Time, in fact, was the key to the Smith defence - along with the proclamation that Brisbane's Sam Thaiday contributed significantly to the tackle which resulted in Smith being charged with unnecessary contact with the head or neck.

His defence team, headed by Geoff Bellew, produced a video which showed the time lapse between the moment Smith made contact with Thaiday and when the tackle ended was three seconds. Rugby league might be a game of inches but Melbourne's premiership defence may come down to an issue of seconds.

The NRL believed this would be a test case, due to the significance of the suspension, and will now think it has taken huge steps towards eradicating the grapple tackle. If the Storm prevail against the Sharks, Smith would become the first captain to be suspended for a grand final since Cronulla's Greg Pierce in 1978.

Smith said the fact that Thaiday was a "known surrenderer" contributed to the ugly nature of the tackle last Saturday night.

"I tried to take Sam backwards onto his back," Smith said. "I had a hold of his facial area. I realised almost immediately - the contact with his head area was less than one second."

Asked whether he could have reacted any earlier, he said: "I don't think so. From the first contact, it was just over three seconds, and the contact of my hand to his facial area was a second at most. It's hard to react faster than that."

The biggest irony for the Storm is that wrestling was one of the key reasons Melbourne took out the premiership last season - but it may also cost them this year's title.

Smith denied it had been an intentional act. "I was setting myself for a ball-and-all tackle … the basic rule of us is to get his hips under their centre of gravity, get them off balance and drive them backwards," he said. "Never at any stage did I know that Jeremy had a hold of Sam's right arm. The only time I believe there was force on his head was when I stepped around. That's when I grabbed a hold of his chin. Before that I don't believe there was any force on his head."

But NRL prosecutor Peter Kite argued Smith should have pulled out of the tackle earlier and that "there's a real risk of serious injury".

"The head and neck are his whole point of leverage in this tackle," Kite said. "Does he let go? No. He uses that leverage. You see player Thaiday being pulled dramatically over his left shoulder. [The tackle] places enormous pressure on his head and neck."

Smith countered: "If you play that footage in real time, I'm not sure how fast you want me to release him … I feel, at that time, I was not bringing Sam any danger. I wasn't breaking any rules. It happens that fast. I know it's easy to point out in these still shots and slow mos … [but] the tackle was over like that."

Bellew said the slow-motion replay gave "an unrealistic view of the time that a player has to react to a particular circumstance". "The game is not played in slow motion," he said.

Smith hardly altered his own facial movement after the guilty verdict, and afterwards gave another staunch defence of himself.

"I'm very disappointed in the outcome," he said. "I still feel that when I play the game, the game that I love, I play with the utmost integrity."

Ribot described the judiciary as a "kangaroo court". "This smacks of inconsistency," he said. "It makes a mockery of the whole thing. I feel sorry for the game because they got it so wrong. "He's paid the ultimate price because some people are running around like drunken sailors making decisions when they feel like it.

"I feel embarrassed for the game."