LeagueNews.co | Jess Malloy
The NRL judiciary has found Jack Wighton guilty of a shoulder charge.
According to reports from zerotackle.com, Wighton was contesting a Grade 2 shoulder charge related to an incident involving Cronulla Sharks forward Toby Rudolf during the 45th minute of a recent match.
The judiciary panel, which included Bob Lindner and Greg McCallum, reviewed over an hour of evidence before spending about thirty minutes in deliberation to reach their decision.
Wighton did not testify during the hearing; he was represented by Nick Ghabar SC.
The defense presented evidence suggesting that the contact was primarily a head clash between Wighton and Rudolf.
Ghabar argued, "Player Rudolf steps quite violently back toward the left.
At this point there is almost inevitably going to be a head clash if player Wighton hadn't dipped.
There was a head clash but if player Wighton hadn't taken evasive action it would have been much worse.
I'm not saying that player Rudolf is to blame but this is a decision that had to be made in a split second," as noted in NRL.com's live coverage.