Wade Graham has been found guilty of a grade one careless high tackle by a judiciary panel and will now miss State of Origin game one at Suncorp Stadium next Wednesday.
Graham and his chief counsel Nick Ghabar failed to convince the panel that the tackle wasn’t careless after they argued that the change in height of Johnathan Thurston made it impossible for the Sharks backrower to avoid contact.
Also accompanying Graham at the judiciary hearing was Sharks Head Coach Shane Flanagan and club CEO Lyall Gorman.
While the grade one careless charge and subsequent points penalty is relatively minor, with loading and carry-over points from an incident in last year’s finals series, Graham will be now forced to sit out one game.
He now misses out on making his NSW Origin debut but will be available for the Sharks next match which is against the New Zealand Warriors in round 16.
