In April, Jared Waerea-Hargreaves called time on his rugby league career, confirming that this would be his final season.
Since then, Waerea-Hargreaves and his club, Hull Kingston Rovers, have gone on to win 19 of 23 games, securing the Super League minor premiership and booking their place in the upcoming grand final, with the forward's sights on a fairy tale finish for an already illustrious career.
However, 'JWH' was whacked with a three-game ban for a supposed high tackle in Hull KR's semi-final victory, a tackle many believe would hardly warrant a penalty.
Albeit charged with a Grade C head offence, Waerea-Hargreaves' fairy tale finish was seemingly over.
Even if the club managed to downgrade the charge to a Grade A offence, due to his priors, the former Sydney Roosters enforcer would miss the grand final.
Speaking to the press before the judicial hearing, Hull KR's coach, Willie Peters, was animated over the possibility of Warea-Hargraves being suspended for his final rugby league match.
"It would be disastrous if he didn't play in this grand final because of that incident," he told reporters.
“He's actually alright, he's been okay. I don't think it's hit him because at the moment we're hopeful that we've got a strong case to be able to get him off.”
Hence, the club entered a not-guilty plea, and after customary deliberations, Warea-Hargraves was subsequently cleared of the charge at the appeal tribunal.
The 36-year-old will now set his sights back on that fairy tale finish, hoping to lead Hull KR to a Super League premiership and end his own career in glory.
Difficult decision for the tribunal. The rights and wrongs of the incident are almost irrelevant. It comes down to a decision on whether or not to rub out a player from the final match of his career – and that match being the Grand Final.
Whatever they decided, they would be praised by some and castigated by others; and those would be just the reactions from fans with no skin in the game !