St George Illawarra Dragons centre Zac Lomax has been slapped with a Grade 1 contrary conduct charge for jumping on the back of Tyson Frizell following a try in Sunday's clash against the Newcastle Knights.
The Grade 1 charge means Lomax will escape a suspension for an incident he claimed was "friendly banter". Instead, Lomax will pay a $1,000 fine, unless he fights at the judiciary and loses, which would see the fine increase to $1,500.
The incident came after a Mathew Feagai try - the first of two for the young outside back - and led to a coming together between the two teams after Frizell slung Lomax to the ground.
Speaking after the game, Lomax said he was simply trying to get Frizell off his game.
"I am good mates with Friz," Lomax said.
"You have seen how vital he is to the team so I just tried to get him off his game as much as possible.
"It was a bit of friendly banter. It's all fun and games."
The incident led to wide spread debate on social media, with some even questioning whether the star centre should have been sin binned after he was given a warning by referee Ben Cummins.
Former referee Gavin Badger said there was nothing a referee could do other than warn the player however.
Havenโt seen the incident, but heard about it. Not much you can do after the try has been scored unless it is bad enough to be sin binned, from what Iโve heard it wasnโt a sin bin offence so all you can do is warn the player.
— Gavin Badger (@Thebadge72) April 17, 2022
Dragons prop Francis Molo was also charged by the judiciary for a high tackle on Jacob Saifiti during the first half.
Like Lomax, he will escape with a fine in what were the only charges from Sunday's fixtures, with Jared Waerea-Hargreaves, Angus Crichton and Victor Radley all reported but not charged during their game against the New Zealand Warriors for high tackles.
The win for the Dragons means they now hold a two and four record ahead of next Monday's traditional ANZAC Day clash with the Sydney Roosters at the Sydney Cricket Ground, while the Knights have now lost four straight ahead of matches against the Parramatta Eels and Melbourne Storm.
