NRL judiciary make call on Braidon Burns challenge

North Queensland Cowboys winger Braidon Burns will be free to play this weekend after having his careless high tackle charge downgraded at the NRL judiciary.

Burns, playing in the Las Vegas season opener against the Newcastle Knights, was penalised and sin binned for a high shot on Kalyn Ponga where he was deemed to have made direct shoulder to head contact.

The NRL's match review committee backed up that version of events the following day with their charge sheet detailing a Grade 2 charge against Burns.

Given it was a second offence on his record, he was facing a two-match suspension with an early guilty plea, or three matches if he fought at judiciary.

While pleading guilty to a careless high tackle, Burns attended the judiciary on Tuesday evening in the hope of downgrading the charge to a Grade 1 offence - which only carries a sanction of $1800 - and was successful.

Burns' challenge at the judiciary comes just weeks after Nathan Cleary was successful in a similar high shot being downgrade while being represented by father and head coach Ivan Cleary, and is set to a backdrop of plenty of controversy surrounding high tackles in the early part of the season.

That comes after Stephen Crichton seemingly got away with one in Las Vegas, while J'maine Hopgood is facing a suspension for one of his own which looked more like a head clash out of the first game of the year on Australian soil between the Parramatta Eels and Melbourne Storm.

Burns was named on Tuesday afternoon to play the Wests Tigers on Saturday, and will now be free to take his spot with 20th man Robert Derby remaining in the squad, but unlikely to be called upon.