Sydney Roosters prop Fletcher Baker has escaped a high tackle charge without punishment after being found not guilty by the NRL judiciary on Tuesday evening.
Baker was pinged for a tackle against Campbell Graham during the Roosters' clash with the South Sydney Rabbitohs at Moore Park last Saturday.
Charged with a Grade 1 careless high tackle, Baker elected to fight at the judiciary. He would have paid $1000 for an early guilty plea, and risked a $1500 fine by heading to the judiciary.
In doing so however, he successful argued the charge wasn't worthy of a penalty and instead escaped not only without having to pay a cent, but also with a completely clean judiciary record.
Under the NRL's current judiciary system, offences which are proven guilty or accepted with an early guilty plea remain on a players record for 12 months, which then increased the severity of all other offences in that time frame.
Baker will now have a completely clean record as he prepares to take on the Parramatta Eels in Round 5 after the bye.
The Roosters, who didn't use a lawyer for the case, argued that the the incident was only worthy of a penalty, with the club considering him to be careful in a wrapping style tackle that didn't drive with his shoulder or swing an arm.
The club suggested it was simply front on contact between two men of similar height.
The NRL, in their argument through legal counsel Hayden Knowles, said that Baker had a good view of Graham the whole time, and that it needed to remain at the lowest end of the grading scale.
The young prop wasn't the only player from the Roosters charged out of the game though, and gun centre Joseph Manu took an early guilty plea so will miss the Round 5 clash against Parramatta.
