The season of Canberra prop Tom Learoyd-Lahrs is over after he failed in his desperate bid to have a grade four dangerous throw charge downgraded at the NRL judiciary tonight.
Learoyd-Lahrs was attempting to have the charge reduced to a grade three, which would result in a three-match ban - allowing him to return to the paddock in the first week of the finals.
He will now miss seven matches, meaning that he will not be involved in Canberra's finals campaign - should they make the top eight - but club officials insist they weren't given a fair hearing.
"Tom is bitterly disappointed at the outcome, so are we as a club," Raiders chief executive Don Furner said.
Furner was most annoyed the judiciary panel did not downgrade the charge after being shown examples of dangerous throws by Justin Hodges, Nate Myles, Todd Payten and Danny Galea that were deemed grade twos and threes.
"We do not see the differences in Tom's tackle and the ones that we looked at in there," Furner said.
"I cannot believe it's a grade four.
"You look at Todd Payten's and it's a grade two, I can't believe (Learoyd-Lahrs') is two more than Todd Payten's," he added of the Wests Tigers prop who was suspended for three weeks for his throw on Matt Cooper.
Asked whether he felt a fair trial had been given, Furner said: "No I don't.
"I mean, I've looked at some stuff before, you look at (Raiders captain) Alan Tongue getting smashed by a bloke off the ball earlier in the year and he doesn't get anything.
"It definitely wasn't a four and we're very disappointed."
Learoyd-Lahrs could have taken a five-week suspension with an early guilty plea.
The Raiders had argued that Cross had a tendency to lean forwards into tackles, meaning he was more prone to being flipped, while Learoyd-Lahrs claimed he was attempting a rare low tackle on the advice of his teammate.
"I tried to make a point of going in a bit lower which I usually wouldn't do," Learoyd-Lahrs said in the hearing.
"I didn't think I would lift him so easy because he's such a big bloke."
Raiders teammate Scott Logan also attended the hearing, claiming he played a small part in the tackle but NRL prosecutor Peter Kite successfully argued the panel should take a tough stance on the "potentially life-threatening" throw.
He was charged for lifting Newcastle prop Ben Cross before dumping the NSW Origin representative into the ground early in the second half of Sunday's 38-18 win over the Knights.
Meanwhile, Wests Tigers second rower Corey Payne will miss this week's crunch game against Manly after pleading guilty to unnecessary conduct with the face of Parramatta fullback Jaryd Hayne in Monday's loss to the Eels.
The two other players charged from the weekend - Brisbane hooker Michael Ennis and Melbourne backrower Sika Manu - both took the early guilty plea, with both players free to play this weekend.
