Wests Tigers prop Bryce Gibbs has escaped punishment for the alleged religious slur he made against Canterbury's Ben Hannant, with NRL officials unable to find enough evidence the abuse took place.
Gibbs has dodged a contrary conduct charge from the league's on-field police, the match review committee, and also a
fine from the NRL under its anti-vilification code and code of conduct. With no audio of the incident available from the broadcasters the Nine network, match review committee chairman Greg McCallum asked referee Jared Maxwell to review all instances where the pair had come together during Friday night's 24-4 win to the Bulldogs.
"There were 14 scrums where that happened ... and there were four play-the-balls where the two came into contact with each other," McCallum said. "We then contacted Jared Maxwell who was the referee who controlled most of those aspects ... and he by then had done his review which included the referees' audio tape. He didn't recall anything being said between the players during the game, nor when he went through his review with the audio there wasn't anything on there either."
McCallum said, while Nine's footage showed Hannant speaking to somebody, it didn't identify who he was addressing.
"We felt up to that stage, in the absence of a complaint from a player, then there's nowhere we can go on it."
But NRL boss David Gallop warned the league would not tolerate vilification from players.
In other match review committee news, Warrior Ukuma Ta'ai has been charged with a dangerous throw. He will also escape a ban with an early guilty plea and miss one game with an unsuccessful challenge.
Canberra's David Shillington has been charged with a grade-one careless high tackle but will escape a ban.
Brisbane's Matt Gillett has been charged with dangerous contact. He will avoid suspension if he enters the early guilty plea.
Last night's match between the Storm and the Sea Eagles was too late for this edition.
- AAP
