NRL: Support for Burgess charge downgrade

If found guilty George Burgess will miss the side's elimination semi-final with Cronulla on Sunday - and the following week's match if they win. Photo / Getty Images

South Sydney star George Burgess will contest the grading of his contrary conduct charge and hopes to play in the second week of the NRL finals if the Rabbitohs' title defence is still alive.

Burgess has pleaded guilty to the charge he copped for throwing a water bottle from the bench at Sydney Roosters' Kane Evans in last Friday's loss.

The prop will miss Sunday's elimination final against Cronulla, but hopes to get the charge downgraded from a grade two offence to grade one, meaning he would get only a one-match ban instead of two.

Souths took encouragement from criticism of the severity of the charge. Some notables in the game felt missing two games in the finals was too harsh for the incident.

"The club notes the public opinions of high profile and greatly respected rugby league figures over the past 24 hours," said Souths in statement.

Among those was Cronulla captain Paul Gallen, who believed Burgess would probably succeed in getting a downgrade.

"Missing two games, semifinal games, is harsh," Gallen told Sky Sports Radio. "But I don't think anyone can doubt that the incident itself was a little bit silly."

Former NRL judiciary chairman Paul Conlon agreed a grade one charge and a fine for Burgess would have been more appropriate.

"There are some things which I have believed for a while might be better off taken care of by way of a fine rather than a suspension," Conlon said. "In my view, this action is one of those."

Conlon said the system needed to be changed to allow more flexibility for fines to be imposed on players who face scrutiny from the match review committee.

"There is an argument that some of those should be dealt with, not by way of suspending a player for a week or two weeks, [but] by way of a fine," he said.

Conlon, who is a District Court judge, said in some cases suspensions from the last round of the regular season should not carry over into the finals.