James Maloney will miss Friday night's crucial NRL clash with the Sharks after being found guilty of tripping Canterbury utility Jeremy Marshall-King.
The Penrith and NSW State of Origin five-eighth has been suspended for one game in a cruel blow to the ninth-placed Panthers' finals hopes.
In maintaining his innocence, Maloney insisted he only had eyes for the ball during the 73rd minute incident on Saturday night.
He explained that he was attempting to toe the ball through the line to force a scrum, rather than gift the Bulldogs clean possession and a potential attacking opportunity.
After being wrong-footed by the bounce of the ball, Maloney said he then tried to make a traditional front-on tackle on Marshall-King.
"I've been in the game a long time and never (saw) this as tripping," Maloney said before being cut off by judiciary chairman Geoff Bellew for perceived lack of relevance to the three-man panel presiding over the case.
Maloney's defence also didn't wash with his own legal counsel, the esteemed Nick Ghabar, who twice felt compelled to intervene to stop the Blues playmaker from making a mess of his case.
But the two-time premiership-winning playmaker maintained if Marshall hadn't picked the ball up, his foot would have made "smack bang" contact with the ball.
"I'm no physics expert ... I'd already made the decision to kick the ball. I can't pull out," Maloney said.
"My right foot was already in the motion of kicking ... before he even takes possession of the ball."
The NRL's counsel, Peter McGrath, sought to convince the panel that Maloney recklessly stuck his right leg out to stop Marshall-King.
But Ghabar claimed Maloney was in no way acting recklessly and pointed out that carelessness was not enough, under NRL rules, to warrant a suspension.
Ghabar, the gun lawyer who helped Melbourne great Billy Slater beat a shoulder charge in order to play in last year's grand final, argued that because Maloney managed to grip, albeit tenuously, Marshall-King's shoulder - it proved that his client was trying to make a tackle.
Ghabar also noted the referee's report said Maloney's offence was an "attempted trip".
"There must be an actual trip," he said.
But the three-man panel of former players Mal Cochrane, Dallas Johnson and Tony Puletua needed less than 10 minutes to rub Maloney out for one week.
"A little bit disappointed with the outcome," Maloney said.
"Obviously (it was) not what we were hoping but that's the process and you respect the process ... and we move on."
Ghabar had more luck later on Tuesday night when he managed to help South Sydney captain Sam Burgess escape suspension.
Burgess was facing a two-game ban for a high tackle on Cronulla fullback Matt Moylan but was successfully in having a grade two charge reduced to a grade one offence.
The English international was instead fined $1900 but is free to tackle table-topping Melbourne in Gosford on Sunday.
Australian Associated Press
