NRL grand final: Nelson Asofa-Solomona to fight ban with judiciary hearing brought forward to Monday night

Nelson Asofa-Solomona will fly to Sydney and face an expedited NRL judiciary hearing on Monday evening in a bid to play in Sunday’s grand final against Penrith.

The Storm confirmed on Monday morning they would seek a downgrading with Asofa-Solomona set to receive a four-match ban for the high tackle that knocked out Sydney Roosters prop Lindsay Collins.

Asofa-Solomona will plead guilty to a high tackle, but push for a double downgrade from a grade-three to a grade-one offence and instead argue he should only receive a $3000 fine.

Melbourne successfully requested to move the hearing forward to Monday, rather than the usual Tuesday night scheduling for judiciary.

Interstate players often appear via video link, but such is the importance of Asofa-Solomona’s case, he will rush to Sydney for the hearing before returning home.

Asofa-Solomona had always appeared in doubt for the decider after knocking out Collins with the first tackle of Friday night’s 48-18 preliminary-final win over the Roosters.

The Storm were, however, shocked that their star Kiwi prop was handed a grade-three charge, and immediately sought the advice of lawyer Nick Ghabar.

Ghabar is expected to represent Asofa-Solomona on Monday night.

The Storm have previously had success in similar circumstances, with Billy Slater avoiding a ban for a shoulder charge in the 2018 grand final week.

But Asofa-Solomona’s fight appears far more difficult, given no player this season has sought a downgrade from a grade three to grade one charge.

Of those who have pushed for a grade-two offence to be downgraded, two of five have failed.

Cameron Smith missed a grand final for Melbourne in 2008 through suspension, while Issac Luke, Carl Webb and Luke Ricketson are among others to have been rubbed out of deciders through suspension.

If Asofa-Solomona fails in his bid to downgrade the charge, he will receive a five-game ban.

Beyond the grand final, three of those matches would likely be absorbed by New Zealand’s Pacific Championships campaign.

That would allow Asofa-Solomona to return in the Storm’s second match of next year’s regular season.

Should he miss the grand final, Asofa-Solomona would leave a huge hole in a Storm forward pack that lacks the punch of Penrith’s.

Either Joe Chan or Lazarus Vaalepu appears the likeliest to come into the 17 in that case, but between them, the pair have played only 21 NRL games and neither has featured yet in this finals series.