Waterhouse cleared over Price fight

JOHN REID/SMH

NOT GUILTY: NSW second-rower Trent Waterhouse leaves the NRL headquarters at Moore Park last night. 'The only intention was to break the fight up,' he said.

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NSW Origin forward Trent Waterhouse is free to play for Penrith against Canberra tomorrow night after beating a contrary conduct charge for being the third man in to the fight between teammate Brett White and Steve Price near the end of Wednesday night's game.

Waterhouse, who became the first NSW player to be sent off, collared Price a split second after White's last punch hit the Queensland veteran prop flush on the chin. "He was snoring," said Penrith coach Matthew Elliott in Waterhouse's defence.

Waterhouse, who expressed surprise he was hit with the grade-one charge that would have had him miss one match if he had taken an early guilty plea, said he had never intended to hurt Price.

"The only intention was to break the fight up and the panel obviously agreed, which was great so we get to play this weekend," he said after the verdict.

"You could see on the tape there was never any malice and I only ever intended to break it up. I think they might have thought I knocked him out but you could see on the tape it clearly wasn't me. It was a punch.

"It was a one-on-one fight and I came in to break it up. I think they thought I head-slammed or something. I think the referee might have thought that - that's why I got sent off. I was pretty shocked to get sent. But that's Origin. It's tough and it's rough and the crowd loves it."

Waterhouse put the Queensland players' furious response to Price being taken from the field in a medi-cab down to their frustration with defeat.

"Obviously they were disappointed about getting beat in front of their home fans and it sort of all boiled over. But that's just the emotion of Origin footy, it just happens," he said.

In the hearing, judiciary counsel Peter Kite, SC, had argued it didn't matter what Waterhouse's intent was when he ran in, the simple fact of being the third man was contrary to the spirit of the game.

"When a player rushes in to a one-on-one fight other players may misinterpret what they're doing and we get an out-of-control brawl," Kite said.

He also questioned why, if Waterhouse had been so eager to stop the fight, he hadn't wrapped up White instead.

In Waterhouse's defence, Elliott argued the third man in was a regular feature of the game, generally dealt with by a penalty. Hauling players before the judiciary to punish them was not the answer. Greg Inglis had also run in and was not punished while two other players - Ben Creagh and Sam Thaiday - were sin-binned for the same action only minutes later.

"If we set that as a precedent there's going to be a fairly long line-up," Elliott said.

The Penrith coach claimed the reason Waterhouse had been charged was simply because Price was knocked unconscious - something that was clearly done by White. "There was no swinging arm, no clenched fist. I simply grabbed him," Waterhouse said. "I sort of cradled his head, if anything."