Crossland referred to judiciary over dangerous contact

Phoenix Crossland has been referred to by the judiciary for dangerous contact making a bid to play in the Grand Final unlikely.

The Kiwi was sent off during the 35th minute of the Knights’ 22-14 preliminary final victory over Penrith for a hip drop tackle on Nathan Cleary.

Following the tackle, the superstar halfback was unable to play the remainder of the match, having suffered a compound fracture in his ankle, with Cleary stretchered off and taken to hospital from the incident.

As a result, referee Gerard Sutton chose to send off Crossland on the basis that his tackle put the Panthers co-captain at ‘extreme risk of serious injury ’, seeing Newcastle reduced to 12 men for the remainder of the clash.

Despite the disadvantage, the Novocastrians rallied from a 14-6 deficit at half-time to win 22-14 with a Sandon Smith double and Dominic Young try securing the famous victory.

Speaking after the match Justin Horo believes the hooker is unlikely to feature for Newcastle in next week’s Grand Final.

“Oh yeah, there's no chance,” he said post-game on SEN League.

“No chance, not with a compound fracture, no chance.”

The judiciary is likely to hand down its charges from Sunday’s match on Monday.

Newcastle now plays Sydney in the 2026 NRL Grand Final at Accor Stadium on October 4.

SEN League will have live coverage of the match and the NRLW Grand Final across our radio network and on the SEN app from 12pm AEDT with Crunch Time NRL.