A shattered Issac Luke has endorsed rookie hooker Apisai Koroisau as the man to take his place in the South Sydney team for Sunday night's grand final against Canterbury after the Rabbitohs star was suspended on Tuesday night for a dangerous throw by the NRL judiciary.
Luke, who did not make any comment after the guilty verdict was handed down, will also miss New Zealand's opening Four Nations Test against Australia on October 25 after being suspended for two matches over his 38th minute tackle on Sydney Roosters forward Sonny Bill Williams in Friday night's preliminary final.
Rabbitohs coach Michael Maguire made a brief statement to the media afterwards but did not answer questions about who would replace Luke in Souths first grand final team for 43 years.
However, Koroisau is expected to start at hooker after deputising for Luke when the Kiwis star was injured for 10 weeks earlier this year and the Kiwis hooker put a post on Instagram on Tuesday night backing the Fiji World Cup representative to do well.
"Devastated but at the same time excited to still be part of this amazing 2014 journey," Luke said. "Time to rip up little brother @apikoroisau I got your back."
While the loss of Luke is a huge blow to Souths, Koroisau performed so well in his absence earlier this year that Penrith have signed him for next season.
"It was not the result we were after," Maguire said. "I know I have a squad that is looking forward to preparing well all this week and in Sunday's game."
Williams told Fairfax Media on Friday night that it would be a "travesty" if Luke was to miss a grand final for a "nothing tackle", but the judiciary panel of Mal Cochrane, Chris McKenna and Michael Vella took just 15 minutes to reach their verdict.
"We all know what that means – it is very unfortunate," judiciary chairman Judge Paul Conlon said.
In finding Luke guilty, the tribunal panel rejected his defence that Williams had elevated himself in the tackle by "skipping" off his right foot and grabbing Luke's shorts to pull himself up as he turned towards teammates and looked to offload.
Luke's legal counsel, Nick Ghabar, also argued that Williams' foot or elbow always had contact with the ground and there was never any danger of him landing on his head or neck.
He said the first point of contact with the ground was always going to be the right arm Williams was carrying the ball with.
Ghabar also said Luke had "driven with his left shoulder and bent his back" in a "copybook" tackle, but teammate Ben Te'o had tipped Williams off balance after grabbing him around the shoulders with both arms and pulling him towards the ground.
Conlon told the panel that it was an often-repeated misconception that a dangerous throw was when a player was lifted above the horizontal in a tackle, whereas under the NRL judiciary rules it was when there was a likelihood that the first point of contact would be with his head or neck.
NRL prosecutor Peter Kite successfully argued that Luke had put Williams in a dangerous position, saying: "But for his ability to get his ball-carrying arm out in front of him, the most likely point of contact with the ground would have been his head."
Luke had contested the charge in a bid to play in the grand final rather than accept a one-match ban.
But the penalty of 150 demerit points and 50 carry-over points from a previous suspension has resulted in a two-match ban.
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