Controversial prop Matt Lodge will be banned for Brisbane’s next two games unless he can beat a charge at the NRL judiciary stemming from the opening minute of the season.
Lodge was on Friday hit with a grade-two dangerous contact charge for attacking Cameron Munster’s legs when the Melbourne five-eighth kicked at the end of the first set on Friday night.
The 23-year-old was penalised for the hit, which put Melbourne on the attack in the lead up to their opening try through Jahrome Hughes in the 22-12 win.
With two similar offences already against his name, Lodge will miss two matches regardless of whether he pleads guilty or fights the charge at the judiciary on Tuesday night and loses.
His absence would be a significant blow to the Broncos in games against North Queensland and St George Illawarra considering he was their best starting forward on Thursday night.
Lodge got through 144 metres in attack and averaged more than 10 per run in the first game of his second season back in the NRL since being outed for behavioural reasons.
Brisbane are already without up-and-coming forward Payne Haas due to a club-enforced ban for failing to wholly cooperate with the NRL integrity unit in the pre-season.
The Broncos also released Josh McGuire in the off-season while Tevita Pangai Jr returned from a hamstring injury on the bench against Melbourne.