Greg Inglis has been suspended for three NRL matches after pleading guilty to a grade-two shoulder charge which left Josh Dugan with a broken jaw.
The South Sydney captain was slapped with the charge for the second-half hit which flattened the NSW centre in Queensland's 18-14 Origin III loss to the Blues at ANZ Stadium on Wednesday night.
Andrew Fifita and Corey Parker also entered early guilty pleas on Thursday and will each miss a match over incidents in the fiery Origin clash - Parker's first-ever suspension in a 338-game NRL career.
However it was Inglis' tackle, Dugan facing surgery to insert a plate in his jaw and up to six weeks on the sideline, which has sparked the most debate.
In television commentary, Blues legend Andrew Johns labelled even the on-field call of a penalty against Inglis as "soft".
"That is the softest of soft penalties in a club game, let alone an Origin," Johns said.
"For me there Inglis is bracing himself, that's all he's done - he can't disappear."
The hit on Dugan, which came after he kicked the ball, was originally missed by the on-field referees before the video bunker intervened.
Former NRL referees boss Bill Harrigan insisted Inglis only had himself to blame for his ban after he ran into Dugan's path and then tucked his arm in.
"They say you use your shoulder without any arms, then you're in trouble," Harrigan told Triple M.
"That's the way they've done it these days.
"What he needed to do is put some arm in it."
Meanwhile Parker's suspension comes after he took early plea for dangerous contact on NSW debutant James Tedesco after connecting with the fullback's head as he lay in a tackle.
Fifita's ban is from a contrary conduct charge after he took exception to try-scorer Gavin Cooper throwing the ball into tackler Matt Moylan's head and ran in to grab him by the head, earning a sin-binning.
