The NRL has revealed Cronulla could rightfully have become the first team in almost two decades to have two men sent off in the same game after Will Kennedy and Jesse Ramien were charged for high shots.
Kennedy and Ramien were dealt grade-three high tackle charges on Monday after the Sharks' win over the Warriors, with the pair facing up to three and four games on the sideline respectively.
Those bans can be reduced by a week with an early guilty plea on Tuesday, which appears likely.
Ramien's ban is longer than Kennedy's, since he has a prior offence this year.
But the fact both tackles were judged to be of equal standing by the match review committee has raised questions over why Ramien was only sin-binned and not sent off like Kennedy.
NRL head of football Graham Annesley said on Monday he was satisfied with the decision for Ramien to be sin-binned for collecting Euan Aitken with his shoulder, but also would have supported a send-off.
"I think the actions taken by the match officials ... were reasonable in the circumstances," Annesley said.
"Could there have been harsher action taken on the second incident?
"Based on the circumstances the bunker and referee were confronted with, there could have.
"I wouldn't have been unhappy with (it being a send-off) either, but that was how they saw it at the time."
Had Ramien been sent off for his 54th-minute hit, it would have been the first time a team had two players ejected in the same match since the Sharks in 2003 against Parramatta.
Ramien's tackle came after Will Kennedy was marched in the 16th minute for an old-school coathanger on a steeping Reece Walsh, flinging his opposite number's head down to the ground.
The Sharks went on to become the first team since Manly in 2008 to win while a man down from before halftime.
The charges leave the Sharks' backline depleted for their Magic Round clash with Canberra, as well as the following week against Gold Coast.
Nicho Hynes would be one option to revert to fullback, but that would mean breaking up a successful halves combination with Matt Moylan.
Connor Tracey would be the other alternative, but he would likely be considered more useful in Ramien's place at centre.
