Viliame Kikau is set to miss Penrith's NRL preliminary final after the Panthers' second-rower was charged with a dangerous throw tackle.
Kikau fell foul of the NRL match review committee for his tackle on Jared Waerea-Hargreaves during the first half of Penrith's 29-28 qualifying final win over the Sydney Roosters.
Even with an early guilty plea, the grade one charge rules the destructive forward out of Penrith's grand final qualifier.
He will need to contest and beat the ban at the NRL judiciary to escape a suspension.
The Panthers advanced to within 80 minutes of their first decider in 17 years after holding out the fast-finishing Roosters at Penrith Stadium.
But the celebrations have been soured after Kikau's indiscretion in a tackle that went wrong on Waerea-Hargreaves.
Kikau went low and picked up the Roosters front-rower, tipping him past the horizontal with the help of five-eighth Jarome Luai over the top.
Panthers coach Ivan Cleary argued Kikau did everything he could to avoid putting Waerea-Hargreaves in a dangerous spot, while also being disadvantaged by his frame.
"It definitely obviously went past horizontal. I thought he did enough to get him out of that dangerous position," Cleary said.
Waerea-Hargreaves himself was put on report for a high tackle on Panthers fullback Dylan Edwards.
But the Kiwi international will be available next week for the Roosters' sudden-death clash after receiving an $850 fine.
