Canberra Raiders rocked by devastating news about Josh Papalii and Corey Horsburgh

The Canberra Raiders have been hit with a double blow ahead of the NRL finals with both Josh Papali'i and Corey Horsburgh facing time on the sidelines. The Raiders are in a precarious position with a loss against the Sharks leaving their top 8 fate in the hands of the Rabbitohs or the Cowboys.

However, a win could potentially see them rise to 5th on the ladder. Unfortunately, Ricky Stuart's men will be doing it without two of their most influential forwards from here on out.

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Having not gone to the judiciary in five years, the Raiders were reportedly confident Horsburgh would escape a ban for his shoulder charge on the weekend. The fan-favourite was charged with three weeks due to his hit on Corey Jensen and the club expected the forward to escape the large ban.

Horsburgh's lawyer Nick Ghabar claimed the 25-year-old had shown a clear attempt to wrap his arm around Jensen when smashing into him late in Saturday's defeat. Except the NRL judiciary hasn't been too kind to those that have fought charges this year and things weren't about to change.

Much to the club's shock, Horsburgh's defence failed and his ban was boosted to four weeks. The Raiders will have to make the NRL grand final if he is to play again this year. "I'm very disappointed with the result, I think four weeks is a bit much but onwards and upwards," Horsburgh said.

Former NRL forward Aaron Woods was immediately shocked at Horsburgh's ban for what he deemed a good hit. "Gobsmacked. I can't believe it," Woods said on NRL 360. "You can sort of see the arms come up as he makes contact, that's not a shoulder charge.

"When we know it's a shoulder charge the ref will penalise it straight away. It was play on. It was play on, Jensen got up not a care in the world." Dale Finucane agreed and claimed he would be 'disappointed' with the result. NRL fans were just as perplexed with many calling out the judiciary for the ban.

Josh Papali'i ruled out for the season

The task of making it all the way to the grand final got even harder with prop Josh Papali'i ruled out for the rest of the year on Tuesday with a biceps injury. "It's going to make it harder but someone else will get an opportunity," Don Furner said. "We wouldn't have come up here if we didn't think we had a case."

Joe Tapine, Papali'i's long-time front-row partner, said it takes a serious injury to keep the 31-year-old veteran down. "I knew something was wrong because you never know when he's got an injury, he doesn't really say anything but he said he couldn't really lift his arm," Tapine said.

"It's a huge blow, my middle partner who I love playing with and such a leader in the middle. A lot of boys will have to step up and have to do a job for us, especially in the back end of the year."

Youngster Ata Mariota will play a bigger role and Pasami Saulo could also join the side from the reserves list, while Tapine said he'd told coach Stuart he could play more minutes in the front row.

"I'll probably still play No.10, I just said to 'Stick' I'll try and drag out some more minutes, I'm capable of doing it," he said. "In the past we've just had the luxury of not having to drag out (minutes), so I'm happy to step up."

with AAP

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