McGuire facing big ban as Dragons hit hard

Josh McGuire could be suspended for up to seven NRL matches for his hip-drop tackle on Josh Addo-Carr, with the St George Illawarra forward one of four Dragons players facing a combined 18 games on the sidelines. A stunning 10 incidents were picked up by the match review committee across three games on Sunday, taking the overall charge sheet for Magic Round to 24 matters. That number is almost double the benchmark of 14 that was set the previous round, which at the time stood as the most of any weekend since at least 1999. The Dragons are the hardest hit from Sunday's games, with McGuire, Tyrell Fuimaono, Mikaele Ravalawa and Tariq Sims all staring down the barrel of bans. McGuire's charge stems from an incident in which he fell onto the legs Addo-Carr after coming into a tackle late, earning him a grade-three dangerous contact charge. Even with an early guilty plea the Dragons lock will be banned for five matches, while if he fights the grading and loses he will cop two additional weeks. His cause is also not helped by a horror judiciary record, with five charges in the past two years. It comes after coach Anthony Griffin on Sunday defended the Dragons' recent acquisition.