For using a racial insult on Ezra Mam, Spencer Leniu of the Roosters was suspended for eight NRL games.

prop for the Sydney Roosters Eight weeks have been imposed on Spencer Leniu for using a racist insult on Ezra Mam, a prominent player for the Brisbane Broncos.

The match review panel charged Leniu with contrary conduct after the Roosters’ season-opening game against the Broncos in Las Vegas. Leniu entered a guilty plea.

The Roosters’ legal staff and coach Trent Robinson accompanied him as he was sent straight to the NRL judiciary for a sentencing hearing.

The eight-game penalty was approved by the judiciary panel unanimously.

They accepted his regret, his attempts to apologize in person, and the fact that the remark was made on the heat of the moment, but they rejected claims that Leniu was totally ignorant of the slur’s racist connotation and that it ought to be treated as a grave offense.

Mam submitted a written statement that was partially read by the NRL’s legal staff, but he did not attend the hearing where the panel saw match footage from the game in Las Vegas.

The Torres Strait Islander man claimed in his statement that his “mind was no longer focused on the game” because he “was so angry” after hearing Leniu refer to him as a monkey.

In a post-match interview, Leniu, who joined from premiers Penrith in the off-season, attempted to downplay the incident, telling Triple M that “it’s all just fun and games on the field” and that he was “not worried at all”.

However, he expressed his apologies to the judiciary, stating that at the time, he was unaware of the slur’s significance to the Indigenous people.

The Samoa international remarked, “I assumed it was just one brown man sledging another brown man.”

“This game appeared so quickly at the time.

“I really apologize for using that word.I gave him a small sense of self.”

Leniu claimed that, as a Samoan boy growing up in Western Sydney, it was normal for his family and friends to make lighthearted fun of one another’s racial slurs.

“All those types of words are used in our language and how we speak to each other,” he stated.

“I had no idea what that word meant to Ezra, what it meant to all the Indigenous people in the game.”

Leniu would not have been aware of the epithet used in the rival football league, it was suggested, as he was in his early teens when the same insult was thrown against Indigenous AFL star Adam Goodes in 2013.

While Leniu’s attorney claimed that a four-week suspension would be adequate given Leniu’s guilty plea, regret, and desire to appear in person before the panel, NRL attorney Lachlan Gyles pushed for an eight-game punishment.

James McLeod brought up the four-game suspension that the Warriors’ Marcelo Montoya received in 2022 for making a homophobic remark about Cowboys winger Kyle Feldt. However, the tribunal dismissed the connection, stating that Mam and his family had been more personally impacted by this case.

The legal team for Leniu maintained that this case represents a “turning point in the use of language in this sport”.

“There is no room for racism in this game and I’m glad [Mam] brought it up,” Leniu stated.

In a Roosters statement on Thursday, the 23-year-old expressed his regret to Mam and entered a guilty plea to the NRL’s charge of contrary conduct.

Leniu stated that although the offer is still available, the Broncos five-eighth did not want to meet with him when he volunteered to go to Brisbane to personally apologize to Mam.

In the Roosters versus Warriors game in round 10, Leniu will be able to return to the field.

“It tears you apart, breaks you down.”

Dean Widders, the NRL’s manager of education and well-being for Indigenous players, was also present at the hearing.

The previous time a player was banned for on-field racism, Widders was the victim; Widders was playing for the Eels when then-Souths captain Bryan Fletcher hurled a slur at him.

The final NRL player to be cited for racist remarks made on the field was Paul Gallen, who was fined $10,000 for remarks he made in 2009 about Mickey Paea of St George Illawarra.

Last week, Widders said on NITV’s Over The Black Dot, “It hurts when you hear this stuff.”

“It breaks you down, it tears you apart emotionally.”

NRL excellent Channel Nine’s Johnathan Thurston suggested that the NRL “throw the book at” Leniu and “show some leadership”.

Many demanded that Leniu miss half the season; Indigenous All Stars captain Latrell Mitchell answered “and some” when longtime pundit Andrew Voss proposed a 12-week punishment.

Former Representative back rower Ryan Hoffman stated on ABC’s Offsiders last weekend that the apology came “too little, too late” after Leniu “doubled down” in the immediate aftermath.

“Until it came out there was no get-out clause for him, and now he’s saying sorry,” said Hoffman.

“Leniu ought to miss half of the season due to suspension. We cannot allow this in our game; this is an NRL moment.”

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