Apology accepted but Farah won't defend ex-teammate Burgess

Robbie Farah has accepted an apology from George Burgess following an alleged eye gouge on Thursday night but isn't about to leap to his former Rabbitohs teammate's defence.

Burgess approached Farah after the Wests Tigers' 14-9 defeat of South Sydney which was shrouded in controversy when the Rabbitohs prop was placed on report for contact with the veteran hooker's face. Burgess has since been referred straight to the judiciary.

The incident left Farah and Rabbitohs coach Wayne Bennett questioning Burgess's mentality on Thursday night, especially given the side's injury woes in the forward pack.

"It's hard for me to comment on … I don't want to throw anyone under a bus or anything like that but I was pretty dirty on it at the time," Farah said.

"George apologised to me after the game and said it was an accident, which I don't know, but I accepted it anyway and moved on. That's all I'll say on the matter."

Farah admitted there was enough intent felt from his end to go on with an official complaint, although the incident had already been picked up on-field by main referee Adam Gee.

"My eye is pretty sore. I felt it and it was sufficient enough for me to get a reaction," he said.

"I don't know why he did it or what he was thinking but he apologised to me. No hard feelings, I accept his apology and we got the win so it's all good.

"I don't want to comment too much more, whatever I say will be no good for George. You've got your own eyes, you saw the footage and we'll leave it at that."

The pair were club teammates at Souths for 18 months before Farah returned to Concord.

Burgess was suspended for four matches last year, which rolled into the start of the 2019 NRL season, after being found guilty of an eye gouge on Kiwis captain Dallin Watene-Zelezniak.

"I daresay there will be loading and stuff with whatever happens to him," Farah said.

Farah added that contrary conduct charges like eye gouging need to be stamped out of the code.

He said certain charges remain some of the lowest acts in the game.

"For me it is, I think eye gouging and biting, those sorts of things you can't have in the game. It's not a good look," Farah said.

"A high tackle and things like that can be accidental or a split second a reactionary thing. I don't think there's any excuse for the other things. It's not a good look for the game, the image for viewers at home.

"Hopefully we can stamp it out. We've cracked down on other things like the crusher and lifting tackles. If that's what it's got to take that's what we've got to do."