St George Illawarra chief executive Peter Doust has described the circumstances surrounding the one match ban of his skipper Trent Barrett as a "fiasco".

Doust hit out after Barrett and Parramatta hooker PJ Marsh decided against contesting charges stemming from the Eels' controversial NRL win over the Dragons last Friday.

Barrett was banned for one match after entering a guilty plea for striking Marsh in the 53rd minute of the Dragons' 40-14 loss to the Eels.

Marsh was charged with a grade two careless high tackle for his challenge on Barrett after the Dragons captain had put in a clearing kick.

But he avoided a one-match suspension with his early plea and will play on Sunday against Canberra.

Barrett was hit with a grade two striking charge for his reaction and will miss Sunday's match against Manly at Brookvale Oval.

"This has been one of the most sensational set of circumstances I can recall involving our club and players..." Doust said in a statement.

"The principles of charge-down techniques, referee and video referee decisions verses match review committee decisions, provocation and prejudicial media comment all contributed to the conjecture."

Doust was referring to a Sydney newspaper story on Sunday in which Marsh called on the NRL judiciary to deal with Barrett for twice punching him.

Marsh had described Barrett's actions as "unacceptable" and hoped that the NRL match review committee would dismiss the incident due to the Dragons skipper's "clean-skin" image.

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