Newcastle second rower Clint Newton believes St George Illawarra skipper Trent Barrett got off lightly with a six-match suspension for his sickening hit on Knights teammate Brian Carney.

The five-eighth was rubbed out for six games after accepting the early guilty plea for his grade five striking charge on Carney, a ban which will sideline the 28-year-old until the Dragons' round 20 clash against the Raiders in Canberra.

But Newton, who missed the tailend of the 2004 season and the early rounds of 2005 with a 12-game ban for an elbow to the head of young Dragons forward Ashton Sims, said the penalty could have been much heftier.

He hit out at what he claimed was a media prejudice against some players in the NRL.

"Nothing against Trent Barrett but I suppose I'm probably just a little bit disappointed that if it had of been a Michael Crocker or an Adrian Morley or someone of that nature they would have probably showed probably half a dozen replays and there probably would have been a different outcome for one of those players," Newton said.

"I think sometimes the media can be a little bit prejudicial with certain players and I suppose that's disappointing from my point of view ... I just think that sometimes things get passed over for certain reasons."

Barrett, who will join English Super League club Wigan next season after exercising a get-out clause in his contract with the Dragons, said the prospect of an eight-week ban had frightened him off the prospect of a trip to the judiciary on Wednesday night.

"The risk was just a little bit great, six weeks is a long time," Barrett said.

"It's certainly the last thing I wanted considering I stepped down from rep footy to be available over the next six weeks, and then to have this happen is really shattering for me.

"Sometimes things just go a little bit wrong - obviously it did and I'm paying for it now.

"I was surprised considering that nothing was done about it on the field and to tell you the truth I didn't think to much of it when it happened.

"Obviously seeing it it's a different story."

Dragons chief executive Peter Doust said he had no problem with the manner in which the charge was laid, with the NRL tipped off about an extra video angle showing Barrett's forearm clearly coming into contact with Carney's head by a Nine Network tape operator.

"The circumstances around the charge being laid have been a little unusual to say the least," Doust said.

"While that has attracted a bit of attention, at the end of the day the information was available and the NRL acted as they should have."

NRL chief operating officer Graham Annesley said the league would continue to explore all available avenues when it came to punishing acts of foul play.

"The objective of the judiciary system however remains to identify and punish acts of foul play regardless of the extent of media attention they may have received," Annesley said.

"It is the duty of the match review committee to investigate, examine and consider all reasonable available evidence irrespective of whether a report has been made."

The ban will leave the former Test five-eighth with only seven regular season matches at the end of the season, but Barrett remains hopeful the Dragons can remain in the hunt for a finals berth during his absence.

"I think the best thing we can do as a club and as a team is go out and win on Friday night, we're still going to have a good side on the park," he said.

"I'll still get seven competition games in before the semi-finals, we've just got to make sure we're in good shape in six weeks."

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