Canberra skipper Alan Tongue claims he has been let down by NRL officials because he's not one of the game's big names.

Tongue is facing a month on the sidelines after a bizarre version of the `prowler tackle' in Monday night's clash with Cronulla left him with rib cartilage damage.

The Raiders lock was part of a four-man tackle on Sharks centre David Simmons when Cronulla winger Misi Taulapapa launched himself at Tongue in a bid to assist his Sharks teammate.

The match review committee decided against charging Taulapapa - labelling the tackle an unnecessary one-off - their response doing little to quell Tongue's pain.

"Imagine if it was Brett Kimmorley and I came in and busted him and he was out for the rest of the game and we came back and won the game, imagine how much (Cronulla coach) Ricky Stuart would be blowing up," Tongue told AAP.

"I'm not as influential in the game as someone like a Kimmorley.

"Imagine if someone came out ... when it's so close with the top eight, and took out another side's main playmaker, I definitely think there'd be people jumping up and down.

"I know I don't have as much influence on the game as that, but still, I'm going to be struggling to play this week and nothing's going to be done about it.

"I had my back turned ... I had my arms in the air trying to take (Simmons) back and he's (Taulapapa) come in at 100 miles per hour and smacked right into the side of me."

Greg McCallum said he had not witnessed a similar incident during his reign as match review committee chairman, but denied there was any cause for concern the tackle could become commonplace.

"The incident was unnecessary and warranted a penalty," McCallum said.

"It's one of those incidents that occurs in the game from time to time where the outcome obviously is unfortunate and more serious than you would expect.

"We've just got to make sure the players don't get charged because there is an injury ... the injury comes as a mitigating factor in grading afterwards, not the other way around."

Despite being ruled out for a month, Tongue hasn't given up hope of playing in Sunday's match against Melbourne at Olympic Park.

The veteran backrower was given a cortisone injection and said his availability would come down to his pain threshold.

"These things usually take up to a month before they settle down - I'm obviously pretty disappointed," Tongue said.

"But I'm not going to sit out a month of footy, I'll be playing in pain and other sides are going to know that - it's just going to be a tough month of footy."

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