Thaiday was sanctioned in the Round 3 match against the Storm and says he is not a dirty player.

“If you’re on the field you’re deemed to be 100 per cent fit and cleared by a doctor ...” Thaiday said. 

“If it’s his left thumb (that was not injured) there is no drama in it at all.

“The hardest thing for me was my character getting questioned, people calling me a grub and saying I went out there and did it intentionally,

“In 15 years of playing professional football I’ve never gone out to intentionally hurt someone.

 “When we’re defending our tryline, the key is to get a set defensive line. I was just trying to slow the play-the-ball down.

“There was no time in the tackle where I was staring at his thumb and saw it as an opportunity to hurt him or anything like that.

“It was about getting a grip on something to slow the play-the-ball down, whether that’s a hand, wrist or jersey. That’s all I was doing.

“It’s all a bit of ‘BS’ I think.”

Thaiday said David Klemmer’s face slap on Daly Cherry-Evans was worse than anything he did.

Klemmer hit out at Cherry-Evans during Manly’s 36-0 annihilation of the Bulldogs.  

“Did he get charged with grade one contrary conduct?” Thaiday said ahed of Thursday night's match against Canterbury.

“That’s probably worse than what I did. Hopefully I don’t get slapped in the face.

“I’ll go down and play my style of footy — the style of footy I’ve been playing since my first hit-up in the NRL.

“They are a tough physical pack and if we don’t match them we’ll get our pants pulled down.”