Footy fans are left outraged as shock blow hits the favourite to win the NRL's highest honour at the Dally Ms

NRL fans have been left outraged after favourite for the Dally M medal Jahrome Hughes had several votes deducted for 'accidentally' running into a referee. 

In March, Storm 'reluctantly' accepted an early plea of a grade-two contrary conduct offence after Hughes appeared to clash with referee Chris Butler after the official he found himself positioned between the Storm halfback and Warriors centre Rocco Berry.

Despite his side going on to beat the Warriors 30-26, Storm's vice-captain was ultimately handed a two-match suspension. 

While Hughes has gone on to enjoy a sensational season and is leading the charge to win this year's Dally M medal, the 29-year-old's omission proved costly at the time, with Storm losing their subsequent game against Newcastle. 

Many were outraged at the punishment the Storm star copped with NRL great Michael Ennis declaring his suspension was 'absolute stupidity' on Fox Sports. 

Melbourne also confirmed that Hughes had reached out to Butler to apologise and affirmed the action was 'unintentional'.

It seems the incident may have also cost him a few votes in the Dally M medal count too, with the Melbourne star having scored 27 points from round 13 to 18 - which should have put him as an outright leader to win the coveted best and fairest award. 

Hughes was deducted six votes for the push on Butler and on Wednesday, it appeared to have pushed him down the rankings to win the best and fairest medal, behind Daly Cherry-Evans and James Tedesco. 

It also left some fans on social media livid, with some calling it 'ridiculous'. 

'Jahrome Hughes losing six votes in the Dally M for accidentally making contact with a referee could be the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard of,' one said on X (formerly Twitter).

'Man if Jahrome Hughes doesn’t win the Dally M because of running into the referee this should be the last ever time we have this award,' another added. 

'He had no choice, it's absolute stupidity (by the NRL to charge him). Let's not gloss over it because it's absolute stupidity,' Ennis said on Fox League.

'Rocco Berry was coming back on the inside, Hughes anticipates that, the referee gets in his eyeline, gets in his way.

'Commonsense says it's not one of those moments where a player is frustrated and puts his hand on the referee. That's what we don't want in our game, we don't want referees ever to be touched when they don't need to be, but that was just a complete accident from Jahrome Hughes.

'Common sense has to prevail, I hope they fight that because he should never miss a week for it and the fact he was charged is just absolute stupidity, it is, it's just absolutely ridiculous.'

Issuing a statement on the incident earlier this year, Melbourne wrote: 'Jahrome has reached out to referee, Chris Butler, to apologise and reinforce that his actions were unintentional.

'We are disappointed that an unsuccessful challenge on the grading would have also resulted in an extra week suspension. We acknowledge the system is in place to avoid judiciary hearings but, in this case, we believe the risk of the penalty for contesting the charge is too high considering the circumstances of the incident.

'In the end, the threat of an extra week suspension on top of our club's bye next weekend was the overriding factor in our decision but we don't believe this is a fair outcome.'

Despite the deduction, Huges would go on to claim the NRL Dally M medal, pipping James Tedesco by a mere point after a tense finale to the ceremony.