Cotric has been charged for his tackle on St George Illawarra centre Tim Lafai that led to the Raiders centre being sent off with 21 minutes remaining in their win over the Dragons.

Cotric will miss three games if he takes the early guilty plea, but risks missing four if he opts to fight it at the NRL judiciary and loses.

But he could also plead guilty and attempt to have it reduced to a grade two dangerous throw, which would mean missing two games.

Raiders coach Ricky Stuart defended Cotric after the 36-14 victory over the Dragons at Wollongong on Sunday night.

He said it wasn't a spear tackle and there was no malice in the tackle, with Dragons coach Paul McGregor agreeing with the latter.

Raiders chief executive Don Furner told The Canberra Times they would finalise their decision by Tuesday 11am.

"We've been with Nick this morning. The process is we ask for all the footage, for all the angles," he said on 2CC.

"We also ask for similar charges throughout the last two years and we go through it and take some advice from our barrister in Sydney.

"The long and short of it is if we fight it and lose it'll be four weeks. If we fight it and get a downgrade it'll be two.

"But if we take the pleas it's three. We just have to weigh up the risk of going to the judiciary and fighting for a downgrade."

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It was Cotric's first game back after an ankle injury ruled him out of the final two games of NSW's State of Origin series win.

Having made his NRL debut in round one 2017, Cotric played 59 games straight, but he's now sat one out due to Origin, one for a syndesmosis injury and potentially two-four more inside the past two months.

Raiders' Origin winner Jack Wighton said the team would rally around Cotric regardless of the outcome.

"Yeah definitely, he's our boy. They did it for me and I'll do it for them," Wighton said.

"Obviously it's not the best outcome, but it is what it is so we'll stick by him."

Raiders co-captain Jarrod Croker spoke to Cotric after the game to make sure he was coping.

The Raiders have Michael Oldfield and Seb Kris as options to replace Cotric, although Kris suffered a leg injury in the Mounties' loss on Sunday.

"I just had a chat to him. He's OK. He was obviously a bit shocked and disappointed himself," Croker said.

"I only saw it live, I thought he was very hard done by.

"You know Nicky, he doesn't have a harmful bone in his body, he's a big puppy dog. There's obviously no malice or intent in it."

NRL ROUND 18

Saturday: Canberra Raiders v Wests Tigers at Canberra Stadium, 5.30pm.