Knights prop Jacob Saifiti says he has little recollection of the night he was felled by a punch outside a Hamilton pub, Newcastle local court has heard.
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Dane Marsden Cordner - the brother of NSW Blues and Sydney Roosters captain Boyd - faced the first day of what is expected to be a week-long hearing on Monday, after he was charged with reckless grievous bodily harm for striking Mr Saifiti outside the Greenroof Hotel in the early hours of December 1.
"I just remember waking up and I was on the ground," Mr Saifiti said when he gave evidence on Monday.
"It put my footy career on hold for 17 weeks."
Mr Cordner does not deny hitting Mr Saifiti but has pleaded not guilty to the charge on the grounds of self-defence.
The incident resulted in a broken ankle for the Knights player and kept him out of the NRL for 17 weeks.
Mr Saifiti frequently responded: "I don't remember" when questioned in the witness box on Monday, telling the court he was intoxicated.
He estimated he consumed four to six schooners of beer and four or five vodka mixed drinks at various venues between the time he left a wine tasting event mid-afternoon at a Merewether home on November 30 and when the incident at the Greenroof Hotel took place, just before 2.30am the following day.
The court heard that the night turned physical when Mr Saifiti aggressively challenged a man who was threatening to headbutt passers-by outside the Greenroof Hotel.
The man grabbed Mr Saifiti around the throat and pushed him into a wall, before security guard Brock Stiles threw the man face-first onto the ground, where he remained for several seconds.
According to CCTV vision played to the court, the man then sat nearby and could be seen speaking with Mr Cordner.
When Mr Cordner tried to approach Mr Saifiti, the security guard shoved Mr Cordner through a temporary barricade and onto Tudor Street.
The court heard that Mr Cordner then walked away and stood up the road.
Mr Saifiti followed soon after, despite Mr Cordner loudly telling the NRL player to "f--- off".
It was then that Mr Cordner pushed and punched Mr Saifiti - the Knights player told the court he had no recollection of the seconds before he was struck.
Mr Saifiti said he had approached Mr Cordner because he was confused and wanted to know what was wrong - the pair had been acquaintances who would briefly chat with each other when out on the town.
Believing his ankle was injured after falling from the punch - he would later have a plate and two screws surgically inserted to repair a break - Mr Saifiti was driven to hospital by Mr Stiles, the security guard.
Mr Stiles told police in his initial report that he had seen the push from Mr Cordner that preceded the punch.
But the court saw CCTV footage on Monday that showed he had his back to the pair at the time.
Mr Stiles also denied a claim from Mr Cordner's barrister Jack Tyler-Stott that the security guard had been given information about the incident afterwards, which he then included in his account of what took place.
While Mr Stiles conceded that he had dinner with Mr Saifiti recently, he said they only briefly mentioned the upcoming case.
"Sir, I suggest you're partial to Mr Saifiti and you're happy to throw Mr Cordner under the bus," Mr Tyler-Stott said, before Mr Stiles replied: "No".
The court heard that Mr Cordner and Mr Saifiti had interacted earlier inside the pub, before both men ended up outside shortly after 2am.
The court was played CCTV vision of Saifiti confronting a male patron in the pokie room of the pub earlier that night.
Mr Saifiti told the court he could not remember the conversation but had approached the man because he believed the patron had upset one of his friends.
Mr Tyler-Stott said his client had urged Mr Saifiti to go home after the confrontation in the pokie room and had offered to book a taxi and pay the fare for him - but Mr Saifiti said he could not remember whether that took place.
Mr Tyler-Stott also asked Mr Saifiti during cross examination about his relationship with Mr Cordner prior to the night of the altercation.
Mr Saifiti described Mr Cordner as an "acquaintance" but said there had "been words" the night the pair first met at Newcastle night club Argyle House in 2015.
However Mr Saifiti said there had been no bad blood between the pair since then.
Mr Tyler-Stott said Mr Cordner would give evidence that, in 2015, Mr Saifiti punched him in the face and dragged him into a pole - which was relevant context for the self-defence claim.
Mr Saifiti emphatically denied the 2015 incident becoming physical.
Mr Tyler-Stott read from a show-cause notice issued by the Knights in relation to last December's incident, which said Mr Saifiti had been behaving in an "outlandish" manner at the Greenroof Hotel - Mr Saifiti agreed he did had not challenged the show cause notice.
Magistrate Robert Stone said at the end of the hearing's first day that it was clear alcohol was a factor in what transpired, but it was a matter of determining whether Mr Cordner was acting in self-defence when he punched Mr Saifiti.
"We know there was a push, we know there was a punch," he said. "It's the circumstances surrounding the push and the punch that are of concern to the court."
The hearing continues.
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