The current tribunal system is farsical when it comes to contesting penalties. It is weighted to penalize anyone who contests anything! Often, depending on point totals at the tribunal, a player cannot have his side of an incident heard without risking an increase in punishment. A player is judged guilty until proven innocent.
IMO Croad cannot afford to contest the reprimand. From what I saw in the replays on TV, he probably deserved a reprimand, but he certainly seemed to try to minimize the contact when Russell dropped his head.
The 93.75 points Croad will carry forward when he accepts the penalty and leftover points that are credited towards the next offense for a player like Fevola are the other silly part of the system. I reckon a player should carry leftover points from the system for the remainder of the season, but any length of time after that is unfair IMO.
Let's say Croad and Fevola each commit an offense that deserves a reprimand in Round 20 next season. The System will bring points from this year into account and both will get suspended for an offense that did not deserve a suspension.
I think they need to fine tune the system and allow up to 100 points to expire at the end of the season if a player faced no further tribunal action during a season.