"He is a bigger man than me and I was trying to win the ball," Burns told the NRL judiciary panel of Michael Buettner, Sean Garlick and Royce Ayliffe on Wednesday.
Peter Kite for the NRL argued that Burns showed he had no intention of trying to stop Kennedy because he jumped up before making the challenge.
"You were up in the air and would have been hard pushed to stop him as he would have run all over you," Kite said.
"You would have needed to have been planted to stop him."
Kite also claimed Burns was smiling after the incident.
"As the tackle was made you are smiling - mission accomplished," said Kite.
Burns countered that he was unaware that he had hit Kennedy in the head until the referee blew for the penalty and the Roosters players ran in.
"He's a big guy and I am by my tryline, I was trying to wrap the ball up in the tackle," Burns said.
His legal representative, Nick Ghabar, argued that Burns used his biceps, which is the softest part of his arm, to make the challenge and that this showed there was no intent to deliberately injure Kennedy.
"There is no closed fist, no intent whatsoever, it is a softest part of the arm. There is no bone there," he said.
Kite said it was a "classic swinging arm tackle," and was a "get square on player Kennedy."
The panel took less than 10 minutes to come to the conclusion and Kite argued that it was a grade three offence.
After a short deliberation, the panel decided on a grade one decision, but with Burns having 50 per cent and 25 per cent loading from previous offences, his tally of 948 points would see him spend nine games on the sidelines.
With five rounds of the season remaining, Burns could potentially return for the Panthers in round five next year if he misses two trial matches.
- AAP
