Graham Annesley has put the NRL's repeat offenders on notice, warning the match review committee can beef up charges and issue bans for minor offences to ensure the message sinks in.
Melbourne forward Nelson Asofa-Solomona attracted attention last weekend after his fifth charge of the year, slamming his elbow down on Joseph Suaalii's head in a tackle on Friday.
Despite the string of charges, Asofa-Solomona is yet to be banned for a game this year, instead paying $11,800 in fines.
Roosters prop Jared Waerea-Hargreaves also copped his fourth fine of the year in the same match on Friday night, joining Brisbane forward Tom Flegler as the most charged players behind Asofa-Solomona.
It comes as former players such as Martin Lang warned that the NRL was not doing enough to wipe out foul play, with no limit on fines payable before a ban is issued.
But the NRL's head of football Annesley insisted players could not get away with repeating foul play, and that the league had the power to ban them if needed.
"Where the match review committee feels there is a need for a personal deterrent (they can issue one)," Annesley said at his weekly briefing.
"If the match review committee feels they are not getting a message, they have a right under the rules to say you need a stronger personal deterrent.
"Therefore your grade-one charge will be upgraded to a grade-two charge."
Annesley stressed he was not speaking about Asofa-Solomona individually, and said there was no hard-and-fast rule on when the review committee would issue the deterrence.
Under the NRL's previous rules before they were changed this season, players faced bans rather than fines from their third offence.
It means Asofa-Solomona would have now been suspended three times this year in that system, rather than continually paying fines.
Despite that, Annesley insisted the current judiciary model works best, arguing players are audited to ensure the money comes from their pocket and that fines do act as a deterrent.
"The players don't like fines. That's been made very clear to us by the (players union)," Annesley said.
"They'd prefer we went back to a system that only involves players missing games.
"But who suffers from that the fans and the teams with the rest of the players who haven't done anything wrong.
"We were having players missing games, and in some cases important games for what were effectively low-level charges."
Meanwhile Annesley said replays showed Melbourne second-rower Felise Kaufusi had not landed on Siosiua Taukeiaho's leg before hitting the ground in a suggested hip-drop on Friday night.
And he also claimed Storm teammate Cameron Munster was issued a concerning act warning rather than a charge for contact on Sam Walker, arguing he slammed down his arm on the halfback's body and not his head.
