Canberra veteran Sia Soliola circulated a text message to his Raiders teammates on behalf of the Rugby League Players Association, which encouraged its members to voice their opinion on the NRL's recent disciplinary crackdown.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
or signup to continue reading
The text was sent out by the RLPA in the wake of a wild weekend in Brisbane, which resulted in 24 incidents being referred to the match review committee, along with three send offs and 14 sin binnings.
Soliola forwarded the message onto the playing group which said, in part:
"We understand your frustrations and we've expressed our concerns numerous times since the new rules were first introduced and we'll continue to push for inclusion in the current and future decision making process.
"In the mean time, we encourage you to express your honest thoughts and feelings about the changes and lack of consultation with the media should you be questioned or via social media should you be comfortable. Each voice makes an impact."
Raiders players have already made their concerns vocal this week, following Saturday's bruising win over the Canterbury Bulldogs during which star trio Josh Papalii (three weeks), Jack Wighton (one week) and Josh Hodgson (one week) were suspended.
Curtis Scott said on Tuesday that he felt "Like a lot of people in suits that are just making up the rules and making it harder for us".
Queensland prop Dunamis Lui, who will replace Papalii in the starting side against Melbourne, joined the chorus on Wednesday.
MORE RAIDERS NEWS
"I wasn't a real big fan of the crackdown but that's just my opinion, I just think now they just need to be consistent with it I think, as long as there's a bit of common sense behind some of the send offs," Lui said.
"I understand they try to protect us players and look after us especially when we retire and all that but I think during the game, no one's going out there to purposely hurt someone.
"We had a wrestle session and we did a bit of work on tackling lower, getting a lower target. I don't know how that's going to go.
"In the game when you're under fatigue, it doesn't matter how you make that tackle you just want to make that tackle. We're not going out there trying to go for the head or anything like that."
Saturday's win over Canterbury was Lui's first in the top grade since the Raiders' round-four win over Gold Coast.
Fitness concerns throughout the opening months of the season had kept Lui in reserve grade, but the 31-year-old was confident he'd now fixed that area of his game.
"I've ended up tweaking some of my programs, my gym program, I've also been doing a little bit extra on the field after training as well," Lui said.
"More just blowing the legs, up down stuff, and then pushing through that fatigue feeling when your legs are gone.
"It's been hard work but I think it's paid off."