Canterbury coach Des Hasler has been issued with a $20,000 fine by the NRL for comments made about the referees in Saturday night’s 20-18 win over Newcastle.

Half of the penalty stems from a suspended $10,000 fine handed down after a round one loss to Penrith, where Hasler also criticised officials.

Despite claiming a thrilling win over the Knights, the former Manly coach took aim at the whistleblowers in the post-match press conference, particularly over their policing of the 10-metre rule.

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“I’m pretty disappointed in some of the interpretations of the rules,” he said after the game.

“I didn’t know the game had gone back to five metres.

“I think I might send (NRL head of football) Todd Greenberg a breach notice. In fact, I will.

“I want to send them a breach notice for misrepresentation.

“It was pretty obvious in (Newcastle’s) intent, getting off their line.

“You had a couple of times there where (the referee) could’ve done something about it but it was just out of his depth, the poor fella.”

Hasler was the first coach to be slapped with a suspended $10,000 fine after the governing body banned coaches criticising referees at the start of the season.

The former Manly mentor accepted the first breach notice, before later saying he would begin referring to referees as “Voldemorts”, the evil character from Harry Potter.

“It’s about understanding the policy of ‘he whose name you cannot mention’ so let’s call him Voldemort,” Hasler said at the time.

“Paragraph 31, sub-clause two says that comment on means you can’t say anything nice about them, you can’t say anything positive about them, you can’t say anything about the Voldemorts.

“That is what they think is pragmatic and reasonable. If you are an advocate for free speech then it’s not too good.”

Hasler also copped a $5000 fine for failing to adhere to media guidelines in June.

The club has seven days to respond to the proposed penalty.

-AAP