Panthers star Jarome Luai has brutally taunted Ryan Matterson after he took a dig at the Penrith player while complaining about a $4,000 fine.
The Parramatta second-rower decided to take a three-match suspension rather than be hit with the hefty fine for a crusher tackle on Dylan Edwards in the NRL Grand Final.
However, he wasn’t too happy with the sanction in the first place and expressed frustrations over the call while explaining his decision to miss three games next season.
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The 27-year-old also called on the NRL to abolish fines and criticised the ever-changing rule system in the league.
He told reporters: “I just feel that $4000 is pretty hefty considering I have already paid close to $4000 in fines this year for things that are absurd.
"At the end of the day I have personal things I need to worry about outside of rugby league. I just didn't think it was warranted.
"If you do something wrong at work. They don't take money off you. I didn't do anything wrong. I'm playing rugby league.
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"It's just getting quicker and quicker and people are getting stronger and stronger - and the game keeps changing rules."
The State of Origin representative also believed the incident didn’t warrant such a punishment.
He explained: “The way Dylan went back in towards me and he kept driving his legs, I tried to let his head out but he just kept back-pedalling.
“I'm not going to let him back-pedal 100 metres. So I have to stop him. There wasn't much in it.
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"It didn't make sense to me. At the time I thought it was definitely a penalty, but I didn't think it would go much further than that.
Matterson then decided to bring Luai into the situation and throw the Panthers player under the bus for an incident involving an alleged kick on Isaiah Papali’i.
He added: “Considering Jarome Luai is kicking players and he didn't get cited. It makes you think 'Where is this game heading?'"
Luai soon caught wind of the comments and decided to respond with a cheeky dig on Instagram.
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He shared Matterson’s comments and captioned the image with three crying emojis.
He also added the chorus of Kennyon Brown’s song ‘Cry 4 U’ as the background track.
That’s one way to throw fuel onto the fire.
Topics: NRL, Rugby League, Australia
Jayden Collins