Brad Fittler believes commentators and pundits have driven the negative reaction around the spate of sin-binnings over Magic Round weekend.
Late last week, the NRL announced a crackdown on incidents involving contact with the head and warned of an increase in penalties and sin-binnings.
That's exactly what we received over the first two days of Magic Round, with 12 players sent to the sin bin.
On Saturday alone, the Match Review Committee handed out 10 charges in three games.
Social media lit up with every sin-binning, while several coaches weighed-in on the contentious new rulings.
Speaking on Sport Sunday on Channel Nine, Fittler said the game's commentators and pundits are behind the negative reaction.
"The commentators, more than anyone, are the ones in uproar at the moment, because we're coming from an era where we think the game was so much greater," he said.
"I feel like it's more the commentators than the people. I think the people just love being here.
"There's 120,000 people over three days and it's been absolutely spectacular being in the stadium. The atmosphere has been awesome.
"I think it's the commentators and the people that are paid to comment on the game are more in uproar than the fans."
NRL CEO Andrew Abdo explained the reasoning behind the crackdown on The Footy Show on Sunday morning, saying it's about making rugby league safer.
“We want this game to be relevant, and there’s a certain amount of arrogance or complacency that says as the world changes, we can just do the same thing.
“We have one of the fastest, toughest and most entertaining sports in the world, right now we’re just making it safe for our players.”
Fittler agreed, saying the eradication of dangerous shots to the head is key."Without a doubt, the game doesn't reach its potential without getting rid of some of the head shots we've seen over the last couple of years," he said.
"I feel if the NRL did their job a couple of weeks ago, they could've gone through this process a little bit easier.
"The fact is, Magic Round will be known for coming down on head contact and sin binning and I think it's the best way for the league to go.
The only issue Fittler has is with the Bunker intervening where it doesn't need to.
"The slowing up of the game was the real problem - going back four tackles at different stages to try to get it one hundred per cent right," he said.
"It's one of the things the league and the Commission and the people runnning the game need to understand - it's never going to be one hundred per cent right.
"If we miss the occasional one, we can't lose the momentum of the game, because that's what makes our game great."
