NSW coach Brad Fittler has advised NRL players to detach themselves from social media sites to avoid criticism and said he bears "no sympathy" for those who take online posts to heart.
Fittler's comments came after the social media vitriol was levelled at St George Illawarra halfback Ben Hunt over the weekend when he made an error in the Dragons' loss to the Warriors.
Hunt spilled a line dropout in a critical moment, leading fans and media outlets alike to draw comparisons to Hunt's infamous knock-on in extra-time while playing for Brisbane in the 2015 grand final.
MORE: Eels captain Clint Gutherson to decide future by early next week
Multiple players from rival clubs came to Hunt's defence on Instagram and Twitter, accusing the people who poked fun at the Red V playmaker of bullying.
Hunt detailed seeing a psychologist last year after copping online abuse over his performances for St George Illawarra.
Fittler believes the solution to combatting trolls is as simple as players logging out of social media apps and remaining ignorant to what's being said.
But he said the onus is also on Hunt not to provide haters with ammo to upload nasty posts.
"First thing is, Ben's got to catch the ball," Fittler said on the Freddy and the Eighth podcast.
"The reality is he's dropped two balls in two crucial parts of the game.
"Hopefully he's practising this part of his game at training.
"Mate, there are some real tragic things that have happened from sitting there looking at social media, the actions some people have taken.
"And from now on I give no sympathy to anyone looking at social media. Seriously, put it away.
"I don't know if Ben's part of that group [that gets caught up in social media] but anyone that wants sympathy out of what's been written on social media, you won't get it from me."
To his credit, Hunt fronted up to reporters following the Warriors match and owned his mistake.
The 29-year-old – who played strongly for the majority of the contest – said he wasn't overly affected by the dropped ball but realised it would incite heckling from fans.
"I just thought, 'Here we go again'," Hunt said.
"I've found ways to get over that, obviously it's happened before but that didn't really bother me, I was more worried about the way I played for the rest of the game, to be honest.
"... I catch hundreds of balls every year so it's not really something that I think about."
Hunt, who grinned knowingly after the blunder versus New Zealand, said he has learned to see the humour in the razzing he receives.
"As soon as I dropped it I thought here we go again, the crowd's going to enjoy this, but I was just more disappointed about the game," Hunt said.
"I knew it was coming, as soon as I bobbled it a little bit I heard the crowd erupt and it's sort of funny to myself really.
"Like I said I've found ways to deal with those things and yeah, it's just a bit of a funny thing really."