Newcastle Knights centre Tautau Moga has been stood down for two matches by the club following intervention from the NRL Integrity Unit.
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Moga pleaded guilty to assaulting a taxi driver when he appeared in court on Thursday but escaped a conviction.
At the time, Knights CEO Phil Gardner said Moga faced a severe financial sanction from the club but would not be stood down from matches as the club would be penalised and not the player.
He believed the NRL had no issue with the Knights over the way they had been handling player behaviour issues.
"The NRL has the capacity to come in and act if they think the way we have handled it is not strong enough but as Todd Greenberg [NRL CEO] said to me at the last CEO's meeting, 'Phil, we have no concerns with you around penalties'," Gardner told the Newcastle Herald.
But that all changed on Friday after the Integrity Unit became involved and forced the club to back-flip on its no stand-down policy..
"We had a discussion with the Integrity Unit and given where the game is at, given what's been experienced, we've agreed that these sorts of incidents should result in some sort of stand down," Gardner said.
"So we have stood Tau Moga down for two games to ensure everyone across the game is getting the message, not just the Knights.
"We've taken a hard-line stance around penalties but we have been made aware that we also need to be sending the message to the whole of the game and not just our club.
"I still believe it is a penalty for the club but in the current environment, every club needs to get the message and the NRL has convinced me it is the appropriate action to take.
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"They put their position on this strongly to me and the way they put it across is it's the message to the whole game that is important, not just the message to the Knights and I've accepted that.
"My view has always been and still is that it's a penalty on the club and the club shouldn't be penalised unless in some way the club is complicit. But the clubs are ultimately responsible for the behaviour of their players."
Gardner said Moga will still face the club's football committee and be further sanctioned.
"Tau will eventually get two penalties out of this but lets hope the strong message being sent gets through and we won't have to do it in the future," he said.
Moga will likely be fined 25 percent of his contract for this year which could equate to $90,000 but a portion of that will be suspended pending no further indiscretions.
