Canterbury coach Dean Pay's fine for his spray at the referees has been reduced to $15,000 by the NRL.
Pay was initially slugged with a $25,000 reprimand for his post-match comments following his side's controversial loss to Brisbane earlier this month.
The NRL agreed to suspend $10,000 of the fine because Pay was a rookie coach and he had since acknowledged he had over-stepped the boundaries.
"The suspended portion of the fine will be imposed if there is a repeat of the criticism against match officials," the NRL said in a statement.
"The NRL suspended part of the penalty based on the fact that Pay is in his first season as a head coach in the NRL and has no prior breaches.
"He has also acknowledged publicly that he needs to moderate his language when commenting about match officials."
A livid Pay let loose with a spray at the referees after his side was defeated 22-20 in golden point by Brisbane a fortnight ago.
He was incensed by several incidents including when Moses Mbye was sin-binned for a professional foul, allowing Jamayne Isaako to boot the winning penalty goal.
The NRL took a dim view of Pay's assertion that "it's like we're not supposed to win" and labelling some decisions as "ridiculous".
NRL referees boss Bernie Sutton subsequently defended all of his whistleblowers' controversial decision as correct, including not calling a knock-on against Isaako.
