North Melbourne players have been told to be prepared to cop the consequences if they step outside the rules regarding public criticism of the AFL.
It's understood the league has told clubs fines could be handed to players who publicly criticise umpires, the tribunal or MRO, per reports, and that former Roos skipper Jy Simpkin was officially warned about some of his comments last week.
Simpkin took to social media following the tribunal's upholding of a three-match ban for teammate Paul Curtis' tackle on West Coast's Joel Carrol.
"We gave our players another reminder yesterday that the rules and regulations are in place for a reason, and whether we like them or not, they're the rules we signed up for," North coach Alastair Clarkson told reporters on Wednesday.
Clarkson had said in footy, like general society, there's rules in place, and "you pay the penalty if you, if you break them".
"Be prepared to cop the fine for being prepared to say something you think is really important," Clarkson added.
Simpkin had written "The AFL needs to get it together, the constant rule changes and the MRO is laughable" and players were in the dark about what to expect.
Last week, North footy boss Todd Viney, ahead of a planned meeting with the AFL's footy boss Greg Swann, said Simpkin "had some frustrations, probably like we all did," and while they support the midfielder backing Curtis, those comments were best kept in-house.
"There's clear rules and regulations about what you can and can't say, it's just a fact," Swann said.
"We support him in the fact that he wanted to look after his teammate ... but the message to Jy was if you feel really strongly then let's go in and speak to voice those concerns, and he understands that.
"There's clear rules and regulations about what you can and can't say, it's just a fact."
Ahead of facing Essendon this weekend, Clarkson said it was positive to get the win over Richmond and hold them to six goals, despite admitting it wasn't the greatest spectacle.
North have won three of their last four, including successes over struggling Tigers and West Coast sides, with a disappointing 20-goal loss to ladder-leaders Fremantle three weeks ago.
The Kangaroos sit in 10th place with a seven and seven record.
