Rugby league’s greatest ever referee Bill Harrigan wants to ban NRL coaches that abuse officials at post-match press conferences.

A number of coaches have singled out the referees in recent weeks after their team has lost with Harrigan calling on the NRL to get tougher on rogue coaches.

“The clubs are all going to be prepared to pay 10 grand, or even 20, if they think it’s worth their coach ripping in with a spray,” Harrigan told ESPN.

“So if Ricky Stuart or whoever wants to go really hard the club says ‘OK Ricky, unleash’, so he unleashes. The only fine that would be a deterrent is if it’s a hefty fine, like 50 grand, where it really hurts the club and the club says to the coach ‘no way, you can’t do that’.

“But what about this? What about a suspension that prevents the coach from being allowed to turn up at the ground on match-day?

“If there are three or four games to go in the season and your team’s fighting to make the finals, if you give a spray and you can be suspended for one match, or even two or three depending on how bad it is, that’s a deterrent.

“The coach can still coach all week, but he wouldn’t be allowed to attend the ground on match-day or have any contact with the players or the rest of the coaching staff on match-day, so he can’t try to coach by phone during the game while he’s watching it on TV at home.”