Penrith Panthers General Manager Phil Gould says referees were told mid-round to tone back the amount of penalties being given in matches.

A mountain of penalties were given in the Good Friday matches before an obvious reduction in the later matches.

“Referees were given instructions Sunday morning to tone back on them, to just get back to refereeing the important penalties the ones that were obvious,” Gould said on Channel Nine’s 100% Footy.

We take a closer look at the weekend's controversial penalty count. #100PercentFooty pic.twitter.com/ZjXKCqGuSQ

— 100% Footy (@100percentfooty) April 2, 2018