Bulldogs captain Stephen Crichton has been slapped with a fine three days after his side’s loss to Melbourne.

The skipper was put on report for raking the face of Storm fullback Ryan Papenhuyzen in the 27th minute of Friday night’s match but escaped sanction from the NRL match review committee (MRC) the following day.

He was belatedly hit with a $1000 fine for a grade-one contrary conduct charge on Monday.

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An NRL spokesman denied this was an example of the Australian Rugby League Commission (ARLC) using its new discretionary judiciary powers.

NRL chief executive Andrew Abdo announced in June the ARLC would have new powers to intervene if a blatant on-field matter was missed by the MRC.

The spokesman said the late charge stemmed from a 2022 rule change that allowed the MRC to retrospectively look at an incident again.

That request could have come from Abdo, the broader ARLC or a club, with the NRL not revealing who asked for the review.

Meanwhile, the fallout from Melbourne captain Harry Grant’s two-match ban has continued.

The Storm hooker has been rubbed out for the remainder of the regular season, prompting Melbourne to call for an overhaul of the judiciary system to allow clubs to challenge the grading of a charge without risking an additional match.

Grant’s shoulder charge against Canterbury was deemed grade two, resulting in a two-match ban if he took an early guilty plea, or three games if he unsuccessfully fought the allegation.

The Storm accepted the suspension, unwilling to risk losing the star hooker for the first week of the NRL finals.

Although Melbourne already have their top-two ladder position locked in, coach Craig Bellamy felt the the penalty, which puts Grant out of matches against the Sydney Roosters and Brisbane, was inconsistent.

“I thought it was very, very harsh,” Bellamy said on Monday.

“Especially when you’ve seen some of the other actions similar to that throughout the year - yeah, I thought it was very harsh.”

Storm boss Justin Rodski told AAP the current system wasn’t “fair” and said he wanted the NRL to consider changes.

“What I’d like to see is a review of the judiciary system around the way that a player is unable to challenge to downgrade a charge without risking the harsh penalty of an additional game,” he said.

“The grading is an incentive to not challenge, but at the same time it’s not a fair reflection of natural justice.

“While I understand and appreciate why it’s been set up that way ... and I agree with the early plea in principle, the problem with the system now is that when you have an instance like this, surely the player should be able to challenge to have the charge downgraded and not risk such a heavy penalty.

“For any player at any club, to miss a final off the back of challenging that downgrade, it’s not worth it.”

Rodski said the NRL could introduce a financial element so if a club’s attempt to downgrade a charge was unsuccessful, they had to pay a cost.

“That would be a $5000 to $10,000 fine, so there’s still a disincentive to do it, but in the extremes where a club and the player feel it’s justified, they aren’t risking time on the field, they’re risking a financial penalty,” he said.