Leeton were unable to attend the hearing but offered a guility plea on behalf of Fili, who was charged with breaking law 10.4 (a), a striking offence, on Waratahs’ Dave Armstrong last Saturday.

Fili was handed a one-match suspension plus a one-match suspended sentence by the SIRU judiciary.

Waratahs coach Will Mitchell said his club believes a much tougher stance should be taken against acts of on-field violence.

“This is not coming from anyone personally, it’s the club’s point of view that this shouldn’t be tolerated on the footy field,” Mitchell said.

“We’re pretty disappointed with the referee’s report that was handed in.

“It is a pretty serious allegation to throw out, but that everything that has been in the news about coward punch, king hit, one-hit kills, whatever you want to call it, you would think they would take a strong stance.

“If you did it out the front of Romanos you would be going to jail, so to miss one game of footy is pretty disappointing.”

The referee’s report said the Phantoms were hard in attack when Fili took offence to what he thought was a late tackle.

It said that he then struck that player in the head with the lower part of his arm.

Mitchell pointed out Waratahs’ issue was not with the judiciary.

“On the info they got fed, it didn’t sound that serious,” he said.

“There were plenty of witnesses there who saw exactly what happened.

“It sends a really pathetic message.”

Waratahs are yet to commit to an appeal.

“Look, we’ll probably put our heads together pretty shortly on that,” Mitchell said.

The one-match penalty will see Fili miss Leeton’s Premier Division home game against Ag College on Saturday week.