Andrew Fifita and brother David receive backdated six-week bans from Cronulla Sharks for abusing referee

Andrew and David Fifita have both accepted six-match suspensions for abusing a referee at a junior rugby league match last month.

Andrew has also been fined $30,000 and both brothers be required to perform 25 hours of community service in support of junior rugby league and match officials in the Cronulla Sutherland district.

They will also both provide apologies to the match official they abused during a Penrith District A-grade match in July, while Andrew will undergo a development course, the Sharks announced in a statement on Thursday afternoon.

The suspensions will be backdated to include the round 21 match the players have already missed after being stood down, meaning they would be available for the NRL finals series.

Sharks chief executive Lyall Gorman said both players had expressed genuine remorse over the incident and the impact of the incident on on all parties.

The twin brothers verbally threatened three young match officials after the A-grade game between St Patrick's and St Mary's at Glenwood on July 26.

An incident report obtained by the ABC said David Fifita was acting as the St Patrick's trainer and allegedly said to the referee "you're a ... disgrace mate" among other comments at the end of the game.

The match official reported that David Fifita refused to leave the ground when asked to and continued to verbally abuse the referee.

In response, the referee reportedly started to record the incident on his mobile phone, at which point Andrew allegedly walked into a roped off area and told the young referee to "delete that now or I'll smash you".

Andrew has since denied threatening to smash the official, saying he was only talking about the phone.
The report said Andrew Fifita then charged towards the referee and tried to snatch the mobile phone before numerous people intervened, holding him back.

The match official said during the incident the behaviour displayed by the Fifita brothers made him feel "very uncomfortable and threatened" and that if people had not physically intervened "the matter had the potential to escalate into a physical altercation".

The incident report also detailed allegations that another ground manager told the referee "look, can you just delete that video and not report it, come on let's not make a big deal out of it, [Andrew Fifita] has a lot to lose".

Penrith District Rugby League Referees Association president Phil Haines said reports of the pair's alleged behaviour were extremely concerning.

"The abuse was quite disgraceful in my opinion, reading the report," he said.

Last year Andrew was fined $10,000 for abusing a photographer during a Mad Monday incident and was investigated over an alleged road-rage attack.