There are times when those who are supposed to nurture and grow the NRL instead contribute to the impression that an excellent game is in a state of perpetual crisis.

The seemingly premature registration of Brisbane Broncos prop Matthew Lodge was just one recent example where the game's administration parked a fuel tanker next to a dynamite factory.

And then there are those occasions when the NRL enacts the sensible policy needed to improve the game, yet still somehow finds itself in the middle of a controversy concocted by the crisis merchants determined to find gloom and doom in every situation.

And so after just four rounds, the NRL stands accused of the heinous "how can they live with themselves" crime of — enforcing the rules!

Cameron Smith reacts after his side conceded 14 penalties in the loss to Cronulla. ( AAP: Craig Golding )

An edict that referees strictly police ruck infringements and the 10-metre rule is the obvious and overdue response to years of complaints about wrestling at the play-the-ball and defences constantly creeping off-side.

Stricter policing of these rules should minimise the dark arts of tackling, increase the speed of the play-the-ball and give attacking teams more space in which to run and create. Laudable objectives that serve fans well.

There is a strong case that the corrective measure, particularly an unusually high penalty count that is noticeably disrupting the flow of some games, is the result of previous inaction.

Arguably, the NRL should have cleaned house long ago and teams would have adapted accordingly.

The referees were escorted from the field after blowing 33 penalties in the match between Cronulla and Melbourne. ( AAP: Craig Golding )

But had they done so there would have been a similar sense of outrage from those now condemning the authorities for simply making players conform to basic rules.

It's a no-win situation

This is a position the NRL must constantly endure — damned if it does, damned if it doesn't by the professional malcontents determined to find the dark cloud outside every silver lining.

Attempt to build a great new stadium and the NRL is abandoning the game's "great suburban tradition".

Invest wisely in long-term projects and it is "wasting money that should be spent on grass roots".

Bring the game's self-serving war lords to heel and it is "disrespecting the great club men". And so it goes.

Accordingly, many of the critics now moaning about inflated penalty counts were the same ones who spent years forensically examining video for evidence NRL forwards were merely Greco-Roman wrestlers in sponsored jerseys.

As a demonstration of how infectious the nay-saying can become, even the usually non-confrontational Nine commentator Andrew Johns has joined the chorus of discontent.

Unimpressed by the 24 penalties awarded during the South Sydney-Canterbury Bulldogs game on Friday, Johns expressed his disgust on social media.

"Whoever is at the top of the NRL hang your head. The game belongs not to you or the players. It belongs to the fans who pay to watch. Waiting for response Todd," he wrote on Instagram.

The Bulldogs refused to blame the referees for their loss to the Rabbitohs. ( AAP: Dam Himbrechts )

Johns's assertion that ex-players watching the game as highly paid members of a commercial commentary team speak more for fans than those running the game is itself questionable.

But it is Johns's demand that NRL chief executive Todd Greenberg respond directly to his complaint that is most revealing; the assumption that the game must constantly answer to the reflexive weekly whining of the media.

Can the NRL endure the white noise?

The problem for Greenberg, and other hamsters stuck on the NRL's crisis treadmill, is not that they have failed to respond to even the most trivial charges laid by their caustic critics. But that they have done so too often.

As I've argued here before, the NRL has made a rod for its own back by pandering to those who do the greatest damage to the game in an attempt to limit the reputational damage caused by consistently negative headlines.

Inevitably, they have merely empowered the most parasitic element of the game whose sense of power has made them come to believe they are the arbiters of the sport and the voice of some spurious "silent majority".

NRL chief executive Todd Greenberg says the penalty crackdown is his directive. ( AAP: Dan Himbrechts )

Accordingly, so wildly does the NRL's moral compass spin that there is an inevitable cynicism when even the game's most revered figures speak; as when Brisbane Broncos coach Wayne Bennett spoke thoughtfully about the penalty count controversy at the weekend.

"They have made a decision obviously that they are going to clean the play-the-ball area up and they are going to clean up the 10 metres, and I'm a fan of it because it is going to give us a better game,'' Bennett said.

"It is who blinks now. If the game blinks, the coaches will be back in control. If the game stays strong, we'll have to make sure our players are adhering to the rules."

Commonsense stuff. Yet, through the NRL's prism of controversy and crisis, you wonder if this is the Wayne Bennett who shot those messengers rightly questioning Lodge's return to the game, presumably because his quest for a valedictory premiership was enhanced by his registration. Or is it the Bennett who cares deeply for the game's integrity?

In that respect, it will be intriguing to see whether the NRL endures the white noise created by the crisis merchants about its rules crackdown and waits for the coaches to adapt.

Or whether it relents in the face of the predictable taunts of those whose vision for the game does not extend beyond the end of their own noses.