Flashpoint: David Klemmer makes contact with referee Ben Cummins. Credit:Channel Nine Klemmer needs to remove most of the emotion from his game or his very reachable dream of becoming a mainstay of NSW and Australian forward packs for years to come could quickly evaporate. He's been charged with grade-one contrary conduct for putting his hand on the chest of referee Ben Cummins in his side's win over Penrith last Thursday night. Unbelievably, he has pleaded not guilty and will front the judiciary on Wednesday night. The Bulldogs versus The System. The argument is that it was done in passing. It was innocuous. Two matches for that? Get real. Expect a raft of other forgotten incidents from the first two rounds of the weekend to be used in evidence.

Wannabe role model: Bulldogs prop David Klemmer wants to be known as a player that youngsters should want to emulate. Credit:Wolter Peeters Parramatta's Corey Norman grabbing the ref's arm in the first round, Jamie Soward colliding with the ref late in the match against the Dogs, Trent Merrin touching Cummins just moments after Klemmer did. If the $2 million bunker with its 39 cameras can catch Klemmer, than why not others? It's a point that has some merit. Bad Dog: David Klemmer after being sent from the field in last year's controversial loss to South Sydney. Credit:Getty Images The Bulldogs will also argue Cummins is at fault as much as Klemmer. As he walks towards Soward, Cummins walks towards him, Klemmer puts his hands up.

Do the game's officials have it in for the young firebrand? We'll get to that in a minute. The critical fact is Klemmer wouldn't have been charged – and, for a change, he wouldn't be the back-page headline – if he had not have confronted the referee in the first place, as minor as the confrontation was. Watch a replay of the 55th minute incident when Cummins awards a penalty to the Panthers for a play-the-ball infringement. Klemmer, who has just run back into second marker, approaches Cummins after the penalty has been awarded, briefly gets in his face, and argues the point. Like he always argues the point. In short, he needs to stop arguing the point.

Less than a week ago, Klemmer returned from a one-match suspension for a cannonball tackle in the trial against the Storm and said he had to start playing smarter. He told reporters he had to grow up. "I'll never change," Klemmer said. "I just think in the right moments I've got to be a bit more smarter and think about the way I go about things. That will come with maturity and if I keep playing footy." You would've thought he'd start playing smarter after the Good Friday match last year when, against South Sydney, he detonated right in the face of referee Gerard Sutton. He was banned for three matches but the carry-over points from that ugly incident meant he was slapped with his grade-one charge for the Cummins incident. Regardless, Klemmer now walks the finest of lines between being an asset for his team but also a liability. That's three matches from the first four rounds he's facing on the sidelines because of issues with discipline.

He's an emotional player. We all get it. There's nothing wrong with it. There's few greater sights than an angry prop steaming onto the ball, tears of anger and passion welling in his poker-machine eyes, as he rips into the teeth of the opposition defensive line. But there's a line that is often crossed, and if you cross it enough you are soon saddled with unwanted reputation as much as carry-over points. Is reputation hurting Klemmer with the match review committee? Maybe it is. Take the cannonball tackle from Klemmer on Storm prop Jesse Bromwich.

In the preceding set, a Storm player allegedly performed a similar tackle on Bulldogs hooker Michael Lichaa, without reprimand and without charge after the match. The word around the NRL was that Klemmer was seething so much he declared on the field, "I'm going to break some legs". I'd heard it from a few people, including the captain from a rival Sydney club. According to those at the Dogs, Klemmer denies this. He claims he said, "[The Storm player] could've broken his leg." Given Klemmer's reputation, and in the context of the ugly cannonball tackle on Bromwich that soon followed, you don't who to believe. That's the reputation he now carries. Only he can change it and, at the age of 22, he faces an early crossroads: curb the emotion and anger now, or suspend himself out of NSW and Kangaroo jumpers.

Because it's all really straight forward, isn't it? Don't touch the ref. You're taught it in every sport, from the youngest of ages. Actually, you should be taught to respect every official. Last year, the NRL issued a firm edict that only captains could approach the whistleblowers to argue their point during stoppages in play, and that didn't include when penalties were given or scrums were being packed. The relationship between player and referee has been fluid for years now, with refs calling players by their name – or even their nickname – like they're at a backyard barbecue. Meanwhile, players rage at referees like spoilt children if a decision hasn't gone their way – and for too long without consequence. Clampdowns follow. Then they relax. Some get away with it. Others don't.

It's a cultural shift that makes seasoned followers of the game shake their heads in disbelief, remembering a time when referees identified players as numbers and players wouldn't dare come near the bloke with the whistle, let alone touch him in any circumstances. (Then again, my favourite Rex Mossop yarn – as told by him in a 2007 interview – was how he pushed a referee out of the way to belt a rival forward, leading to his send-off). The rule book about touching referees couldn't be any clearer: "In the course of play, there will sometimes be accidental contact between a player and a match official such as the Referee. This does not constitute an offence. However, careless, reckless or intentional contact by a player with a match official may constitute conduct contrary to the true spirit of the game and amount to an offence." Maybe a fine is a suitable penalty. Maybe a suspension will ensure players don't do it. As long as it's consistent, that's all that matters. So don't touch the ref. Better still, don't go near him at all. David Klemmer should try both.