Speaking for the first time since the incident, Roosters coach Trent Robinson said Leniu’s language was unacceptable, but strenuously denied accusations the forward was racist.

“To call Spencer a racist is so far from the truth; it’s so far from the truth,” Robinson said. “But is that language right? You can never use that [language], but is that happening on a daily basis? It is.

“If we understand the definition of racism, it’s when you use power or use your power to put someone down a class and degrade that person. If you think that an immigrant – parents from Samoa and then obviously New Zealand – and [growing up] in Mount Druitt, and he’s trying to put someone down through power, then we’re way off the mark.”

Robinson said the incident was a “language issue” and it was an opportunity for everyone to reconsider how they spoke to others.

“Anybody calling out Spencer, I understand it, he should not have used it, and he’s going to live with that for the rest of his life, but many people use this language and that needs to be the positive out of it – that everybody takes a check on the way they speak to each other and the way that we change the way it looks in society,” the Roosters coach said. “This isn’t an NRL problem.

“We’ve [the team] had to have a couple of conversations about it, and it’s been great. You know, how do you talk to each other? What do you think about the way that you talk to each other? How do you think you talk to other people on the field, in the change room, in the workplace, all of that. We didn’t have to talk about whether Spencer was racist or not.

“Is he [Leniu] guilty of using language he shouldn’t? Definitely. And that’s going to cost dearly, for a long time, but we can keep the back and forth going, or we can go, well what’s going to improve out of this?”

Demetriou lashed critics of Mitchell and other Indigenous stars who called for Leniu to receive a lengthy ban before the hearing.

“The game is littered with opinions, with agenda and people’s thoughts,” Demetriou said. “We’re proud of Cody [Walker] and Latrell; their stance doesn’t change, and it hasn’t changed for years. They represent their people really well, and I’m really proud of them. If you stand for nothing you fall for everything.”

Panthers skipper Nathan Cleary, a former teammate of Leniu, would not be drawn on whether players should speak on matters before the judiciary.

The three-time premiership-winning halfback said he hadn’t heard casual racism being used on the field but, as a white man, he wasn’t in a position to speak on behalf of players who might have been subject to it.

“Whilst I’ve been on the field in my NRL career, I haven’t heard that [casual racism], so I don’t really feel like I’m in a position to speak on it,” Cleary said. “Obviously, I’m a white male that has grown up through privilege, so I just can’t comment on it.”

Given that Leniu and Olakau’atu weren’t aware of the pain that words such as “monkey” potentially inflicted, V’landys said further education was required.

“What the players, and anyone for that matter, need to understand is you shouldn’t say anything that could hurt someone else,” V’landys said.

“You shouldn’t say anything that could hurt someone’s self-esteem, their confidence or bring back bad memories. Words hurt, unfortunately. We need to educate our players to understand some of the things they say they don’t think are hurtful, can be hurtful.

“It’s an education process. One thing I pride myself on in rugby league is that we are all equals. It will remain that way, we won’t be torn apart by derogatory statements about each other.

“It’s an awareness thing, that you may say something that could hurt somebody. I genuinely believe that players don’t do it to deliberately hurt someone’s self-esteem.”

V’landys, a Greek migrant, said he knew only too well the pain of racist barbs.

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“We are never going to tolerate racism,” he said. “I know how the Indigenous kids and people feel because I had it to a much lesser extent. I know how much it hurts. I understand the hurt they have because sometimes people don’t understand what they say does hurt.”

Penrith enforcer Moses Leota said he had spoken to Leniu before the judiciary.

“I spoke to him last week before our game and he seems to be coping well; he’s got his family there and he’s got all our support,” Leota said.

Addressing Olakau’atu’s comments from Tuesday, Leota, a Samoan international, said he hadn’t had any racism directed at him on the field.

“To be honest, for me, nah not really [been called names],” he said. “I’m pretty reserved and I don’t really try and get into other people’s head. But for me, I’ve never heard anything like that.”

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