NRL announces massive judiciary overhaul hours before 2022 season begins

The NRL has scrapped automatic player suspensions for shoulder charges or crusher tackles, as well as simplified ban lengths in the biggest judiciary overhaul this century.

Signed off just hours before the season could begin, the changes were relayed to coaches by reporters as they finalised preparations for their opening-round games.

Players will no longer receive automatic bans for shoulder charges, crushers and striking, with fines all available for the base charge.

Demerit points will be scrapped for a new, clearer system, with each charge now carrying a specific number of games on the sideline.

Players will have another match added onto that ban for each previous offence in the past 12 months, to a maximum of two additional games suspended.

A game will also be struck off the suspension list if a player takes an early guilty plea, a reward which was sometimes not previously available.

Fines will still be in place for most grade-one offences, but it will no longer be limited to two as in previous years.

It means a player could commit seven grade-one offences and not be charged once.

All players will begin the year with a clean record, with all charges from last year not counted as previous offences.

The system scraps the previous process, where players had 50 per cent loading added to demerit points if they had committed a similar offence in the previous two years, or 20 per cent for non-similar offences.

The loading system, long criticised by coaches, came under fire last year from South Sydney and Latrell Mitchell who missed the grand final.

However, the changes would not have helped Mitchell because the Rabittohs' fullback would have copped seven games under the current system rather than six.

The NRL will also hand more power