The North Otago Rugby Football Union clamped down on player behaviour after an incident in May in a match between Athletic and Kurow, which led to three Athletic players being given hefty suspensions, including one for 13 weeks for biting.
That led to the union introducing a clean-up policy including zero tolerance towards all forms of foul play and verbal abuse, on and off the field.
Clubs were also instructed to videotape home games.
In a match between Athletic and Valley at Weston on Saturday, an Athletic player was sent from the field for allegedly abusing a referee.
There had been reports Athletic players started to walk off the field immediately after the dismissal but NORFU chief executive Colin Jackson said that did not happen.
He said player behaviour had improved and the incident on Saturday, though disappointing, was a one-off.
The player would be the subject of a hearing this week.
Valley won the match on Saturday 24-8 to remain unbeaten in the Citizens Shield competition.
Meanwhile, Jackson said the North Otago union was taking a wait-and-see attitude to the proposed new domestic competition, though it was positive about the changes.
The New Zealand Rugby Union said after a meeting at Wellington at the weekend it wanted to have a 10-team premier division, a division one competition and a Heartland Championship.
Jackson said it appeared the competition was going to go back to where it was before the top division expanded to 14 teams in 2006.
North Otago had been a competitive side in the second-tier competition before the changes.
He said North Otago would want to be in that same competition, below the premier division, and he believed it could still be competitive.
Jackson attended the meeting in Wellington and said there was plenty of positive discussion around the changes but there was a lot of work to be done.
The division one competition would probably be a mix of professional and amateur players and was something the North Otago union could accommodate.
