The Raiders fined Shillington an undisclosed amount for breaching the club's media policy, which concerned his comments that players had pushed for the appointment of sacked assistant Andrew Dunemann ahead of Ricky Stuart.

Shillington quit the Raiders' senior leadership group earlier this year in frustration at the leniency shown to Dugan and Ferguson, who have both now been sacked by the club.

On Thursday, Shillington said: ''Depending on how the coach handles you or how the club handles you, sometimes you create the devil in players. If a player mucks up and you don't drop him from the team or you don't have some sort of serious consequences … that's when you create the devil in players. It makes them bigger than the club, and I think we saw that at our club this year with a few players.''

Dugan, who cost himself a multimillion-dollar contract at the Brisbane Broncos this year with comments on Twitter, could not refrain from tweeting his reaction on Friday.

Dugan posted on Twitter: ''I think Shillington forgets he went DUI twice lol he's done some favours to get that Australian jersey. Well done mate.''

''Not saying I'm not lucky but he needs to move on and stop sledging me every chance he gets.''

Dugan's outburst was retweeted by both Ferguson and another former sacked Raiders player, Todd Carney, before Dugan deleted them from his account.

Shillington would not comment when contacted about Dugan's tweets or the fine from the Raiders.

Although Shillington said Stuart's hard-line stance on discipline could be ''just what the doctor ordered'', it's understood the Raiders were disturbed by Shillington's ongoing comments backing Dunemann. There is already speculation Stuart and Shillington did not see eye-to-eye when they were at the Sydney Roosters and the comments could be viewed as undermining the incoming coach.

Raiders chief executive Don Furner said Shillington had breached the club's media policy.

''They should not comment on issues outside of their immediate responsibilities as a player without prior approval from senior management,'' Furner said.

''David is an experienced senior player at this club and should have known better. He has been spoken to previously about errant comments he has made to the media and the negative impact they can have. I have spoken to David today and he acknowledged that some of his comments were not appropriate and he was sorry.''

Former Test halfback and now media commentator Greg Alexander said Shillington's comments would only serve to cause ''the possibility of another fracture in the club''. Alexander said Shillington was within his rights to talk about the appointment of Stuart hopefully changing the club's culture.

However, he believed statements about senior stars wanting Dunemann served no purpose other than to force a wedge between the players and Stuart.

''I don't mind his comments in regard to the culture, it's obvious the senior players weren't happy with some of the things,'' Alexander said. ''If I was the Canberra club I'd be asking him what he was trying to get across when he mentioned the Dunemann thing; he needs a wake-up for that. By him commenting on it, it's opened up a couple of wounds and gives the possibility of another fracture in the club.''

Shillington said the playing group had been disappointed to lose Dunemann, having campaigned for him in discussions with Raiders legend Mal Meninga.

''We were all pushing for Andrew Dunemann [to be coach] because of his relationship with the young talent,'' Shillington said. ''Obviously we didn't get it and Mal spoke to us about other coaches like Neil Henry and Ricky Stuart.''

The 30-year-old Kangaroos and Queensland representative has had a mixed season. He lost his place in the Maroons team after the opening Origin game.