We are reminded, by those who could turn an axe murder into a Wiggles song, that the NRL is a game of second chances. Too often, however, it is a game of chances spurned. Unless you can find a reasonable explanation why Josh Dugan would be drinking in a Cronulla nightclub with Ferguson. Not just the night before he was due in Origin camp. Ever.
Actually, I can. Dugan's punishment for his rooftop bender was a transfer to St George Illawarra where his talent trumped his recklessness. Where, in the instant it took Jarryd Hayne's hamstring to tear, Dugan was transformed from pineapple-cruiser-skolling miscreant to Blues hero. Which - as Todd Carney might have told him - is a metamorphosis that takes much longer.
The apologists will claim Dugan did no wrong. But by merely putting himself in the wrong place at the wrong time he revealed his rehabilitation was incomplete. That we again confused talent with remorse and contrition.
Under new chief executive David Smith, the NRL is cracking down. The strong penalties handed Tamou at Smith's insistence and Ferguson's immediate - if inevitable - removal from the NSW squad were further indications of a zero tolerance approach.
But Smith's integrity unity should be a body of last resort. The NRL will have egg smeared on its face until every club acts as strongly and decisively as the peak body.
It is the clubs where the players spend their time; where cultures are created and standards set; where the early warning signs are apparent and a critical decision is made - inflict punishment at the risk of affecting team performance, or cross your fingers, hope the problem child doesn't get into too much trouble and you get the points on Sunday.
Still, seemingly, too many clubs take the self-serving option. To bring them into line, the NRL has a powerful weapon - the abandonment of the fixed grant in favour of needs based funding. Something that can be tied, partly, to its behavioural record. Do you want that misbehaving prop forward or the money for the new high performance centre? You decide.
Not all clubs abrogate their responsibility. One has a rule that players are not allowed to associate with a sometimes troubled character from a rival code for fear he will lead them to something stronger than water. It is no coincidence this club has a terrific record of on-field achievement and of good - if not completely blemish free - citizenship.
Others are slowly changing their cultures. They recognise that the NRL's shoddy behavioural record not only retards the game's growth, but will inevitably inhibit their performance.
Significant power is with the players. Privately, the many wiser heads tell you they are sick of being tarred with the NRL's bad boy brush. Yet, in public, they are too quick to shoot the media messengers and too reluctant to condemn the fools.
It is time for the game's real leaders to stand up. To exert peer pressure. To name and shame. After all, they have nothing to lose but the mud that sticks to the entire game.
