Following his stint in the wilderness of Provence, cleansed by a diet of fromage sans vin, a rehabilitated, reformed, redeemed Pearce is snapped up by an eager NRL club and lives happily ever after until he is sacked from his ratings-winning Foxtel chat show for one final atrocity. Low point: Ricky Ponting was publicly outed and suspended for three matches by the Australian Cricket Board after a night out in Kings Cross ended in a fracas in 1999. Credit:Drew Fitzgibbon It's boring, it's repetitive, and more to the point, the outrage-induced cycle does not work. It does not help the individual – Pearce's career has already had so many turnarounds that he does not know a poodle from a pillow – and it does nothing for the wider issues involving sport's self-destructive tendency to alienate at least one half of the population per week. The Roosters find Pearce's behaviour 'unacceptable'. Who can say why, when the club has already accepted one player who has been convicted for indecently assaulting a woman, others who have been charged with domestic and other violent crimes, and high-profile business supporters who number a sexual harasser and a colourful Kings Cross nightclub identity (I don't know what that is either, but it pays well). Amid such company, Pearce may feel entitled to render the old joke: 'I built this wall, this bridge, this town, but do they call me The Wallbuilder, the Bridgebuilder, the Townbuilder? No! But I f--- one goat...!' The point being, no one can chart any moral consistency in there, because there is none.

Club and code will punish Pearce, not because they unanimously and whole-heartedly condemn his actions, but because they must respond to the Outrage. Look at the social media comments, look at how angry people are, there must be at least a thousand purple-faced anonymities sputtering incoherently… Of course the league must respond! Early controversies: Lleyton Hewitt. Credit:Dallas Kilponen Really? How long will rugby league keep running around shutting gates after its horses have bolted? How long before it realises that so much damage has been done by a small minority, saving the 'brand' by dumping the miscreants is seen by the community for what it is, a hollow and hypocritical exercise in appeasement? There has got to be a better way. Illustration: Kerrie Leishman

First, sporting authorities have to be strong enough to stare down the Outrage. Social media has turned public discourse into a kindergarten, where everyone is shouting so loud, the only way to be heard is to shout louder. Sporting leaders must know by now that the mob will not be silenced by dramatic action. Banishing players such as Pearce to foreign climes does nothing for the player, nothing for the code, and nothing to appease the Outrage. Second, rehabilitation and reform must become a first-order issue, not a packaged stage performance. The formula has no credibility. It is a surprise that some of the 'redeemed bad boys' wheeled out for the show can keep a straight face. Until values are believed in, rather than a checklist of steps a player must rote-learn to be allowed back on the field, they do more harm than good. 'Respect for women', for example, will remain an empty platitude while a sport still 'celebrates' women for washing jerseys and dancing with pompoms. Third, professional players who have been genuinely reformed should be encouraged to take the lead. I would like to see a cross-sport council of elders, made up exclusively of those who have overcome antisocial behaviour and learned how to become adults while in the public eye. Make Ricky Ponting the chairman, Lleyton Hewitt the deputy, and compose this council of people who have genuinely redeemed themselves under the pressure of exposure while continuing to pursue their sporting goals. Perhaps some will come from other fields, but they will be respected, and heeded, if they have been through the ordeal themselves. Such a council could be independent of any code yet have jurisdiction over all, as is granted to the Australian Sports Commission. Give this tribunal of elders the power to dispense remedies and sanctions.

A suspended player could be answerable to this body, which would supervise a program of authentic counselling and rehabilitation and make its own assessment of when he is ready to play again. It would be a far more trusted and independent authority than any that is linked to the codes or the clubs, and it could play a role across sports, including women's sports, though it might not have much to do there. Or what? The bad boy goes off thinking his biggest mistake was to get caught on film. He finds support and solace from 'friends' who tell him he was a victim of PC BS. The old boys, who chuckle about the old days, tell him what he has to do. If he really wants to find his way back, he learns how to play the role of the reformed sinner. He has been stood down for the benefit of the mob, and now he will perform the charade for the mob too. And nothing will change. One day, he will do it again, because he never believed he did anything wrong in the first place. It's enough to make you outraged.