The acknowledged difficulty is – de Belin is guilty of nothing in the eyes of the law until he has his day in court. That assumption is fundamental to our society. Loading In 2009, newly anointed “face of the game” Brett Stewart was stood down, only to be vindicated in a court of law. As were Shaun Kenny-Dowall and Hazem El-Masri when domestic charges against them were thrown out. The NRL does not want to be judge and jury before the courts do their thing. It’s been stung before. But, the police fact sheet against de Belin made for stomach-churning reading and has us where we are now. Attracting female supporters is No.1 on the list of all major sports. And women who read the complainant’s version of what happened in de Belin’s cousin’s flat are speechless that he can play.

So are men, don’t get me wrong. This isn’t an exercise in male-versus-female attitudes to such things. It’s equally shocking to all ... but lose women and lose it all. Loading A similar thing happened in 2004. Six Bulldogs players were accused of the gang rape of a woman in Coffs Harbour. It was a massive story – but it became the biggest story in years when Ray Hadley obtained a police report on the incident. The allegations in that incident report were horrific. No one was ever charged. The details in the de Belin fact sheet have led several clubs to directly challenge Greenberg and Beattie, who have adhered to the NRL policy of not acting against players until court matters are seen through.

Melbourne Storm are at the forefront. Here’s a club, the second most successful this century behind the Roosters, which does not have a major sponsor. An empty front of jersey. The NRL’s own sponsors – Telstra in particular – have the jitters. It can’t afford the mums of Australia switching to Optus or Vodafone. Loading No one is saying de Belin is guilty. They are saying, if someone has charges of this nature against them, stand them down on full pay until the justice system finds them guilty, or not guilty. Key to the NRL’s position will be ARLC member Professor Megan Davis. Among many other achievements in the legal profession, Professor Davis is the pro-vice-chancellor at UNSW, acting commissioner of the NSW Land and Environment Court, a member of the NSW Sentencing Council and one of the nation’s leading public constitutional lawyers. She’s been busy – consulting widely across the law and sporting fields.

If the aggravated clubs deem the NRL get it wrong, Beattie, as chairman of the ARLC, is expendable.

Peter V’Landys is sitting on the commission and there’d be no hesitation in elevating him. As the boss of Racing NSW, maintaining the sport’s integrity is his specialty. As CEO, Greenberg would carry on seriously wounded by the first act in a play where the ending is obvious. A betting person would scratch de Belin’s name from the Dragons’ team list for round one. Phrase that sun Stajcic The “Lesbian Mafia”. Throw that term around liberally in the workplace and see how long you last. After what we’ve learnt in the past week, that was the key phrase in the downfall of former Matildas coach Alen Stajcic.

For his part, Stajcic denied the term was “part of my vocabulary”. But, any number of Matildas players and staff lined up to say it was. Loading Stajcic’s supporters have gone quiet since Tracey Holmes aired an explosive edition of her show The Ticket on ABC News Radio last weekend. Compelling radio. She interviewed three Matildas insiders, on condition of anonymity, and all three revealed Stajcic regularly used the phrase. They labelled Stajcic “a liar” for his denials. One revealed it was coined by him to reference two people in particular — “a former coach and a board member”. It’s not hard to work out who they are.

We now know, thanks to the program, that Stajcic played an active role formulating the questions in the Professional Footballers’ Association survey filled in by players and staff. He admitted that. He thought it was “an excellent and great initiative”. He then protested against the validity of the survey when he was given the findings. He obviously didn’t like what he read. We also learnt players felt obliged to support him on social media once a couple had done so. To not join the bandwagon of support meant you could be fingered as a rat. Some players who publicly supported him were highly critical of him in interviews with the FFA before his sacking. What also became clear is the Matildas were a divided camp.