For those who hope to admire both the athletic feats of their sporting heroes and their human qualities, or that semblance of "humanity" portrayed by all forms of media, there is a constant conundrum.

Back in the day, when TV lenses were focused only on the games and sportswriters applied a code of confidentiality to bar-room conversations and late-night 'antics', should we have been told more about the foibles and failings of our heroes?

Or now, in an age when facts are often replaced by speculation and opinion, while social media grossly inflates even the most risible observations, do we (think we) know far too much?

On Wednesday night, New South Wales front-rower Andrew Fifita should have applied marinade rather than liniment before trotting onto a seething Lang Park. As the anointed villain in the loathed Blues line-up, he was to be the main course in Australia's sporting coliseum.

Accordingly, guests have arrived at a Trump costume party dressed as Angela Merkel and received warmer welcomes than the one Fifita got from a local crowd so intimidating even the poor guy singing the national anthem choked.

Yet the 27-year-old prop embraced this test of courage and character with such focused ferocity that he emerged, even in the grudging eyes of his Maroon tormentors, as the hero of a famous and potentially dynasty-destroying 28-4 victory.

What made Fifita's performance so compelling was that he stood out to even the untrained eye in a game of rare and relentless excellence.

As one set after another was completed with mathematical precision, Fifita broke the game's metronomic rhythm and busted the play open time and time again. Such was his sheer physical impact on an otherwise measured game, it was as if everyone else had a calculator and Fifita had a sledge hammer.

Fifita's reputation as a big-game player should have been assured after last year's NRL grand final. Yet, even as he carried Cronulla to its first premiership and scored the winning try, we remained more focused on his rap sheet than his stats sheet.

There was the road-rage incident, his intimidation of a junior referee and, most recently, his public support for one-punch killer Kieran Loveridge that inevitably resulted in his exclusion from the Kangaroos tour of England.

Fifita's infamous 'FKL' armband cemented his already-poor reputation. ( AAP: Craig Golding )

This Wiki page list was routinely reproduced in every Fifita story (yes, as it has been in this one). When accompanied by pictures of this 194-centimetre, 120-kilogram mural of menace, the image of an intimidating, even malevolent figure was ingrained.

So much so that when team-mate Luke Lewis was awarded the Clive Churchill Medal as best player in the grand final instead of Fifita, many felt this was appropriate punishment rather than an administrative outrage.

But because we think we know so much about professional athletes, we often find we don't know much at all. Fifita, we were told, suffered depression and even once attempted suicide.

After his incredible Origin performance, Fifita said: "This is what you live for, big games like these."

Knowing his personal history, those words drip with poignancy.

Yet the cycle of speculation and innuendo is relentless. So we still wonder if Fifita's mental anguish was caused by the public reaction to his anti-social behaviour.

Or, even more cruelly, whether the publicity of his problems was an attention-deflecting grab for public sympathy.

Do we know anything? Do we know too much? Would it better to know only what we see on the field?

In a far different world, Margaret Court doubles-down on her opinions about gay marriage, lesbianism, the alleged grooming of young players, the "cause" of transgenderism, adultery ... pretty much anything you might include in a cliche-ridden parody of a Baptist preacher's fire-and-brimstone sermon.

Margaret Court at the 2013 Australian Open with winner Petra Kvitova and runner-up Li Na. ( AAP: Mark Dadswell )

Arguing that Court's name be removed from Margaret Court Arena, Martina Navratilova wrote for Fairfax Media: "Sporting venues named for athletes, or any place, really, named for whoever, are so named for one reason. That is their whole body of work."

"In other words, it is not just for what this person did on the field, on the court, in politics, arts or science, for instance, but also for who they are as human beings."

Margaret Court's (left) playing career is arguably the greatest in tennis history. ( Nationaal Archief Fotocollectie Anefo )

Like our wish to really know and appreciate sports stars as 'people', not merely their batting average or fantasy league scores, this seemingly straightforward contention is in fact agonisingly complex.

Court's opinions are patently abhorrent to many and perhaps even potentially harmful, but who steps forward to judge how she stacks up as a human being?

Plenty who thought they knew Fifita last October would paint a very different picture now.

Is that because he has revealed his human frailty? Because he displayed contrition after he was banned from the Kangaroos tour? Because he helped deliver a magnificent victory for success-starved fans?

It is naive, of course, to think sports stars can or will be judged merely on their athletic performance, or that they ever were.

But as the noise grows louder, there are more times you find yourself wishing you could enjoy what they do without pondering who or what they are.