“That’s not icing, that’s caviar!”

A 55m goal on the run in 2014 prompted a breathless Dwayne Russell to scream the above, seemingly amazed at the potential of the 21-year-old who kicked it - Harley Bennell.

The goal was his sixth of the game, capping a remarkable 27-possession, two-goal assist performance that consigned his superstar teammate Gary Ablett’s 33 disposals to an afterthought and left the opposition’s coach scratching his head.

“I didn’t see him running around by himself, I just saw him beating opponents … and he’s going to do it for quite a few years to come,” a bewildered Chris Scott said.

It’s high praise not foreign to Bennell. Ex-teammate Campbell Brown recently declared him as good a footballer as there is, triple premiership player Shaun Hart said he could become the game’s best player.

Herald Sun writer Mark Robinson once mused openly: “It's not folly to ask: Is he the best kick in the game?” That was after his sixth game.

But the problem with Bennell has always been less to do with getting a kick, and more to do with getting kicked out of pubs.

Missed trainings, drunken fights, drug and alcohol scandals - Bennell’s off-field transgressions have become common enough to be a bore to repeat.

They almost run the entire gamut of player misconduct we’ve become wearily accustomed to seeing in headlines across an AFL off-season.

On the surface, Bennell appears contrite and capable of understanding the impact of his actions and the adverse affect they can have on his career.

After photos of him doing lines of cocaine were splashed across the front of the Herald Sun in 2015, Bennell told AFL.com.au he understood his days at the Suns could be numbered but hoped they weren’t, promising to clean up his act.

Months later when Bennell was arrested for a drunken fight then hauled into Gold Coast headquarters and sacked, he was shocked and emotional, telling the assembled group of officials he never thought it would come to this. The reply was a direct one - “That’s the problem, Harley.”

This inability to learn from mistakes is at the crux of Bennell's issues.

A former mentor of his once told me he had a habit of finding trouble, getting reprimanded, putting his head down, training hard and once the coast is clear, going out and finding trouble again. Rinse and repeat.

“He’s just one of those blokes who shouldn’t drink,” the mentor added, advice it seems Bennell should heed.

To his credit, his coach Ross Lyon has shown unwavering support; protecting his player from the heavy media interest throughout his well documented calf problems and defending him after a few transgressions that ranked on the minor side of Bennell’s long history.

But echoing the well-worn definition of insanity - doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result, its hard to imagine a $15,000 fine and eight-week ban from the club will be the penalty that sets him on the straight and narrow.

Which leaves Ross Lyon with a question many of us have pondered at one time - is caviar ever really worth the cost?