Later that night, The Australian’s Jeff Dunne exchanges texts with a livid Smith. Dunne is also Smith’s ghost writer for his weekly column. He tells the coach “we are lied to every day, we have to be cynical and challenge everything”.

Smith sends a one-word response: “RESIGN”. Myself and the coach barely speak for months.

But the comment immediately seared itself into my mind and has been there ever since. Smith was right – if you don’t like people lying to you, quit your job and chose a more positive road, rather than becoming miserable, cynical and distrustful of human nature.

And now, a 25-minute walk from the pub where the text popped up on Dunney’s screen, and 12 years later, I find myself taking Smith’s advice. I don’t want to grandstand here. I was asked to outline my reaction to the NRL’s finding that Canterbury acted correctly in their dealings with the Ben Barba affair all year.

My colleagues tell me – and some have written – that they were repeatedly assured there was no truth to suggestions of a domestic assault. Yet there is a photo which no one has adequately explained. Presumably, this is all now expected to go away. And presumably, the next time a club is faced with an uncomfortable discrepancy between the evidence and the facts it has presented for months, it now has the imprimatur to actively deny any such issue exists when specifically asked by media representatives.