Sport has a remarkable ability to turn on itself; to transform a positive story into one of anger, frustration and disappointment.
Rugby league and cricket are the main offenders this past week.
The honeymoon is over for the National Rugby League – and we didn’t even make it to Christmas.
The code’s trouble-free off-season came to a crashing halt this week when three players all found themselves in hot water over three separate incidents.
The NRL’s Integrity Unit is investigating behavioural matters concerning Reni Maitua from the Bulldogs, Russell Packer from the Newcastle Knights and Richie Fa’aoso from Manly.
Two of those players – Maitua and Fa’aoso – have been charged, while Packer has been questioned by police over an assault.
Maitua has been charged with the assault of a 52-year-old Taxi driver at 5am on Monday morning.
One assumes he wasn’t on his way to an early morning training session.
Maitua is not a 20-year-old kid who made a mistake on a night out with mates. If he was, it still wouldn’t excuse his actions but it would perhaps shed some light given society’s wider issue with assaults and drunken behaviour (anyone who thinks this stuff is confined to rugby league is kidding themselves).
Maitua is 31-years-old.
He’s been in trouble before – he was convicted of drink driving in 2006, after blowing more than three times the legal limit in a breath test. In 2009, he tested positive to a banned drug and was suspended for two years.
Now I’m all for a classic redemption story, but the NRL has nobody to blame but itself for the damage Maitua is doing to its reputation this week.
Fool me once, shame on you.
Fool me twice, shame on me.
Why the NRL consistently allows players who have caused problems to walk back in the door and be celebrated is one of the real head-scratchers of the code.
But then again, this is the same code that made Sonny Bill Williams a returning hero this season, just a few years after he walked out on the game in a disgraceful turn-coat manner.
Richie Fa’oso meanwhile has been charged with mid-range drink driving, malicious damage and not stopping a vehicle when directed to do so.
There are many who will be watching the NRL’s response to all of this very closely.
Whilst it will most likely wait until court proceedings are complete, until the league itself gets tough, and makes an example of those who behave poorly, this will happen time and time again.
And it will happen in weeks like this one, where we should be celebrating the Final of the World Cup, which will be played in front of 70,000-odd fans this weekend in the UK.
Sometimes in life, you don’t get second and third chances.
It’s up to the NRL to show that you don’t always get them in rugby league either.
That will require some real guts, and some tenacious leadership.
As for the cricket, we should be talking about what was a fantastic win by Australia in the first Ashes test but instead we’re talking about the fallout from sledging.
I mean seriously, this has now reached the point where we’ve had reports that the coaching staff of both England and Australia were considering a meeting to set some ground rules around sledging.
Please, let’s take stock here.
It’s up to those on the field to take care of the sledging and the way it is directed, and it’s up to the umpires to step in if they believe something has gone too far.
It must please England no end that the media is going on and on about Michael Clarke and David Warner rather than talking up the second test.
The Jonathan Trott situation aside, they’ll be enjoying the fact that they can build up to the second test in their own corner, while we’re all worrying about what was and wasn’t said.
Sport is built on rivalry, and sometimes, those rivalries are bitter.
Let’s not step in with our politically correct shoes and try to turn a sport being played by grown men into a ballet performance at the local dance hall.
For years, we’ve criticised the Poms for being “whingers”.
Well this past week has proven that we’re not too bad at it ourselves.
Bring on the second Test.