For weeks, months and even years, the NRL has been urged to take a stand against off-field incidents of violence, especially against women. In the first few days of February, it appeared the league finally had.
NRL CEO Todd Greenberg told the media the league had "run out of tolerance" for misbehaving players and banned troubled star Ben Barba from the game for life, telling him to "find a new vocation" after the former North Queensland Cowboys star was accused of involvement in a physical altercation with his partner at a Townsville Casino.
It was a swift course of action.
News first broke of the alleged incident Feb. 1, when the Cowboys immediately terminated Barba's contract after they were presented with CCTV footage of the alleged incident from the Australia Day weekend just days earlier.
In a statement, the team said Barba had made a significant breach of the terms of his contract and after an internal investigation "it was determined that this player has acted in contradiction to both the terms and the spirit of that agreement."
Four days later, after the NRL integrity unit had also viewed the footage, Greenberg banned Barba from the game for good.
It's worth noting that Barba's lifetime ban came despite the fact he has yet to face any formal charges in the incident.
And yet, almost two months after Jack de Belin was officially charged with aggravated sexual assault of a 19-year-old, he's still able to take to the field for St. George-Illawarra Dragons.
Just two weeks after the NRL appeared to take a strong stand against violence against women and Greenberg told the media "if you're violent against women you can expect to be removed from the game," de Belin had his bail terms loosened to allow him to travel and compete in the NRL.
The charges are serious. The alleged incident is sickening. But de Belin remains free to play the opening five rounds of the season.
A fortnight before Christmas, de Belin and his friend Callan Sinclair -- who has also been charged with assault in company -- and a woman met at a Wollongong night club where they danced together as part of a large group. Later that evening, according to police reports, de Belin and Sinclair, 21, told the woman they needed to charge their phones and so invited her to de Belin's cousin's unit.
It's here that it's alleged de Belin forcibly removed her top before he then allegedly took the woman's shorts and underwear off. The 106kg footballer moved on top of the 51kg woman and "moved himself between her legs, lent down and put his right hand around her throat and [his] right forearm pinned the upper left side of her body," the police fact sheet said.
The report goes on to allege de Belin forcibly raped the woman while Sinclair watched, before the 21-year-old began to remove his clothes and accepted de Belin's invitation to "come on, have a go" as she lay on the bed crying. It's alleged they began to jointly rape her.
The victim was left with visible injuries to her neck, shoulder, stomach and legs, the report states.
It's shocking and hard to read, but the details are important to understand the seriousness of the situation.
De Belin is accused of a heinous crime that carries a maximum 20-year jail term. Magistrate Roger Clisdell said there appeared to be a reasonably strong case against the 27-year-old. But the Dragons remain resolute that he will not be stood down until his case had been heard, while Greenberg said Friday the NRL would look into changing their policy and he remains eligible for State of Origin selection. Right now the case has been adjourned until mid-April, but like so many of these cases, it could take more than a year for a trial to take place.
The NRL, the Dragons and some fans argue that he's innocent until proven guilty, that we must wait for the courts to decide. But surely when a player faces charges of such magnitude, the league must take some action. Has he not brought the game into disrepute? Haven't the ugly headlines, the disturbing alleged details of the crime sullied the image of the game?
In many industries like sport, the media, entertainment or politics, people facing such serious allegations and charges would be at the least stood down, or would voluntarily move aside. They'd be given the chance to clear their name and possibly return. Why is this not the same for rugby league players?
Melbourne Storm owner and chairman, Bart Campbell, ripped the NRL's handling of the de Belin case to shreds calling their leadership "tone deaf" on Thursday as he sent out a searing email to all 15 team bosses.
"The game's capacity to hurt itself is wonderful," he said. "Standing around while Rome burns is not good enough. As a game we need to do something."
If moral reasoning isn't enough to make the change, perhaps a financial one will. NRL bosses have estimated a loss of "north of $10 million" in sponsorship dollars following the de Belin debacle, as well as the continued issues the sport has faced throughout the off season.
When handing out Barba's ban, Greenberg stated "we must protect the game." Surely, the same strong stance must be taken once again here. The NRL must stand de Belin down until the case is handled.