About other matters, I’m more equivocal. The drums just won’t stop beating that Cameron Smith will soon cash in his chips with Norman. Proceeding as such might cause more damage to Smith long-term than what a signing bonus of $200 million might assist with in greasing his wheels.

Smith should be absolutely free to do as he pleases career-wise. I’m sure though that all of you who are displeased with that opinion can jump into the Twitterverse right now to start disseminating your bile.

But my word, wouldn’t Smith quell all of your disquiet if he took even 20 per cent of any signing bonus and donated it to NSW flood relief, or children’s cancer research, or even reincarnating the Tasmanian Tiger (apparently, that’s a happening thing).

It’s a diatribe of unadulterated BS to classify LIV Golf’s war chest as “blood money”, and anyone who watches Formula 1 or drives a car should know better and try harder.

These matters and opinions duly noted and expressed no more vigorously than is reasonably necessary, there’s one constant about which I’m absolutely concrete in my thinking: this whole netherworld of social media is a putrid cesspit.

To borrow a line from the funniest man in Australian history, ‘Slammin’ Sam Kekovich, “social media” once constituted shorthand for a shrewdness of journalistic apes, slavishly craned over the drip tray during the punching ‘n’ kebab hours of a Friday night in any inner city pub you might care to nominate.

Really, there’s zilch that’s “social” about social media. Rather, it’s an antisocial cancer on society.

One can but imagine the views of the social media “jury” about Norman’s character and choice of friends, and Smith’s career options and mullet. But to prove my point, let me deal with another instance of undiluted grubbery.

This week the Brisbane Broncos posted a photo on its Facebook account of its NRLW player Julia Robinson. The image depicted Robinson during a training session. Which is hardly earth-shattering or indeed, with respect, interesting content.

But in and of itself it is hardly remarkable either that the Broncos posted the picture, given the impending commencement this weekend, of the 2022 NRLW season. The Bronco’s account has more than 670,000 followers. Apparently, some of that cohort inhabit the depths of that Land of Stupids replete with all that’s horrible in humanity.

For how otherwise might you explain scores of comments posted on the page adjacent to the picture of Robinson remarking about the size of her biceps, that she resembles a man trapped in a woman’s body, or (and this is my favourite for the pure insightfulness and creativity) that actually, Robinson is Gorden Tallis incognito. Is that the nadir of repugnancy to which we’ve now plummeted?

It’s nothing besides mystifying as to why any professional athlete decides it’s an excellent idea to swim in the cesspool of social media. What’s the return on that investment, actually?

Yes, I get the athlete/brand theorem – and it’s definitely the case that professional athletes enjoy great opportunities to extrapolate their good fame and character for monetary value – but what’s the corresponding harm to collective mental wellbeing, and what’s the cost?

And for that matter, is it actually a good idea for clubs such as the Broncos to subject its employees to this flavour of poison? If I were running an NRL club I’d think carefully before allowing my players onto social media.

Social media is easily weaponised against vulnerable people (and robust characters also) who deserve nothing of the sort. Yes, laws do exist where such matters can be reported to the police. But that’s an incredibly blunt tool which can only be deployed in relation to a small subset of material posted @ athletes.

Similarly, while the laws of defamation, criminal defamation and using social media to menace someone do exist, they are terribly hard laws to use. Social media companies are invariably impossible to convince, in terms of having vile and damaging content permanently deleted. And even then it’s just a never-ending game of bludgeon-an-idiot.

The end solution of course, is that you prohibit the use of social media by players and those close to them. The awful deviousness, with which some proponents proceed in using social media, at all does dictate that this is indeed the proportionate response.

I’m all-in for paying spectators being able to boo footballers to their heart’s content because that’s the consideration for buying the ticket. It strikes me as altogether hysterical that there’s even a conversation to be had about whether AFL supporters should or shouldn’t be jeering Collingwood teenager Jack Ginnivan as they did at the SCG last weekend.

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Nobody’s holding a weapon to Ginnivan’s head and forcing him to be a professional athlete, and it’s sometimes hot inside the furnace. The spectator isn’t hiding anonymously inside some Instagram dungeon.

But it’s a remarkably different proposition that a professional athlete, male or female, be anonymously trolled on social media not for the way that they ply their trade, but instead for the way that they look while training to do their job. What completely low-rent rot.

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