By Malcolm Knox

Copyright theage

In the entire Brandon Smith-Radley-no-suggestion-of-a-pile-of-coke-for-Roosters-players-on-a-bye-weekend dramedy, this statement was the most mysterious. It undid many loose ends that had previously been tied.

If Radley hadn’t ordered any drugs from a Queensland dealer (known via text message as “people in sunny coast”), in what way had he brought the club into disrepute? If he admits having to earn back his teammates’ “trust and respect”, is that because he didn’t share the goodies with fellow golfers James Tedesco, Hugo Savala, Zach Dockar-Clay, Sandon Smith, Egan Butcher and Chad Townsend, or because he did? If he accepts the ban, isn’t he the one who’s now suggesting he did the wrong thing?

But the “wrong thing”, when you boil away all the excess, is what this was all about. One hundred per cent of NRL players and 200 per cent of Roosters fans know that cocaine use is prevalent. Among eastern suburbs NRL followers, the rate might be even higher. As Robin Williams put it, cocaine is God’s way of telling them they’re making too damn much money.

So the outrage at Radley’s alleged cocaine deal was, let’s say, muted. In fact, there was more outrage at Politis’s reported advice, before he boarded a flight in North America, that Radley be “encouraged to explore his options at other clubs”.