Matt Cronin is a keen Richmond supporter. He's also the father of the late Pat Cronin, a man killed in 2016 after he was punched in the head from behind outside a pub.
Those two worlds collided spectacularly badly for the Tigers and the AFL this week when the thorny issue of Noah Balta's availability for the Gather Round game against Fremantle became news.
Balta in early January was charged with assault after an incident in Mulwala on 30 December. He was immediately suspended by the club for the first four games of this season, plus two pre-season games, and was required to complete an education program and counselling.
That, though, was before Balta pleaded guilty in the Corowa Local Court to assault occasioning actual bodily harm (which in NSW carries a maximum penalty of five years in jail).
Then there was the release of CCTV footage which was ugly to say the least, the powerfullyacc-built key position player charging full tilt at Thomas Washbrook, (who was remonstrating with Balta's brother) and launching him clear off the ground on to concrete, then following up with a number of punches, Washbrook subsequently hospitalised with head injuries.
It was also before the court pushed the sentencing date back, leaving a two-week gap between the suspension ending and the sentencing date. Once that happened, it should have been a no-brainer that Balta's ban expired only when the court sentence was handed down. Incredibly, it wasn't. As you were, said the league and the Tigers.
Richmond on Thursday night was able to diffuse the situation by not selecting Balta for Sunday, claiming it had planned to play him in the VFL but there were no state league games on this weekend, and a lack of conditioning made him too great a risk for AFL level.
Which in my opinion, is yet another misstep in a couple of weeks which have been full of them, the AFL, its clubs and sundry other interested parties continuing to steadfastly miss the point. And that's even after Cronin's words had given them an apparently necessary wake-up call. And Richmond as a club and the AFL Players' Association, for that matter.
"The AFL has a terrific opportunity here to set a benchmark if you like of what is acceptable," Cronin told the Herald Sun on Tuesday.
"I'm really disappointed as a Richmond supporter. I sit in a Richmond members area, and I sit next to other Tigers supporters and Round 1 came around this year and we were talking about who was out, someone said 'Balta's out', and I said 'well I hope he never comes back'.
"That's my opinion of him. He's brought Richmond into disrepute, they've got some amazing young talent at the club. What message does it send to them? If I put my Christian hat on, I think, at what point can we forgive? But for me, the punishment doesn't seem to fit the crime at the moment."
Then on Wednesday, Caterina Politi, who set up "STOP. One Punch Can Kill" after her son David Cassai died from a coward punch in 2012, also said the game was sending the wrong message.
"This was a senseless and unprovoked attack, but the AFL and Richmond are saying its sport takes precedence," she told the Herald Sun. "He's pleaded guilty. He's done it. We're not waiting for a trial. We're waiting two weeks to see what sentence he gets and the AFL is turning a blind eye."
I wouldn't say blind eye so much as continuing to close both eyes and desperately hoping it will all go away. Predictably, that didn't happen. Indeed, by Thursday, even Premier Jacinta Allan was weighing in, calling on the AFL and Richmond to explain how it was appropriate Balta was eligible for selection.
"Having looked at the footage ... what a sickening attack that was," she said. "How does the AFL and the Richmond Football Club answer that question about what's going on here? What sort of message does this send to kids about what's right and what's wrong?
She's spot on, too. For an organisation which has repeatedly demonstrated its alleged commitment to leading the way on social and community issues, its failure to vary its stance on Balta according to the changed circumstances and the clear public anger is, frankly, pretty piss poor, not to mention at odds with its previous paranoia about so-called "optics".
Indeed the game as a whole, for all its PR campaigns, seems to be failing to grasp the seriousness of this matter on several fronts.
A week ago, AFL chief executive Andrew Dillon claimed the league was "comfortable with the suspension". Then Richmond coach Adem Yze vociferously defended the original timeline, unintentionally making Balta sound like the victim here. And on Wednesday, outgoing AFLPA chief executive Paul Marsh said Balta had "a right to play this week".
What Marsh wasn't nearly so unequivocal about was how Balta's suspension stacked up with others for off-field misdemeanours.
Last October, for example, Giants' player Josh Fahey was suspended for four games after dressing up as former NRL player Jarryd Hayne and simulating sex with an inflatable doll, one of a number of players suspended for inappropriate costumes at an end-of-season function with a theme of "controversial couples".
The club's AFLW captain Rebecca Beeson said at the time the female playing group was "deeply hurt and angered" by the incident. But without wanting to minimise her or her teammates' distress, not nearly as hurt as Washbrook was by Balta.
That Fahey and Balta received equivalent penalties for their respective off-field incidents is, frankly, embarrassing. And more ammunition for those who claim the AFL's "wokeness" extends only to shallow symbolism, or what some would call "virtue signalling". This time, it looks like they'd have a decent point.
This was an occasion far more than any of those symbolic flag-waving exercises on which the AFL and one of its biggest clubs could have proved beyond doubt that they were serious in "walking the walk".
Sadly, the tone deafness, obfuscation and repeated passing of the buck by people who should know better on this very serious matter really has made it look like the AFL is as cynical as most of the public seems to think it is.
You can read more of Rohan Connolly's work at FOOTYOLOGY.