A sanctuary for sinners, rugby league must be more frugal with its charity

It's a grand sentiment, the notion that everybody deserves a second chance (or third or fourth), that your socio-economic background shouldn't determine how far you can soar in life. Great nations have been built on such egalitarian philosophies.

"Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore," reads the inscription on the Statue of Liberty in New York Harbour.

It could have doubled for an NRL marketing slogan on occasion. Once again, a pre-season has been trashed by an off-field incident, this one of the most serious nature. Ben Barba has been sacked and effectively banned for life after a physical altercation with his partner and mother of his four children, Ainslie Currie.

Barba is not the victim here, even though former players such as Lote Tuqiri found him to be a figure worthy of some sympathy, an idea for which he was swiftly eaten alive in the depths of the social media snakepit.

New man: Matt Lodge says he can give back after his recruitment dominated headlines this time last year.Credit: AAP

Feel sorry for his family. Feel sorry for the many, many excellent examples of humanity that are among the ranks of professional rugby league, including most of Barba's former North Queensland team-mates who spent the past week doing their civic duty and mucking in amid the heart-breaking Townsville floods.

And maybe feel for the next compassion case that comes along in the NRL and may not get the kind of chances afforded to Barba and the likes of controversial Broncos prop Matt Lodge. Because rugby league can no longer afford to be the Last Chance Saloon of Australian sport.

Rugby league should be rightly proud of its blue-collar heritage. It succeeds and appeals because of its ability to transcend class and wealth and produce a weekly product that more often than not ends up saving the sport from its regular bouts of off-field dysfunction.

And it's been a code that has taken great pride in being able to offer sanctuary and salvation to athletes that may have strayed from the righteous path. The NRL has been littered with project players taken on by a coach or club that sees a glimpse of light where others had already pulled down the blinds for good.

The Lodge matter was a case in point. After his violent outburst in New York City, many in and around rugby league wanted the NRL and Brisbane to distance themselves from the young forward.

But the Broncos, driven by a master man manager in Wayne Bennett, stood their ground, arguing that Lodge had already paid a hefty price and that it was the duty of the game to help him grow and eventually start to give back.

So far Lodge has been squeaky clean since his return to the top grade. None of these cases are black and white and like most things in sport, exist in various shades of grey. Even with Todd Greenberg's new hardline policy against off-field offenders, a blanket policy of being kicked out of the game can't and shouldn't apply.

But the game must start to be far smarter and more wary about the risks it takes when it brings players back into the fold, particularly ones with a sketchy track record. Like an allergy to a bee sting, the reaction gets worse every time. More and more it has started to stick and the mud doesn't tend to discriminate.

In coming weeks, thousands of kids around the country will take to the training field to begin preparations for their respective seasons. Hopefully, by then, the buzz and crackle of the new NRL campaign will have been enough to capture their attention.

That's a gamble the NRL and its club powerbrokers can't continue to take. Rugby league has a chin made of iron but must find a better way of managing its risk-reward recruitment without abandoning the rags-to-riches tales that make it all so compelling.