But that's exactly what the NRL needs to do this week. On two fronts.

The first is on meting out a punishment to Brisbane Broncos young gun David Fifita after he bought his way out of a Bali jail.

The second is standing firm with the Hodgson rule, with the Canterbury Bulldogs unhappy with the salary cap compensation they could receive for Kieran Foran.

NRL chief executive Todd Greenberg was firm when penalising then Raiders fullback Jack Wighton when he pleaded guilty to several counts of assault.

Ten weeks was the ban handed out to Wighton. His fate sealed when CCTV footage of his drunken rampage came to light.

There was also no movement from Greenberg when The Canberra Times pointed out while the Hodgson rule - introduced to compensate NRL clubs when players are injured on representative duties after Hodgson wrecked his knee playing for England - was nice, it was largely ineffectual.

Now he has to stand firm again or risk claims of favouritism towards the big clubs. Your Broncos and your Bulldogs.

Any wavering will simply reaffirm the belief the Sydney-based NRL still wants Canberra to "wither on the vine".

MORE CANBERRA NEWS

First, there has to be action taken on Fifita. While he hasn't been found guilty of anything and there isn't any video footage of the alleged incident - yet - that shouldn't save him from an NRL sanction.

The fact he paid $30,000 to get an assault charge dropped is just as bad a look as the CCTV footage a Canberra court was shown of Wighton.

Making the optics even worse was no sooner was Fifita back in the country, but there was talk of him being offered a four-year, $3 million deal to re-sign with Brisbane.

Some rap on the knuckles that. Makes the 30 large seem like a drop in the ocean.

Might duck off to Bali myself and see what kind of pay rise I can get out of The Canberra Times while I'm there. Since I'm a bit older than Fifita, I'll settle for $2 million.

Greenberg said he was going to come down harder on poor off-field behaviour after the last summer from hell.

The only reason this summer hasn't topped it yet is it's still spring. We've got another fortnight until that season arrives. An alleged stabbing and a few alleged brawls isn't bad work considering the 2020 NRL season is still four months away.

Now Greenberg has to stand by his words. If Melbourne prop Nelson Asofa-Solomona's three-week suspension for his Bali nightclub brawl is a marker - and remember that was done defending his mate Suliasi Vunivalu - then Fifita has to be missing a lot longer than that at the start of next season.

The fact Fifita's alleged incident was at the same nightclub should add some extra weighting to the ban. Talk about fast learners.

Apparently the spate of incidents shows the "no fault stand down policy" isn't working. Why anyone thought it would is beyond me.

If the threat of jail isn't a deterrent, why does anyone think missing footy games would be?

Secondly, there has to no action on the Hodgson rule in regards to Foran's shoulder dislocation playing for New Zealand.

It means if he misses 12 games next year the Bulldogs can get $350,000 salary cap relief for him.

It's clearly not enough to replace one of your major playmakers. But the rules are the rules.

No one complained when Jordan Rapana wrecked his shoulder a year ago and looked set to miss the first half of 2019.

The fact he only missed one game was simply a bonus for the Raiders. But he missed a lot of the pre-season. Which the Hodgson rule doesn't take into account.

It certainly needs to be changed. If it was going to be proper compensation, then it should simply be for the same amount as what the injured player is getting paid.

At the moment if a $200,000 player gets injured, the club could sign another $200,000 player outside the cap. A $350,000 player for a $350,000 player. But for a $500,000 or $1 million player they can only sign a $350,000 player.

Doesn't really make sense. So it definitely should change. It's just too late to change it for the Bulldogs.