THIS year's NRL advertising campaign doesn't seem to have received much of what industry types call "traction in the marketplace". So I propose a new ad with a new theme song: Midnight Oil's Short Memory.

Because rugby league certainly has one.

In 1995, five Super League-aligned players - Brett Mullins, Brad Clyde, Laurie Daley, Steve Walters and Ricky Stuart - took court action demanding to be considered for the World Cup. They won. And they were left out again.

Since then, the ARL's stance has been that all players are considered but selectors have to take "a view to the future".

That has been the case for 15 years, with those going to Super League, rugby union or playing outside the NRL consistently overlooked despite the '95 Federal Court decision.

When rules are unwritten, they can be broken. Which is why Queensland got away with bringing back Allan Langer for Origin in 2002 and Darren Smith was picked by Australia from Hull in 2003.

The ARL copped these impertinences on the chin - which brings us to Israel Folau.

The selection of Folau, after he had just fronted a media conference for the GWS Westies, was the final straw at Phillip Street. It was also the thin end of the wedge, the straw that broke the camel's back and the final shove over the cliff along with other tired clichés.

And so on the way to "introducing" a rule banning from rep football players committed to other codes, the ARL have had to admit that regulation has actually been there all along. How is it not a bigger story that - as reported in Friday's Courier-Mail - the ARL deliberately blacklisted Folau from the ANZAC Test while telling the public it was his club form that caused his omission?

Is it because we never believed them to start with?

My point is that it's OK for us to use a nod and a wink in how we interact with our favourite sports or celebrities or artists. They are leisure time diversions for us and we don't need rules to govern our leisure time.

But it is wholly unacceptable for a professional sporting body with television contracts, sponsors, stadium hire agreements and bankable intellectual properties to behave in this manner - let alone for for a decade and a half!

The charade must end now. Let the ARL try to ban Israel Folau, let the QRL fight it and let's settle it in court.

If the ruling is the same as it was in 1995, then let's consider everyone for rep teams and be done with it, in perpetuity. No more nudges and winks.

NSW coach Craig Bellamy has a full-time life coach who no doubt reminds him of what he has done in the past and warns him against making the same mistakes again.

Maybe our entire sport needs a life coach.