A high profile player in a late-night blue. Todd Carney on the drink. A coach sacked. A betting scandal brewing. Contract controversies. 

It would appear that rugby league is well and truly back. And oh, how you have been missed. 

Outsiders may sneer, spit and generally pontificate about the death of rugby league but rugby league will kick on, bigger and better than ever in 2011. That is how the game they call the greatest of all rolls. There is no sport as resilient. In many ways, rugby league survives in spite of itself. 

For every controversy, the television ratings go up. For every scandal, crowd numbers increase. For every off-field incident, the product on the paddock gets even more exciting. For every act of political intransigence or small-minded stupidity, the game rakes in more corporate support, wins over more fans and gets evermore popular. 

So those tolling the death bells for rugby league after yet another "week from hell," as the tabloid scribes scream like a pack of military-trained banshees, can keep the cast-iron under wraps for a while yet. 

There are still a few more sleeps until the footy season begins and already the code has a mortgage on the front page as well as back. 

The new "face of league," Benji Marshall, supposedly popped some joker who gave it to him at a George St McDonalds at 3am last Saturday morning. The taunt, seemingly, sits somewhere in the middle of Benji being "worse than Darren Lockyer" to Benji being "a black c**t". 

Benji is a player of ego, no doubt. He is also smart enough to know he can't go around throwing Mick Neil and Trevor Cogger around without repercussions.  And a few words of compare and contrast with one D.Lockyer surely would not upset him too much. 

The smart money is on the so-called victim being nothing but a grub, a low-down thief trying to make a buck by winding up a rugby league star and then selling his story to the daily papers and tabloid television. He was full of drink, full of bravado and full of lip. Most men in the same position, I would hazard a guess, would want to drop him, too. 

But the Che Marshall campaign that has come out since is a little over-the-top. While the lippy punk probably deserved to be decked, Benji should have known better. All this hysteria about players having some moral obligation to guide community standards is bollocks. As is the silliness that players cannot have a night out. 

Players need to be smart, though, and whacking some guy in the ear at a city fast-food outlet in the wee hours is not all that bright. 

The pressure is now on David Gallop. The Boss has had a tough week and those grey locks of his have likely turned a lighter shade. 

Gallop copped a grade-A serve from Des Hasler last Friday after going light on Todd Carney. Carney, of course, was nabbed drink driving in yet another alcohol related offence. Carney has admitted guilt yet received only a fine. 

That decision stands in stark contrast to the punishment given to Brett Stewart, who received a four-game sidelining in 2009 after being charged with sexual assault, a charge the clean-skinned Stewart denied at the time and a charge that he was later found innocent of. 

The Boss has backed himself into a corner now and it is impossible to figure how he will come down on Marshall. 

The Tigers playmaker, of course, should not be suspended. But nor should Brett Stewart have. If any of the trio should have been outed it is Todd Carney. 

He is a recidivist who, despite his constant cries of contrition, clearly cannot handle the drink. More importantly, though, he committed a dangerous crime and has admitted guilt and those two factors alone should bear greater weighting in punishment than anything associated with the Benji Marshall case, if the NRL feels it necessary to bring down a heavy hammer. 

These off-field indiscretions, though, should not warrant a heavy hand from the NRL. They should be a matter for the clubs.  Sure, there will be plenty of double standards but those clubs who allow the likes of Carney to carry on will pay a pretty heavy price culturally. 

Where the NRL must come down hard is match-fixing. Anybody connected to the game who has tried to put a rort on at the expense of both the punter and the rugby league fan deserves to be tossed out for life.

These drunken acts of tomfoolery and stupidity are, in themselves, usually minor and have very little impact on the popularity of the sport. Match-fixing or spot-fixing or gambling rorts, however, act like termites, eating away at the legitimacy of the game. One need only look at boxing to see the damage that can be done. 

If Ryan Tandy or Sam Ayoub or anyone else with an official role in the game is found to have been in on a rort, a life ban and a jail term is the minimum required.

Those involved in such skulduggery are the lowest of the low and deserve no part in the great code that has given them so much and asked so little.

While everyone is all hyped up now about this matter and that matter, the cleansing rains of a new season will wash them all away sooner rather than later. It is, of course, rugby league and it is, of course, a new season.  The controversies will remain but they will soon be shunted into the background as another wonderful season of brilliance, beauty and brutality is played out.

(Nick Tedeschi has written an extensive e-book previewing the NRL season that provides a unique statistical evaluation and comprehensive betting appraisal of every NRL team. "The Punters' Guide to the 2011 NRL Season" also includes complete squad listings for each club, analysis of head-to-head results, the thoughts of Australia's top rugby league gambler ‘Mr Rugby', recruitment analysis, draw evaluation for every club and betting advice for the 2011 season. "The Punters' Guide to the 2011 NRL Season" can be purchased online for only $14.95.)