THE easy option for Michael Ennis was to fall into the hole, because in the minutes, hours, days after the match there were plenty of people doing the digging. Some are still on the shovel.
Wayne Bennett was never going to let that happen. He had taught Ennis years ago the value of being answerable to a jury comprising only family, friends and teammates.
He told him now was a time to be strong, even though Ennis' flurry of punches to Nate Myles' head had cost NSW victory in the final game of last year's Origin series.
"Don't worry about it," said Bennett, who coached Ennis at the Broncos three years earlier and has remained close to the hooker.
"That's the best Origin you've played. You ran the ball, you challenged them out of dummy half, your defence was good. They'll write what they want to write. You've handled rubbish press before."
Instead of wallowing in self-defeat, Ennis used it to self-improve. It's why he's the NSW hooker for the Origin opener against Queensland at Suncorp Stadium next Wednesday and Robbie Farah is not.
"That moment cost us but I matured a lot from that point on," explains Ennis. "I think you could see it last season and this year. I had a game against the Roosters where some of the penalties that I got pinged for were atrocious. But I feel in myself that I'm a lot calmer. Through that I feel I can handle situations a lot better."
And this is the precise moment in any lengthy story about Michael Ennis when we revert to cliche. Journos have told him when the tape recorder clicks off that they won't be writing about his legendary on-field tongue-fu. Then he opens the newspaper the next day and the obligatory "Ennis the Menace" headline hits him in the face.
Rugby League Land has an attention span of a nanosecond. Issues are seen in black and white, players as hero or villain. Ennis is a bit different. It's become cliche that he's a decent soul off the field "And a lunatic on it," he interjects.
Fact is, Ennis is one of those grown-up footballers who seem to be leaking out of the modern game.
He prefers to speak, not tweet. He will look you in the eye. Of the hundreds of sportspeople this journalist has interviewed over the years, Ennis is as articulate as they come.
Let's snap back to the day before game two in Brisbane last year, when the Andrew Johns racism scandal had rocked all concerned. Kurt Gidley had brushed all approaches to speak publicly, ill-advised because he was the captain.
Not Ennis. He fronted and didn't miss a beat as he spoke for 10 minutes without nudging from the reporters circling him. It was impressive stuff. "The original situation was handled poorly," he says now. "I don't think it needed Joey to be thrown out on a pedestal and he got hammered."
Ennis is a deep thinker who cares passionately about the game.
On the issue of the Independent Commission, he says this: "We need a commission and we need it fast. We've got to put our egos behind us in those boardrooms. We need some of those blokes, if they really love this game, to stand aside for the good of the game."
On the issue of minimum wage, he says this: "There's a kid at our club, Tim Browne, who's had endless knee surgery in the last 18 months. He'll get back on the field and play, but in a few years time when he can't run anymore he'll be forgotten about."
These are the words from Michael Ennis that don't appear on the back pages of the newspaper.
It's the words said on the field that drag him into the scandal, that nail his colours to the mast.
He cares only what that jury of family, friends and teammates think, but while we've got you he may as well clear some things up.
First, he knows what he's doing out there. "But I've never come off the field thinking: 'I shouldn't have said that'. Because I've never stepped over the mark, with anything that I've ever said and especially compared to stuff I've heard from other blokes."
On that score, he understands why Nathan Hindmarsh called him a "grub" after that incident against Parramatta. What he cannot cop is the hysteria that followed. The suggestions that he had affronted Hindmarsh's family. That ornaments of the game can't be verballed.
"I've got three kids and a wife and I've got family at home," Ennis says. "A mum that watches what I do. They'd be horrified if I was sitting there slagging someone's family and their kids, because I wouldn't want it done to me and that's not what I'm about. If you say to a bloke, 'If you want to throw a punch you can', that's a long way off saying something about someone's family. That bothers me. Big time."
Ennis is also conscious about what his young family thinks. He and wife Simone have three children: sons Jack, 4, and Randy, nine months, and two-year-old daughter Koby Fox.
"Now that I have kids, I get concerned that someone is rubbishing their dad," he admits. That's when the self-belief in Ennis kicks in.
"But I'm not going to change who or what I am as a footballer to please people in the public. In 10 years time, when I'm retired and living a family life, those comments won't have an impact on me."
what a wankfest this loser is getting. It makes me want to vomit. If Robbie was in the side he would not be getting the same press.
