SO the reactionaries and the hysterics, all together on this one, look like getting their way and having Danny Williams rubbed out for life.
Hang him high, count the cost tomorrow.
On the same weekend that Brendan Cannon gets a two-week suspension for punching All Black Keven Mealamu, whose arms were down by his side, the Hanging Judge has been called in to prosecute Williams.
What to give for similar consistency among the faithful?
Just because rugby league is the most high-profile sport doesn't mean that every time there is an incident we have to go running down the streets screaming like our fingers have been jammed in the car door.
There is no doubt that Danny Williams is guilty. He has already apologised.
There is no doubt he will get a long sentence. He has already said he will accept the decision of the judiciary.
Yet none of that is good enough for some, who have added to the din with their righteous cries.
Yesterday's column calling for control in the Danny Williams case met with the expected hysteria.
"The biggest load of crap I have read this year," wrote in Chris Rose, a noted reader.
"You have written total rubbish before but this takes the cake ... Find another job, imbecile," wrote Brett Day, apparently a job counsellor.
One man called talkback radio saying he had just about got his wife to agree to allow their son to play rugby league - but now Williams had gone and spoiled it. A tip: if the kid goes out and king hits someone first time on the paddock, the problem's at home, not with Danny Williams.
Earlier this year Cronulla's Greg Bird was rubbed out for 10 weeks for kneeing South Sydney's Shane Marteene.
Bird and Marteene had had a running battle all game, as both sides illustrated during the case. The prosecution to indicate intent, the defence to suggest provocation.
Williams and O'Neill have also had several run-ins this season.
The first was in round 13 when Williams broke O'Neill's nose.
Then Saturday's incident, when O'Neill tackled Williams high and Williams retaliated, as we all came to see.
But where does each incident sit on the scale when the emotion has been removed? If you measure a punch against a knee, most will argue that the knee is far more dangerous.
If you argue the degree of provocation most will argue that Williams was provoked more than Bird, particularly given their recent history.
Against that certainly the result of Williams' punch caused more injury than the Bird knee, which will be a consideration for the judiciary.
But is a bad swinging arm, thrown straight across the chin, any worse than a punch? Or a spear tackle?
Do some even care? Or think about it?
"All in all, I felt compelled to write to you to make my feelings heard," wrote Jonathan Lee, "which I'm sure at least 90 per cent of the public will agree when I say that your column was a crock of S*#T."
Williams looks like paying the cost for the high profile of the incident.
Any suspension near the 18 weeks or so being privately spoken about will almost certainly cost him his career.
He will almost certainly leave the Storm at the end of the year and will need to convince an English club to take him with whatever suspension still remains.
If no club is willing to do that next year he is gone. He won't have the required quota of NRL games for following years.
Sorting through all the e-mails I prefer to go with Marjorie Tahija, a female rugby league fan.
"I watched that game on Saturday night and I was appalled at the media attention it has brought against a player who will probably lose his whole career over something that he will live to regret for the rest of his life," she wrote.
