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I like people who put it simply.

Hancock Prospecting said it is unnecessary for sports organisations to be used as the vehicle for social and political purposes. Hancock Prospecting was, the emphasis on was, the sponsor of Netball Australia. It was a $15 million deal that got pulled by the head of the company, Gina Rinehart.

As we explained last week, sport these days is less about sport and more about virtue signalling. That is exactly the term Rinehart used over the mess some of the players have created for their sport.

They were fretting about comments Rinehart\'s father made 40 years ago. One player wanted an exemption not to wear the sponsor on the team uniform.

And so, it has led to this. A sport that was in financial trouble, now $15 million out of pocket and lord knows who would touch them.

The irony being that\'s what the virtue signallers never quite seem to get. The simple fact that so much of this modern-day whinging actually has outworkings for more than just themselves.

If, for example, those who so vehemently opposed the Rinehart money were happy to lose their place in the side and therefore their income as professional athletes, that doesn\\u2019t mean the rest of the team were. But that doesn\'t seem to matter to those who make the most noise.

And the most noise for what? Does the Rinehart business top? Does Australia stop producing fossil fuels? Does the world stop demanding fossil fuels? Do the Europeans decide not to heat their homes this winter?

Nothing changes except for the sport, the players in the sport, and the reputation of the sport.

Like all relationships in life, there is a balance to be struck. The balance for netball was an income stream at a very difficult time. In this particular circumstance, netball needed Hancock more than Hancock needed netball.

But netball abused the balance, hopped on board a horse a mile too high, and are paying the price because of it.

Like so many themes that evolve, virtue signalling being one of the latest, the proponents almost always take it too far.

That\'s before the pushback begins and the pushback has most certainly begun, with this example clocking in at $15 million.\\xa0\\xa0

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