When it comes to disrupting a kicker, there are metres and there are metres. Was it five? Ten? How close exactly did Penrith trainer Corey Bocking come to Jayden Campbell when he darted across the path of the Gold Coast fullback as he was about to put his boot through that attempted sideline conversion?

And did Bocking smile knowingly, as seems to be the suggestion in some pockets of the internet? Or was it more of a grimace upon realising he’d somehow found himself in the way of a potential match-winning moment for the opposition? Perhaps it was a smile, after all, but the kind reserved for mortification at having done what even the 10-year-old water boy knows not to do?

There is no question of whether he interfered; replays showed that as clear as day. And on Monday, the NRL responded, handing Bocking a five-match ban and fining the four-time premiers $50,000.

The debate at hand centres around whether he meant to interfere. Hence, the hunt for clues. What was the line of his run? The nuance of his facial expression? The sincerity of that raised hand in apology? Ivan Cleary, in his post-match press conference, said it was “an honest mistake”, a sentiment reiterated by Penrith that suggests a heat-of-the-moment brain fade. Andrew Johns called it “gamesmanship”, which intimates a deliberate act.

Herein lies the grey area between accident and cheating in sport, and the levels of rule-bending that sit in between. Many fall into the gamesmanship category, where the provocateur thrives on psychological warfare in an attempt to gain an advantage via unfair means.

Shithousery, basically. And there are levels of such work. The least serious could be labelled spur-of-the-moment shithousery. That includes........

© The Sydney Morning Herald