The emergence on Friday of fresh allegations of harassment against former North Melbourne player Tarryn Thomas has clarified what lies at the nub of this whole saga, and it is not about when and where Thomas plays AFL football again. If these latest allegations prove true, that conversation is over.

Return to play should not be a reward for good behaviour, by which we mean the minimum standard of behaviour expected of the rest of us, a civil standard that authorities civil and sporting have spent the past couple of months imploring all of us not to walk past when breached.

Tarryn Thomas at the time of his first suspension from North Melbourne.Credit:........

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