The Ozzie ball-tampering fiasco, which has so far culminated in a number of tear-filled press conferences, has made many Australians feel rather ashamed.

As they should, because it’s not a good look at all.

Australia isn’t going to tolerate their cricketers using a bit of sandpaper to illegally scuff up the ball, but apparently they will accept their rugby league players battering women.

As the dust began to settle on #SandpaperGate, that fact was best highlighted by a story on Mama Mia – which, despite its innocious name, packs quite the punch.

So, when was the last time ‘Stralia felt so let down by their sporting heroes? Off we go:

It certainly wasn’t when Greg Bird – then a star player for the National Rugby League’s Cronulla Sharks – was found guilty of smashing a glass into his girlfriend’s face.

It wasn’t when Nick Stevens [below] – a former vice-captain of Carlton AFL club – admitted to repeatedly beating his partner Laima McKenna, including threatening to kill her and kicking her while she lay cowering on the floor.

It wasn’t that time the Sydney’s Roosters’ Blake Ferguson was convicted of indecently assaulting a woman in a nightclub or when South Sydney’s Kirisome Auva’a pleaded guilty to drunkenly assaulting his ex-girlfriend.

And it wasn’t when North Melbourne and Adelaide “legend” Wayne Carey broke a glass in his girlfriend’s face and was then convicted of kicking a responding policewoman in the mouth.

No, none of those incidents were a national disgrace.

Nah, those are just isolated incidents, right? I mean spousal abuse is bad, but at least none of them stuck something down their pants and then lied to an umpire about it.

We haven’t even started talking about Matthew Lodge yet, who is the man pictured up top with the questionable tattoos, so buckle up because this is a wild ride:

[He is] the Brisbane Broncos player who is expected to be a star for the Queensland team this season despite an ongoing dispute over $1.6 million in damages he owes an American couple for beating and terrorising them – and their nine-year-old son – during a home invasion in 2015.

Lodge was walking on a Manhattan street when he began to harass Carolin Deykeyser, a young German woman. It was 4am when he followed her and repeatedly told her “tonight’s the night you’re going to die”. Terrified, she began to madly press the doorbell of a random apartment.

The man who lived there – Joseph Cartwright – opened the door to save Deykeyser from this drunk, furious Australian footballer. Instead, Lodge barged into the apartment’s foyer and began to beat Cartwright, punching him repeatedly in the face. He then ran into the apartment, where Ruth Fowler, Cartwright’s partner, and their nine-year-old son were hiding from the ruckus in the bathroom.

Lodge began to smash up all the apartment’s furniture, while a terrified Cartwright was locked outside, waiting for help.

By the time the police came, Lodge was trying to punch his way through the bathroom door to the little boy and his mum.

What a bloke. As an aside, he also stands accused of “horrific abuse” by his former girlfriend, Charlene Saliba, with this from Fox Sports:

“It started with controlling behaviour, then name-calling, then came the emotional abuse, he started throwing things, physically restraining me, (he) spat in my face, then pushing and shoving me, which then lead to threats on my life,” Ms Saliba said.

“I’ve lived the cycle of domestic abuse. I came out the other side.”

Here’s the truly shameful bit – he has been cleared by the NRL (National Rugby League) to play for the Broncos this season, and no one seems to mind.

Take for example the captain of the Cronulla Sharks, Paul Gallen, who doesn’t understand the fuss:

We let back blokes back into the game who touched women and hit women. I wouldn’t put him in that class with other blokes like that still playing, so let’s just move on.

Move along, folks, nothing to see here.

Anyone who has watched NRL knows that it’s basically rugby dumbed down for meatheads, but surely there should be more of a stink around a sport that allows serial women abusers to play year in and year out?

I’m thoroughly enjoying watching David Warner’s world unravel, and cheating deserves to be punished, but Australia’s real sporting disgrace is something far more sinister.

[sources:mamamia&foxsports]