OISIN Murphy’s altercation in a Newmarket pub made the news for most of last week with the ‘incident’ widely covered by the racing media, including the two racing channels and ITV Racing through the Champions Day coverage of Ascot last Saturday.

Some felt too much was made of it and I would have agreed. It’s not that it should have been brushed under the carpet, but my feeling was that, because Murphy would always be willing to stand for interviews, it was made more centre stage on a big day of racing.

Murphy spoke to all three channels on Saturday, his RacingTV interview with Lydia Hislop predictably the most revealing.

Would, as an example, Ryan Moore have been pursued had he been the object of any ‘news’ story? Doubt it.

I doubt very many sportspeople who might have messed up would be required to go on their field of play for a big occasion expecting to have to do numerous interviews on the subject or be asked to publicly take responsibility – which he more or less did when interviewed after the Cesarewitch the previous Saturday,, when those at Newmarket knew the extent of the behaviour.

Yes, it was drunken, violent conduct, unacceptable before a big race meeting and punishment will be handed down.

But there was nothing new, and he had accepted the need to address the causes. It didn’t really fall into the wider ‘bringing the sport into disrepute’ realm where others have needed to be made accountable. We put mental health to the fore of most things these days but how many times does one need to publicly say mea culpa?

And then there’s the ‘role model’ that kept being brought up. The behaviour was out of order for any private citizen.

Is every talented sports man or woman necessarily a role model? Or those most successful or the most popular in their sports? Is Tyson Fury? Is Roger Federer a role model but perhaps Novak Djokovic a lesser one? Was John McEnroe back in day? Was Gazza a role model? Does popularity or willingness to do media make one more of a role model? Was Roy Keane always a role model?

Can you enjoy, be entertained, even be annoyed by our sportstars but not want to emulate their behaviour?

Certainly, through these times of upheaval in the world, many sportsmen have shown more leadership and compassion than those elected to do so. We envy their ability but is there need to make extra headlines out of them if private behaviour occasionally falls short?

Time to forget being a role model, forget fronting up and just concentrate on being a sportsman.