Kurtley Beale and Paul Gallen have been in the news lately, with both men sanctioned for indiscretions of vastly differing degrees of severity.

Beale inadvertently sent a multimedia message of an overweight woman to Wallabies business manager Di Patston with ‘Di’ written on it.

Gallen wrote a drunken tweet while on an end-of-season holiday to Hawaii to vent his feelings after Cronulla CEO Steve Noyce departed the club.

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In it, he referred to the NRL collectively as ‘c***s’. No one specific, mind, just the body as a whole, in a backhanded manor.

“Steve Noice (sic) actually cared about players from cronulla’s feelings. Couldn’t say that about any other c*** from Nrl.”

Kurtley Beale arrives for his ARU hearing on Friday evening. Photo: Getty.

One man was fined $45,000 for his mistake, the other $50,000.

It’s hard to imagine anyone at NRL headquarters taking Gallen’s tweet so seriously that they were offended by it, or lost any sleep over it.

Yet it was he who was slapped with a $50,000 sanction by precious officials.

Yes, in invoking the c-word – a term with sexist, misogynist overtones – he scaled the Everest of profanity.

But everyone’s moral compass issues slightly different directions. A word that causes sharp intakes of breath in one set of company, doesn’t raise an eyebrow in others.

In large parts of Australia, a nation built on railing against the collective ‘them’, Gallen’s tweet wouldn’t have registered.

Teachers, bosses, parking inspectors, police, the government – it is not uncommon, in certain circles, for ‘them’ to be referred to in colourful, colloquial terms, perhaps even as ‘c***s’. Not that that excuses Gallen’s outburst.

Clearly Paul Conlon didn’t take a great deal of offence from Gallen’s use of the word.

Conlon is a judge and also the NRL judiciary chairman, who quit in protest over Gallen’s fine.

Gallen in State of Origin action. Photo: Getty

“I can confirm I have stood down effective immediately,” Conlon told the Daily Telegraph.

Conlon felt the fine was way over the top, especially for a player who was blowing off steam on holiday after two years under the glare of an ASADA investigation.

“No player in the history of the game has been under as much pressure, stress and tension as Paul Gallen over the last two years,” said Conlon.

“None of this or his medical condition was taken into account.”

By “medical condition”, we presume Conlon means a deterioration in Gallen’s mental health as a result of the Cronulla supplements scandal. News Corp has reported that Gallen is suffering from depression.

Whether the NRL needs to take that under consideration in determining their penalty is up for debate. What isn’t up for debate is the fact the fine was far too harsh, no matter what Gallen’s mental state.

There is no doubt Gallen did the wrong thing, but his penalty should have been a slap on the wrist – $50,000 is extreme.

Beale, meanwhile, whose actions initially caused Di Patston a great deal of distress, and triggered a chain reaction that saw her lose her job and exacted a great toll on her mental health, was issued a similar punishment.

So, which is worse?

The deliberate targeting of a woman who has become the subject of idle dressing room chat with a highly offensive multimedia message?

Or the use of a profanity to loosely describe an administrative body, albeit broadcast on social media to 36,000 followers?

Perhaps the punishments can best be gauged by how each man received them: Beale accepted his without protest, while Gallen said he would fight the NRL over his fine.

He is entirely justified.