It has become the familiar dance of the sports writer - interviewing a talented young athlete who needs funding but who is bashful about asking to thank sponsors or appeal for more.
Likely, it has always been this way in a country that spits out world class athletes quicker than it does the mechanisms to fund them.
After all, there is only so much pokies money to go around, and, if you believe the ghost stories about some of those arrangements, the cash doesn't necessarily always make it all the way round.
So it was that an otherwise charming chat with Anneke Jenkins turned a touch uncomfortable at Main Beach on Friday morning, as the rising young triathlete somewhat reluctantly broached the topic of dollars and cents.
"Courteney Lowe and I are working together to try to get sponsorship as a team," said Jenkins.