David Leggat: The problem with Pownceby

Searching Australian newspapers for stories other than those reflecting green and gold glory can be a thankless task.

Home-town heroes are thick on the ground at these Commonwealth Games. But one headline did stand out yesterday.

"NZ child killer's golden hopes KO'd" roared the headline in the Herald Sun newspaper, referring to light heavyweight Soulan Pownceby's 33-19 loss to Canadian Glenn "The Butcher" Hunter.

The fight was a shocker. As at the Athens Olympics two years ago, it was more grapple and throw than jab and uppercut.

At one point, the pair got into a clinch which ended with Pownceby effectively shoulder-throwing The Butcher and dropping him to the floor in a ball-and-all tackle which would have done Tana Umaga proud.

The whole show owed more to WWF than anything remotely relating to the noble art.

And that means Pownceby, easily the most controversial athlete New Zealand has selected in a Games, is once more gone from the competition after a few minutes in the ring.

And that should be the end of the 30-year-old in New Zealand Games colours.

Selecting Pownceby for Athens and Melbourne posed a dilemma.

He had legitimately qualified with the other New Zealand boxers in Melbourne, therefore he was entitled to compete.

The problem with Pownceby is a moral one.

It is right that a person, who has endeavoured to turn his or her life round, should be given a second chance, which we're constantly assured he has, so good luck to him.

That's the way we operate. Not all countries do and if you want to go and live under those regimes good luck.

But there are certain crimes when a line is crossed. It's a kind of invisible, adjustable line, depending on the circumstances.

Pownceby crossed that line when he was convicted of killing his 5-month-old daughter 11 years ago.

On both his Games trips, it's not hard to find fellow athletes uneasy at his selection. They won't say it publicly, but the feeling is there all the same.

Both times he was shielded from the media by New Zealand team management, therefore becoming a focus of attention. The man in a vacuum, someone walking around with a cone of silence over his head.

The team management felt if they opened him, and - in a fruit-of-the-poisoned-tree situation - the boxing team's practice venue, up to the media there would have been a right old circus.

They're right, but the circus would have left town pretty smartly. It's always the same; shut the doors and the curiosity is aroused. The management have had to place a minder close by, when he doubtless had better things to do.

In Athens, when Pownceby lost just as easily as he did on Sunday night, there was a vibe, a kind of "thank goodness that's over", around the camp.

Imagine if Pownceby had won a medal, either there or in Melbourne.

How wildly would the New Zealand camp have cheered?

Would he have received the ubiquitous haka from fellow Kiwi athletes?

The applause would have been muted, and that's not right.

That headline will stick in the mind. New Zealanders shouldn't need to see it again.