DAVID Klemmer apologised to his Newcastle Knights teammates after being sent off in the last minute of their 40-28 loss to South Sydney at McDonald Jones Stadium on Friday night.
But perhaps it should have been the other way around.
If anyone should be saying sorry, it's not Klemmer, but the vast majority of the players around him.
Nobody is condoning the forearm to the head of opponent Daniel Suluka-Fifita that earned Klemmer his marching orders from referee Todd Smith.
But by the same token, the fact that the match-review panel opted to charge Klemmer on Saturday with grade-one dangerous contact - leading to a likely $1000 fine rather than a suspension - probably puts the incident in context.
The elbow Souths fullback Latrell Mitchell dropped on the head of Pasami Saulo, as the young Knights forward made a kick-chase tackle, was clearly more damaging, yet did not even warrant a penalty.
And if Melbourne's serial offender Felise Kaufusi could escape suspension after recently crunching Roosters halfback Sam Walker, then it is no real surprise that Klemmer has been cleared to back up against Manly at Brookvale on Saturday.
Nonetheless, Klemmer's apology would appear a tacit acknowledgement that he did the wrong thing.
It was undisciplined and he could easily have paid a higher price.
Perhaps what the episode really highlighted, however, is how much the Newcastle enforcer hates losing. There have been numerous examples of this over the years.
I've seen him storm off the field after defeats without shaking hands with any of his opponents. At his previous club, Canterbury, a much-publicised blow-up with referee Gerard Sutton led to a three-game suspension.
More recently, there was the intimidating confrontation at full-time after the round-six clash at Wollongong with St George Illawarra centre Zac Lomax, who had been silly enough to taunt Knights forward Tyson Frizell following a Dragons try.
All are evidence of a fierce, uncompromising competitor who wears his heart on his sleeve. As Knights coach Adam O'Brien explained on Friday night: "He's got a high care factor, Klem."
Another way to put it is that he's a sore loser. That's not a criticism, by the way. Andrew Johns was a sore loser. So too Ben Kennedy.
Everyone loves winning, but those with an ingrained, pathological hatred of defeat are fewer and much further between.
And I can't help wondering whether the Knights would be in a better place, if only they had a few more sore losers like Klemmer.
The other reason the warhorse was entitled to be at boiling point on Friday night was that he could hardly hard done any more to help Newcastle avoid defeat.
In his 67 minutes on the field, he carried the ball a team-high 169 metres, scored his first try in 75 games for Newcastle and made 39 tackles, without a single miss.
And the thing about Klemmer is it was just another day at the office. That's what the Knights get from him virtually every week. This season, he's been averaging 151 metres and 33 tackles per game, with only 12 defensive lapses across his 12 games, despite some blown-out scorelines.
The 19-Test Kangaroo is almost robotic in getting his job done each week. Rarely does the quality of his work fluctuate. And as Knights skipper Kalyn Ponga admitted in the pre-season: "Consistency has been our downfall the last two years."
There is no more consistent player for Newcastle - or across the NRL - than Klemmer. There is no player who is more desperate each week to avoid the anguish of defeat.
He's just the ultimate professional.
If the Knights had another 16 blokes out there on Friday with Klemmer's will to win, it might well have been a different result, and their season might not be in such a sorry state.
