First Russel Crowe and Peter Holmes a Court want to flick poker machines from the Souths Leagues Club. Now they’ve sacked Firepower as the Rabbitohs main sponsor, turning down $1 million a year from the mysterious magic petrol pill mob.

As the SMH reports, it’s a rare thing for a football club to sack a sponsor – it’s usually the other way round. But Souths under Crowe and Holmes a Court is not your usual rugby league club. And Firepower certainly isn’t your usual sponsor, what with ASIC making inquiries and Gerard Ryle being in the running for a Walkley award for his reporting on the company.

According to the story in the print SMH, Firepower seemed to be scaring off other sponsors who want to be part of the Souths revival. But here’s yet another curious thing: SMH online is carrying an AAP story that suggests Firepower did the sacking, deciding not to take up an option for two more years’ sponsorship.

Really? And then there’s yet another on-going mystery – why the whole Firepower saga has gone largely unreported beyond the SMH and Crikey. The rugby league angle is particularly odd to be missing in a paper like the Daily Telegraph. The Terror had a Souths story today, but not about Firepower, running a nice soft yarn instead about Rusty promoting the club and code on American cable.

But here’s a follow-up angle for them if they want to start covering news: Where does this leave the gentlemen of rugby union’s Western Force? How do they like a sponsor who perhaps wasn’t good enough for a thugby league club?