There's a photographer who often tells a story about an afternoon they spent working at Kennard Park.
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Being a mild Sunday in footy season, this photographer decided to take the family with them as they snapped away at a Wellington Cowboys home game.
By the end of the match, those family members were stunned. They couldn't believe what they had seen and heard around 'The Graveyard'.
There was torrential abuse thrown towards players and officials and some being sent the photographer's way wasn't unusual, either.
This was many years ago. It was the dark old days of the Cowboys.
Much has changed in the time since. The club has done a huge amount to clean up its image and become a force for good in a community which has often endured more negative headlines than it's deserved.
Long-serving captain-coach Justin Toomey-White has said repeatedly in recent years he wants to help create "better young men".
"If they're getting better on the field, they're going to be better people off the field," he said on one such occasion.
"And that's the people we want at our club and the players leading our community."
There's so much to like about the work being done by Toomey-White, club president Graham Blackhall and many others at the Cowboys.
But it's because of that work, so many were shocked to see the club confirm the signing of Blake Ferguson late last week.
Ferguson's latest deal with the Cowboys is one of the biggest stories in rugby league, let alone the Peter McDonald Premiership.
Having left Wellington for Kurri Kurri in the off-season, the former Australian representative had his contract "terminated by mutual consent" after just one game for the Newcastle club.
No more reason was provided, but there have been widespread reports of "off-field misbehaviour" during his time in the Hunter.
Given he's no longer an NRL player, Ferguson wasn't looked at by the governing body's integrity unit and he was able to play for the Cowboys on Sunday and produce a match-winning, two-try performance at Nyngan.
The Cowboys have largely been slammed for the signing.
Some have labelled them a disgrace, others desperate, while many have said they risk undoing all the good work that's been done in more recent times.
"It's more than rugby league," is something said often about the Cowboys in Wellington.
For so many people, the signing flies in the face of that. It smacks of a club signing an ex-NRL player in the hope of winning games and, they hope, a premiership.
But the Cowboys say it's about more than that. Blackhall said after the signing was confirmed the club will support Ferguson and will work with him, get him involved with community programs and try to create more good.
The problem for the Cowboys is we've heard that before about 'Fergo'. His track record of indiscretions and controversy over many, many years doesn't help him in this moment.
It has to be reinforced, nothing official has been said about his exit from Kurri Kurri. There's no investigation of any type so the Cowboys, and any other club, had every right to sign him.
But it isn't a good look for a club which has prided itself on its standing in the community.
Maybe having Ferguson back at home, away from the spotlight of metropolitan areas, will be the best thing for him. Maybe having family and friends, and people like Blackhall and Toomey-White, around him will really help.
Or maybe it's another, and potentially the final, false dawn.
The Cowboys have taken a massive risk and have already suffered a large amount of damage to their reputation.
If they don't walk the walk with Ferguson now and for the rest of the season, their talk of making a better community risks ridicule.