Rugby in New Zealand is still a cross between the old style mafia and the old style mafia.
No matter who is getting knifed or boosted or traded or chopped in private, the public face is one of unity and secrecy, usually in order to protect those at the top. They have been brilliantly successful at it.
Having manipulated the media for all he was worth since taking over as All Black boss in 2012, Hansen exited by saying that former All Black coaches and players should fall silent.
"The (All Black coaching) job is hard enough without having former All Black coaches or former All Black players dishing dirt on how the team is going," he growled during a media exit interview.
So what on earth did he mean by "dishing dirt on how the team is going" in the radio interview with Martin Devlin.
In most sports, this would be called informed analysis by people in the know, something that is treasured and regarded as absolutely essential.
In rugby, it is portrayed as breaking a pathetic code of honour.
Rugby will be the eventual loser in all of this, as other sports keep inviting the public in.
There was a case in point this week, when former test cricketer and Black Caps batting mentor Craig McMillan – he only relinquished the job this year – called for Jeet Raval and Mitchell Santner to be dropped from the side to play two more tests in Australia.
Mitchell Santner and Craig McMillan. Photo / Photosport
McMillan gave clear and valid reasons, stimulating the debate, and giving the fan in the stand stuff to chew over. He wasn't being nasty, just analytical.
It is hard to recall such sharp rugby analysis with solutions from a former player/coach to match it, EVER.
Follow any sport in the world, apart from rugby down here, and you will get this kind of thing.
There are two sub-plots to what Hansen was grumbling on about.
The first came two years ago when a critique by Hansen's predecessor and former boss Sir Graham Henry included the claim that continued All Black domination would be "boring". There was a thinly veiled response from Hansen soon after.
The next and far more interesting occasion occurred after this year's World Cup, when Hansen's former assistant Wayne Smith broke down some of the tactics in the World Cup semifinal.
Smith, in one of the most interesting pieces of analysis in New Zealand rugby for a long time, pointed to specific All Black tactics, the positioning of certain forwards, as having played a big part in the manner of the defeat to England.
It was new, it was enlightening, it made the sport more interesting, and it was as valid as valid gets because of who was saying it.
"Dishing the dirt", I have no doubt, was Hansen's view of it though.
We should applaud Smith for letting the public in on the game he loves. We, the public, were baffled over why an All Black team got smashed so badly. Smith helped answer the question.
I dare say he's had the odd phone call from high places though, just as Graham Henry probably felt a cold shoulder or two.
From time to time, this desk gets emails from fans, wanting to know why journos are saying this or that about a game the media has never played to a high level.
My response is always the same. The media has spent years trying to find rugby luminaries who will show dedication to giving smart analysis that isn't overly tainted by the mafia-style credo. Such characters are virtually impossible to find.
More than any sport in the world, rugby is not telling its fans what is happening on the field, let alone off it. Put it this way - when was the last time you heard a commentator say an All Black had a shocker. And they do.
But you can live in hope, not that Hansen was giving much.
