A HELLS Angel was refused entry to the nightclub and the bouncer, former Rooster Willie Brown, was shot. Anthony Laffranchi's troubles started there. Ditto for Michael Crockett. Jarryd Hayne was around the corner when bullets flew in his direction.

The club's owner, Charlie Saleh, was shot in the thigh while standing in the doorway.

The establishment is located in the seediest area of Sydney, Kings Cross, where drugs and crime are rife. It has a reputation for attracting serious and potentially deadly trouble. All of which begs the question: why do NRL players go there?

The Sapphire Lounge was the scene of the Benji Marshall saga during the week. In a nutshell, he was minding his own business at 2.30am. A man started a scuffle. Photographs of the pushing and shoving were sold to media outlets, earning the "photographer" more than $6000. Marshall's name was dragged through the mud, even though the Wests Tigers star did not start the drama.

A set-up? Melbourne Storm chief executive Brian Waldron believes Marshall was not entirely blameless because, if he's prepared to put himself in a Kings Cross club after the witching hour, he's taking a risk.

"I don't know if you can say someone has been set up at 2.30 in the morning at a place like that," Waldron said. "There are common threads to these kind of things, one of them being where a player puts himself, and when."

Let's be frank: the Sapphire Lounge is a pick-up joint. Young females go there because NRL stars are likely to make an appearance. If a player is looking for company, they know the Sapphire is their best bet. Dalliances starting in the dark corners of the club are a common sight. But romance, fleeting or otherwise, isn't the only thing to blossom there.

Until two years ago the Cross was a no-go zone for gang warfare. That changed the night of a double shooting outside the Sapphire. A doorman refused entry to six Hells Angels. Their reply was a bullet in the bouncer's leg. Another grazed a woman waiting to get in.

In a follow-up shooting a senior member of another gang, the Nomads, was shot inside a different Kings Cross club.

You don't have to start trouble to be up to your neck in it at the Cross. Most nights pass without incident. But not every night. Willie Mason received a death threat after the Hayne incident. He's now sworn himself off the Cross.

Former Test prop Jason Stevens is the NRL player welfare officer. He believes Marshall did nothing wrong but also says the game's superstars have to understand famous faces are vulnerable if they walk through the doors of certain places.

"Benji is the most likeable and sincere bloke," Stevens says. "He's obviously a victim of all this. But the environment you place yourself in is important. It can be the difference between having a good night with your friends or being all over the back pages the next day for something you don't deserve.

"I know a lot of high-profile people and they're extremely careful about where they go. They know the places they cannot go because their reputations are important to them.

"They don't want to be seen there. Benji has a very high profile and star quality. That can make him a target. That's the risk you need to weigh up."

Stevens lectures up-and-coming players about avoiding off-field dramas. "I don't tell them what to do - you can't make rules and give them orders, it just doesn't work," he says.

"All you can do is equip players with information that helps them make good decisions about where they should go. Certain places are more risky than others, there's no doubting that. It's up to the player if he wants to take that risk.

"There are certain hot spots for trouble. Different places have different reputations. It's hard for the players now. As a code, rugby league is very community focused.

"Players do so much charity and community work. They like mixing with people and the public but they have such a high profile they become recognisable and famous. When you have a degree of fame, people can try to take advantage."

Brown, now retired, feared he would never play again after being shot in the thigh in 2005 while working on the door at the Sapphire. He was loath to talk about the lure of the club or the brawl that sparked his shooting, but said: "It was something between the licensee and a bunch of bikies. There was a little bit of a miscommunication between them."

In other words, it had nothing to do with him. But he still got caught up in it.

NSW forward Laffranchi was accused of rape after meeting a woman at the Sapphire. He has since been cleared. New Zealand Warriors winger Michael Crockett has also been charged with rape following a night at the Sapphire.

He appeared at Sydney's Downing Centre Local Court on Monday for a committal hearing on three counts of rape stemming from after-game celebrations. The case returns to the same court for further directions on July 31.

Eels boss Denis Fitzgerald banned his players from drinking at Kings Cross nightclubs after Hayne, Junior Paulo and Weller Hauraki were fired upon two blocks from the Sapphire, which had been shut for the night because Saleh had taken a bullet in the leg earlier in the evening.

Fitzgerald's ban has since been lifted and Eels players Mark Riddell, Brett Finch, Feleti Mateo and Eric Grothe were at the Sapphire the night Marshall ran into trouble.

Part of the reason the club has become such an NRL haven is that Saleh's sons, Hassan and Adnan, are former players who remain friends with many of the current NRL crop. Hassan, a former Wests Tigers, St George Illawarra and Cronulla player, is the Sapphire's general manager. Adnan plays junior football with the Bulldogs and works at the club.

Saleh spent nearly $1.2 million to redevelop the grungy Ice Box nightclub into the Sapphire Suite. After he was shot he changed the name to the Sapphire Lounge and the place got another facelift. The designer of fashion houses such as Chanel and Louis Vuitton created a slick interior. The design has changed but there's no escaping the history.

Newcastle centre and former Dragon Wes Naiqama was involved in a street brawl outside the club in December 2006.

Wallabies star Matt Giteau was thought to be the victim of drink-spiking after fainting at the Sapphire but was later cleared of having any illegal substances in his system.

For sportspeople, it's taken over from the old Bourbon and Beefsteak - now The Bourbon - where Australian cricket captain Ricky Ponting was once involved in a brawl that left him with a black eye and sullied reputation - as the preferred venue to let their hair down.

It's a free world. People can go where they like, when they like. But when an NRL identity plays with fire, putting himself in a Kings Cross nightclub well past midnight, he has to accept he might get burnt.