When I was growing up, my family was close to one of England’s biggest sporting heroes. To the public, he was untouchable – a national champion. His face was on cereal boxes, stickers, and on posters in teenage boys’ bedrooms all over the country, probably even the world. He was an absolute legend.But behind closed doors, he was far from perfect – unfaithful and prone to mistakes that, today, would likely see him cancelled.Back then, it was an unwritten rule: no one talked. His wife stood by him, his mates closed ranks, and even the press turned a blind eye – until his problems became so obvious they could no longer afford to.He was an elite sportsman, and the country needed him. Australian vice captain Ashleigh Gardner is accused of cheating on her wife Monica Wright with junior teammate, 22-year-old Georgia Voll. (Ashleigh, right, and Georgia, left, are pictured together in India last year during the tour where they allegedly began an affair) Monica Wright publicly accused her estranged wife, cricketer Ashleigh Gardner, of infidelity Monica made it clear there was more to the story after we first reported on the couple’s split His private life remained private because that was the deal. Marrying a sporting superstar meant signing up to an unwritten code of omertà: protect the man, the brand and the game at all costs.But times have changed.It’s not that our elite athletes have suddenly become saints. Rather, their partners and exes, emboldened by social media, have torn up the old code of silence I often joke that the internet gave idiots a voice. But it didn’t just amplify the fools among us. It handed everyone a megaphone, myself included.The ex. The jealous teammate. The snubbed fan who caught it all on camera. And the most dangerous figure of all to a misbehaving athlete: the WAG with a score to settle. The days of ‘keeping things behind closed doors’ are long gone, and no one is protected. Not even venerated female athletes, as we learned this week.I’m referring, of course, to the explosive claims made against Ashleigh Gardner, the 29-year-old vice-captain of the Australia women’s cricket team, by her soon-to-be ex-wife Monica Wright.The Daily Mail broke the story of the couple’s marriage breakdown. Monica posted this photo of Georgia, and wrote: ‘This is who my wife cheated on me with’ Lachie Neale (right) barely lasted two weeks as Brisbane Lions’ co-captain after his estranged wife Jules (left) publicly accused him on betraying her in the worst way A source revealed Monica had travelled to India to see her wife on tour, only to sense the vibe was different. When they returned home to Sydney, Ashleigh allegedly came clean about an indiscretion and the couple parted ways.But Monica made it clear there was more to the story.She claimed the article was ‘too vague’ and in what was doubtless a nuclear fit of anger, posted a picture on Instagram of Ashleigh’s junior teammate, 22-year-old Georgia Voll, with the caption: ‘This is who my wife cheated on me with.’Ouch. Here’s Monica’s side of the story – and bear in mind, this is the only side we have, because Ash and Georgia aren’t talking:Monica alleges that Georgia had a physical affair with Voll during Australia’s ICC Women’s World Cup campaign in India late last year. The accused affair couple haven’t responded to these allegations, and a Cricket Australia spokesman ran a proverbial mile down the street when a Mail reporter asked him about it.What isn’t disputed is that Monica and Ash’s marriage is kaput. They had a heart-to-heart back in Sydney and Ash cleared out their Northern Beaches home, leaving only her wedding ring in a cupboard.Let’s face it: couples argue, cheat, break up, and sometimes get back together. I’ve always said as long as people keep getting married, there’ll be infidelity (alleged in this case, not proven). But that’s a column for another day.I’m not taking sides in this. I’ve cheated and been cheated on. Everyone gets over it eventually and moves on. But cheating isn’t the point here. What struck me wasn’t the allegations – it’s that WAGs aren’t staying silent anymore.They are no longer quietly absorbing the humiliation to protect their ‘heroic’ partners. The old bargain – suffer in silence to preserve the legend and get a nice Hermès bag as a thank-you – has collapsed.A new breed of WAG has emerged, and they’re biting back with ferocity. We saw it with Jules Neale after her marriage to former Brisbane Lions captain Lachie Neale imploded. A newspaper printed a sanitised account about their marital issues – the kind of face-saving narrative the AFL has long relied upon – only for Jules to step in and set the record straight.She had been ‘betrayed in the most unimaginable way’, she said, before calling out her former friend Tess Crosley, who allegedly had an affair with her husband.You can only imagine the chaos at Lions HQ after that post went live. I love to see it.I have the utmost respect for mum-of-two Jules, who refused to play the obliging, protective footballer’s wife as so many had before her. Jules has set the tone now. Our sporting heroes are paid a fortune and are supposed to be role models. If you’re married and can’t keep it in your pants, you don’t get to reap the social benefits just because you know how to kick a goal or score a century.Now Monica has followed in Jules’ footsteps – and good for her, I say. But here’s what I find fascinating in this particular case: the alleged misbehaving athlete is a woman.For years we’ve pored over the private lives of male sports stars – their affairs, Mad Monday scandals, messy divorces and assorted bad behaviour. These stories have dominated headlines for decades and, apart from the stats-obsessed football anoraks among us, I’ve never heard anyone seriously argue that those men were entitled to privacy.Quite the opposite. Whenever a scandal engulfs a men’s sporting code, the conversation in the broadsheets quickly shifts from the individual to the bigger picture. Suddenly it’s no longer about one player’s behaviour, but what it says about the culture of the sport itself.And yet when the spotlight turns to a female sporting star, there’s an instinct to tread carefully – as if women need special protection. Indeed, criticism is often dismissed as sexist or not ‘getting behind our girls’. Please.Someone has to say it, so I will.Women aren’t automatically saints because of our sex. I’ve been accused of being anti-feminist, which isn’t true – I call people out regardless of their chromosomes.Remember Matildas star Sam Kerr’s drunken incident in London two years ago? She was accused of vomiting in a taxi, smashing the car window and calling a police officer ‘stupid and white’? ‘Being a woman shouldn’t make you less accountable. A red card is a red card – you shouldn’t get a free pass because you’re female,’ writes Amanda GoffSam was found not guilty of racially aggravated harassment, but regardless of the outcome, we got a glimpse of her appalling behaviour in public.Frankly, my first thought was: if that’s how she behaves in a police station, imagine what she’s like in a locker room. It begs the question: what else goes on in the changerooms of elite women’s sports that we don’t know about?Being a woman shouldn’t make you less accountable. A red card is a red card – you shouldn’t get a free pass because you happen to be female. Now, these allegations involving Ashleigh Gardner are the biggest sports story in the world right now (minus a certain team crashing out of the World Cup semi-finals). Of course, she’s accused of no crime and hasn’t publicly responded, but I couldn’t help but read deeper meaning into reports that her relationship with Georgia caused ‘awkwardness’ within the Australian women’s cricket team.If you really care about sport, that’s a red flag: it suggests Ash’s alleged actions may have impacted team morale. If she were the captain of the men’s team, front pages would be screaming about ‘toxic cultures’ and questioning her leadership. I mentioned Lachie Neale earlier. There’s a reason I referred to him as the Lions’ former captain. His wife went public on December 18; he stood down as skipper a fortnight later. Fairly or unfairly, his leadership position became untenable.Whether the same standard will be applied to Gardner remains to be seen – but something tells me it will all be swept under the pink carpet because she’s a woman and they are ultimately held to a different standard.Remember Kerr? Cleared in court, for sure, but the footage of her was a shocker. Yet that didn’t stop the usual cheerleaders insisting that anyone who questioned whether she was a good role model was a sexist, racist, anti-women’s sport troll.In the last few days, I’ve already heard chatter that the coverage of the cricket scandal is ‘problematic’ because it reinforces stereotypes about lesbians in women’s sport. Please. That feels like a desperate attempt to change the subject.We all wanted equality, didn’t we? Women’s sport has fought long and hard to be treated the same as men’s sport. In my view, that has to include the same standards and accountability.Women’s sport has earned equal respect. Now it should be prepared to accept equal scrutiny.After all, isn’t that what we wanted?