JOHN DALY'S emphatic rejection of a spectator's photographic skills might have won him a place in this country's brain explosion hall of infamy - a dimly lit space in Australian sporting memory populated by big names, regret and shame.

Remember a spitting Wally "Golly" Lewis playing for Brisbane in 1989? "If I had the chance to live my life over again, that's one thing I would change," the King of rugby league said this year.

Or the Sharks rugby league club boss Peter Gow who slashed the jersey of a St George fan and punched a former player eight times when he suggested it be returned?

Those personalities sit alongside the likes of Lleyton Hewitt, who lost his cool with a black linesman during a match against James Blake at the 2001 US Open and was branded a racist.

Two weeks ago, the then-Kangaroos coach Ricky Stuart snapped at English referee Joel Klein after losing the World Cup final to the Kiwis. He used a "c" word - and it wasn't "conspiracy". It cost him his job.

There was Billy Slater's no-look pass in the same World Cup final; a kick by Newcastle Jet Joel Griffiths that somehow missed the ball and collected a rival; Ricky Ponting's preference for part-time bowlers at a crucial time in Nagpur, and Irish jockey John Murtagh's ride on Septimus in the Melbourne Cup.

All were referred to as inflammations of the cerebellum. So entrenched has the brain explosion become in sporting vernacular, it has made its way into politics, entertainment and society.

John Howard was accused of one after suggesting terrorists hoped Barack Obama would win the US presidency.

But the owner of the camera that "Long John" duffed into a tree yesterday can be thankful for one thing - his reaction was no "Eric Cantona".

The former French and Manchester United football star was sent off in 1995 and launched himself into the crowd, kung-fu kicking and punching an opposition fan.

And perhaps Daly can rest assured too that the incident was no "Jean Van de Velde". Leading into the final hole of the 1999 British Open, the Frenchman had six shots to reach the par-four hole and took seven, setting a high bar for what is often called the greatest golfing brain explosion yet.