As Premier Mike Baird tried to relax with his family over the school holidays this week, Macquarie Street has been winding itself up with rumours and war games.
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Just about every permutation of a backdown or reversal of the ban on greyhound racing announced three months ago has been canvassed and caveated.
And in the absence of another statement from the Premier – his office said on Friday it had no update on his position – even senior MPs within his government have been speculating on what policies may fill the vacuum.
Since he dramatically announced in July moves to shut an industry found to have slaughtered tens of thousands of dogs, Mr Baird has many times ruled out changing course.
His last public statement before this week's holiday was to declare a July 2017 shutdown date "locked in".
Nevertheless nervousness among some MPs, combined with occasionally breathless reporting of an imminent backdown or political spill, have combined to create an expectation something may give. The trouble is, no one knows what.
"The whole situation appears very changeable," said one senior MP. "But [Baird's been] digging in not backing down. Any kind of reversal from there is going to need some heavy duty gymnastics."
It is an irony not lost on MPs that the government is apparently in such difficulty over an issue which remains relatively popular with the electorate. This is after Mr Baird swept to power last year by picking a tough fight on power privatisation.
A digital poll of a sample 750 NSW voters commissioned this week by the RSPCA found that 61 per cent of people in NSW supported the ban.
"The findings are crystal clear," said the organisation's Jed Goodfellow. "These results come off the back of an intense and prolonged anti-ban media campaign."
Outside Sydney though voters are evenly split.
Most of the speculation this week has focused on the party room of the government's junior coalition partner, the Nationals. The speculation has been around whether a policy change would be triggered via a spill for the leadership of Deputy Premier Troy Grant, voting with Labor to oppose the ban, or the Nationals' own amendments.
Some senior Nationals have privately dismissed the prospects of such action. Even vocal rebel MP Chris Gulaptis, one of only three to cross the floor of Parliament to oppose the bill banning greyhound racing, said he would oppose a challenge to Mr Grant.
On Friday another senior National, Local Government Minister Paul Toole denied reports he would support the removal of Mr Grant without a change of course on the ban.
There was no statement this week from John Barilaro, a man connected closely to Mr Grant, the godfather to his child.
One senior Liberal said they expected the government to seek an option for compromise with the Nationals and to defuse the issue with the release of a report by the government's greyhound transition taskforce, into how the industry should be wound down and compensated.
"It might be compensation, it might – might – be a changed phase out," said the source. "But I think it would be near impossible for him to move on that given the importance of his integrity to voters."
But more than one MP close to Mr Baird has speculated the Premier would sooner leave politics than backflip on his moral conviction.
Meanwhile, the transition report is yet to be completed. The government has been working to a mid-October release but legislation requires completion before the end of November.
Disaffection is also showing in the Liberal party room, where MPs say the greyhounds decision has added to grumbling in the party's backbench about a lack of consultation.
"The theme was 'If you don't like it, vote me out'," one source said. "Well, that's easy to say if your electorate is in Manly."
For the Nationals, the trigger is a forthcoming byelection in the seat of Orange, an electorate it has not lost since the Second World War. But polling still has them ahead and its candidate has disowned the ban.
If the Nationals fail to meet expectations of a narrow win then it seems more likely leadership issues will intensify.
But even those pushing hard for the government to change its mind acknowledge doing so would seriously destabilise the leadership of a Premier, a move that could lead to much more electoral pain than the ban.
"The whole thing is a bloody mess," said one National dissident.
In the meantime, the talks will continue and the Premier has two more days' holiday.
