Adrian Howard, an Australian Rules football teammate of new South Australian Premier Peter Malinauskas in the lower grades at the Adelaide University Blacks, is hoping the state’s new leader will don the guernsey again this year.

Even if it’s just for a handful of games so they can line up together in a few months’ time for a looming 400-game milestone for Howard. He’s on 392 matches and keenly aware of the march of time, and the unwanted prospect of a pulled hamstring at the wrong time. “I so want him to play that game,” Howard says.