No politician can afford to ignore State of Origin

THEY can embrace it, they can fake it, but they can’t escape it. Footy enthusiasm is non-negotiable for all politicians but this little piece of theatre demeans not only them, but also us.

THEY can embrace it, they can fake it, but they can’t escape it – an enthusiasm for “footer’’ is non-negotiable this week for a politician living anywhere from Cape York to Queanbeyan.

There are MPs who have no interest in swathing themselves in maroon or blue and roaring support for a game they have never played, or had the faintest interest in from their earliest school days.

But the boys and girls who frequented the library during lunch hour and honed their skills not on the oval but in ­debating class are now obligated to confect a passion for State of Origin if they want to win an election.

No one believed former prime minister Kevin Rudd loved rugby league but come Origin time, he was a devoted Maroons fan, dutifully dispirited in defeat, appropriately ­jubilant in victory.

Former NSW Premier Bob Carr never pretended to be a sports fan, but admitted it was politically risky. Pic: John Feder

No one, for that matter, truly believes that Malcolm Turnbull has a profound interest in the fate of the Blues, but with a July poll looming he had no choice.

This little piece of theatre demeans not only them, but also us.

Yet it will continue, largely ­because a politician prepared to admit they don’t care for sport risks being slapped with a label, from a wide arc or accusations ranging from “elitist” to “loser”.

The one hugely successful MP who was prepared to swim against the tide was former New South Wales premier Bob Carr.

Maroon or Blue, a good politician has to pick his colour and be able to recognise captains Cameron Smith and Paul Gallen. Picture Craig Greenhill

Carr almost certainly would have preferred reading the Divine Comedy in the original Tuscan dialect than watch State of Origin, and he didn’t care who knew it.

In 2000 when NSW hosted the world’s biggest sporting event, the Olympics, Carr expressed an interest in watching the 100m men’s sprint but only if a leopard was included in the line-up.

He conceded in an ABC interview in 2013 that a lack of interest in sport was “a bit of a disability’’ for an Australian politician.

But, quite admirably, he refused to fake it.

“I was born without a sporting gene,” he said.

Originally published as No politician can afford to ignore State of Origin