Our song, our game, time to stop the annual whinge

League fans yesterday shouted down an attempted anthem ban, and the NRL needs to keep listening, says Warren Mundine.

The annual whinge over the national anthem being played before NRL State of Origin games has raised its ugly head once again.

Betting on this happening every year from here on is as safe a wager as betting on the sun rising in the east over Bondi Beach every morning.

I was born in 1956 and have been a lifetime follower of the game.

A lifetime Western Suburbs Magpie supporter who goes to the Magpies games still today.

And the occasional Wests Tigers game.

I’m a true blue rugby league follower and a true blue Blues fan. A proud cockroach.

I have mates who are dinky-di Maroons fans and proud cane toads.

I go to the game to watch the athleticism, the brute force, the scoring and the tactics.

I’ve watched games at Pratten Park, Campbelltown Stadium and sat around the bike track at Lidcombe Oval.

The NRL backflipped on its anthem ban. Picture: Cameron Spencer/Getty

I’ve watched games at Henson Park, Cumberland Oval, Brookvale Oval, Penrith Park and ­numerous other venues around Sydney, country New South Wales and Brisbane.

I’ve seen great country rugby league games and sat on the management committees of Groups 19 and 15.

I’ve seen some of the immortals, great and good players play the game.

The names of Reg Gasnier, Keith Barnes, Johnny Raper, Cam­eron Smith, Tommy Raudonikis, ­Arthur Simmons, Eric Simms, Kevin Longbottom, Bruce ‘Larpa’ Stewart and Charlie Donovan call to me and to other Australians.

Those names are a part of our collective sporting and social fabric.

INSIDE STORY: How year-long anthem debacle blew up in NRL’s face

Also, as a young lad, I annoyed Frank Hardy as he broadcast from the sideline at Lidcombe Oval and Rex Mossop in his demountable TV box. Those are stories for another time.

I’m a proud Australian and a proud Aboriginal Australian. I’m proud of my Bundjalung, Gumbaynggirr, Yuin and Irish descent.

Rugby league is as much a part of our culture as shake-a-leg and ­corroboree.

I go to rugby league games be ­entertained and to get away from the madness of everyday life. To watch the game I love.

And quite frankly I, and many other people, are getting sick of the non-sporting world’s intrusions.

The NRL, in fact all Australian sports codes, have to decide whether they are as proud of being Australian, and as proud of Australia’s national anthem, as I am — or not.

They cannot have it both ways, as the NRL attempted to do yesterday.

‘Quite frankly I, and many other people, are getting sick of the non-sporting world’s intrusions’, says Warren Mundine.

First, the NRL announced that there would be no national anthem played at State of Origin games.

And then the NRL quickly ­reversed  its decision, announcing that the national anthem would be played after all.

What happened to provoke such a swift backdown?

Australians rose up and had their say, that’s what happened.

“I’ve always said we’ll listen to our fans,” independent commission chairman Peter V’landys said yesterday.

“And  it’s  obvious the fans want the anthem.”

Yes, we do.

And the NRL should keep the ­uprising of 2020 in mind when the next State of Origin series looms and the same issue is debated.

It  is  time  for  the  NRL  to  make its own stand. The fans have shown the way.

If the NRL is proud of Australia and of being an Australian game, then it needs to end this continuing annual fight and state clearly that the ­Australian national anthem is as much a part of the NRL and the game of rugby league as scoring tries, tackling, meat pies and beer.

If some players don’t want to sing the National Anthem, then that is fine.

It’s their right and an exercise of their free speech. But you don’t have the right to drag our game through your political nonsense.

If you want to be political then quit rugby league and run for parliament.

The Australian public is getting sick and tired of highly paid sportspeople ramming their political agendas down our throats.

In fact, if it wasn’t for the general sports-loving Australian public, who love  to sing our national anthem, then you highly paid sportspeople wouldn’t be highly paid.

As a lifetime rugby league supporter and sports lover, I call on the NRL to end this annual nonsense and make it clear the Australian national anthem will be played before all international games Australia is competing in, and also State of Origin games and the grand final.

Forevermore.
Nyunggai Warren Mundine AO is a sports and rugby league lover. @nyunggai