Never mix religion and politics, the adage goes. No such platitude exists for politics and sport, although for many the latter exists as no less a faith than any Christian denomination. What’s more, a marriage between sport and politics has been witnessed throughout the rich history of professional athleticism. 

 

A world of contest

The ancient Olympic Games are often viewed with something of a utopian mystique today. However, from the outset, they were steeped in politics. The event was the platform upon which Greek city-states celebrated military victories, discussed diplomatic issues and formed new allegiances. 

 

Fast forward a few millennia and we see that, from its formation in the 1920s, the USSR (Soviet Union) used sport as an internal propaganda tool to promote collectivism. Later, this developed into a means of demonstrating the regime’s strength to global rivals. 

 

Keep your finger on the >> button and watch as in 2013 former Chicago Bull Dennis Rodman was invited to North Korea for the first time, as the personal guest of Kim Jong Un; the sojourn included the hall-of-famer organising an exhibition basketball game between the US and North Korean stars. Many considered it a publicity stunt – for Rodman and the trigger-happy Supreme Leader.  

 

George Orwell was scathing about sport’s political implications in his essay, The Sporting Spirit, writing, ‘Serious sport has nothing to do with fair play. It is bound up with hatred, jealousy, boastfulness, disregard of all rules and sadistic pleasure in witnessing violence: in other words, it is war minus the shooting.’ 

 

This work was published the year that World War II ended, the same war that saw rugby league – the only sport I really follow – banned in Nazi-occupied France. Then the most popular rugby code in the country, the Vichy government outlawed the game, worrying about its perceived rebellious spirit and socialist undertones.

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Kick off

Rugby league has origins in the mining and factory towns of Northern England. There, the code developed in the late 1800s’ as a reaction to the posh exclusivity of rugby union. It was formed to ensure that working-class players would be duly compensated for the time away from work needed to participate and recover from injury. The resultant image of rugby league as a working-class, everyman’s sport endures today – creating ample space for political co-opting… 

 

Years before the 2022 Australian election, I was living in a typical sharehouse in Sydney's Inner West. There, cockroaches and mould held dominion, while the state and the nation were ruled by the Liberal Party.

 

We received a fridge magnet in our mailbox from our local member of federal parliament, a little-known man at that time called Anthony Albanese. 

 

Along with the usual optimistic political language, ‘Albo’ appeared holding his fluffy white dog and wearing a vintage South Sydney Rabbitohs rugby league jersey. It was a seemingly odd wardrobe choice in a context where subjects usually dress in suits and button-downs. However, there was more tied up in the cardinal and myrtle of that Rabbitohs jersey than mere sporting fandom.

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