David Pocock is rightly considered a potential candidate for the future captaincy of the Wallabies.
Whether that happens sooner or later is in the lap of the Gods. There’s no doubting he’s a fine young bloke with leadership qualities and a sense of social justice. That’s obvious by the wonderful charity work he does in his home country, Zimbabwe.
However, by publicly declaring his support for Julia Gillard’s carbon tax in an advertisement placed in yesterday’s national newspapers, he does himself a disservice.
This advertisement is part of a political campaign funded by the trade union movement, the Australian Conservation Foundation and others.
Whether you agree with it or not is irrelevant, the fact of the matter is that it’s politics in today’s world.
Now, I don’t care whether David Pocock, Rocky Elsom or Willie Mason supports the carbon tax, euthanasia, stopping the boats, stopping the waste, same sex marriage etc etc.
Whether they vote for Screaming Lord Sutch and the Raving Looney Party, or whatever, is neither here nor there either.
But what does bother me is that by nailing his colours to this mast there could be potential ramifications down the track, especially if he’s being considered for the Wallaby captaincy.
Being young, maybe idealistic and having principles is nothing to shy away from. However, by going down this track you open yourself up for criticism (i.e. “Carbon Cate”) and politicise yourself.
I think the public like their sporting heroes, especially those who may aspire to leadership roles, to be apolitical or at least to be seen as apolitical.
It’s not often during a sporting career do you see those people involved in any sort of political ‘activism’. Sometimes a fair bit of bucking authority, but not politics per se. Maybe this is the start of a new paradigm?
In my view, keeping your own political counsel is good policy for a sportsperson with some profile. Pocock’s name was in “highlights” in the advert so I guess it was a coup to have him participate.
For some reason or other there didn’t appear to be too many other sportspeople involved.
By supporting a clearly political campaign, there is the potential to put offside rugby people who may hold a contrary view.
Now I’m sure that’s not his intention but politics is one of those subjects that arouses passions and polarises viewpoints.
The rugby scene in Australia is a relatively conservative beast and if you want to shake it up then by all means, but being an overt “social progressive” and supporting controversial “causes célèbres” (if that’s how it pans out down the track) wouldn’t go unnoticed and probably not down that well with the old farts who run the game.
Whether that matters to him or not is a moot point. I’m not criticising him or his beliefs. He’s clearly an intelligent and passionate young bloke.
However, I think it’s good policy to steer clear from any sort of controversy that may affect people’s perceptions.
Unsolicited advice from an old fart: involving yourself in activities that have the potential to polarise opinions is done at your own risk.
