It was lovely to see that the first field invader to hug Alex Johnston on Friday night was wearing a Roosters jersey. There is hope for world peace.

The general inundation of the playing field was joyous, appropriate and, in the end, oddly obedient, with the crowd sprinting off as fast as they had sprinted on so that the game could restart.

Wayne Bennett became as energetic as a zombie brought back to terrifying life as he urged his players to refocus. He only wanted to win. That’s why he hadn’t wanted the field invasion. And so it proved. Souths won the moment but lost the game.

But that wasn’t the thing. The thing was ... WTAF was Anthony Albanese doing on the field?

If he’d rushed to Johnston and joined the melee like a normal person, that would be understandable and excusable. But the prime minister was strolling along near the sideline with a security escort, sort of on the field but not really, sort of celebrating but keeping a Howard Hughes distance from any germs.

When every camera should have been on the record breaker, the PM created a diversion. Just so he could say he was there? I don’t know either. A fitting punishment would have been to sit him down alone in a padded room with the coach for half an hour after Souths lost.

There has been a dark foreboding about the Panthers during the off-season. What if last year’s failure to win a fifth straight premiership has made them better? More focused? Hungrier?

© Brisbane Times