If you want every player singing the anthem, give them one they all want to sing

October 23, 2026 — 12:30pm

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Riddle me this: If you’re an athlete of such excellence that you’ve been picked to represent this glorious country, and then for whatever reason are observed to have refrained from singing Advance Australia Fair , were you ever really fit to display the Coat of Arms in the first place?

At the Rugby League World Cup, the Fiji Bati’s pre-match performance before their opening game – an a cappella hymn, then their anthem – combined soaring vocal harmonies with a raw display of faith and national pride. Spine-tingling stuff.

Fijian players are getting paid ashtray change to represent their country in the tournament. They are there for reasons of national pride.

By contrast, the Australian squad is trousering $40,000 per man. But when the national anthem rang out before the Kangaroos’ opening match and the TV camera panned along the line of players, Latrell Mitchell, Bradman Best and Keaon Koloamatangi appeared not to be singing. How. Dare. They. The next night, footage circulated of several Jillaroos players apparently doing the same before their match against Samoa.

Which prompted tired rhetoric about disrespect, disgrace, and the players fingered as unfit to shoulder the green and gold.

The anthem matters a great deal to a great many Australians, and nobody should sneer at those who are moved to tears by it. Reece Walsh appears to be a case in point. But respecting the anthem has never required everyone to actually sing it. The demand that players sing, and be seen to be singing, gets the law wrong. It gets the players wrong, too.

There’s no Australian statute, regulation or rule........

© WA Today