Which brings us to the evening's most refreshing guest, making her Q&A debut: Peggy O'Neal, CEO of the AFL premiership club Richmond, who had thoughtful contributions on that very question of mixing sport and politics.
Tony Jones asked: "You're an American, originally at least. What did you think when Donald Trump came out and said if it was up to him he would sack the NFL players who took the knee in protest over police killings of young black men… during the national anthem?"
O'Neal traversed the Trump minefield with aplomb.
"One, I'm glad he's not the owner of all those teams, but I think it also shows there's solidarity among teammates whether you're black or white… There are people from all walks of life taking the knee to show solidarity, that you can't ignore the fact of our history, you can't ignore slavery or racism," she said.
"I think it's now in a public debate and Donald Trump is very divisive. His actions allowed more people to stand up and say, 'I'm with them'."
Later, she noted that sports people had every right to express their views, no matter how controversial - but that they also had to expect the public to mark them up or down on those views as they saw fit.
"That's the accountability part," she said.
"Think of Muhammad Ali now and he was very decisive back then. He was an Olympic gold medallist and decided he didn't want to go to Vietnam. He lost that and went to prison. Then he came out as a civil rights leader.
"[Athletes] don't always say what the majority of the community wants. But they are connected to community. And they often do reflect community values because sporting clubs are not separate to community."
http://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/tv-and-radio/qa-recap-matt-canavan-and-richard-di-natale-get-heated-over-adani-and-marriage-debate-20171009-gyxizi.html
