Or he donned a Hawthorn football scarf and headed to the players’ changing room after the Hawks’ win in Week 1 of the finals to celebrate the victory and get some free media coverage in the process.

The Prime Minister is a staunch supporter of the Hawks, according to the Prime Minister’s office, but that has not fazed Richmond legend Nathan Brown, who has criticised Albo for attempting to exploit the Hawks’ victory for political gain.

“I feel that the Prime Minister, when he went to the Hawthorn Rooms, did it for his own good. It disgusts me,” Brown thundered.

‘Anthony Albanese, he looked at the polls and thought Peter Dutton was closing in, he’s ahead… there’s a gap. He thinks I have to look like an ordinary person. I’ll go to the Hawthorn Rooms.’

It didn’t take long for social media to reveal that Albo had been wearing scarves from various AFL teams: Collingwood, Swans and Carlton – there may have been more.

At the Collingwood event, Albo showed up with a Magpies scarf and said: “I’m a Hawthorn fan. But today I’m really happy to be part of this great event here in Collingwood.”

The “either way” narrative quickly came to the fore, spread by the prime minister’s traditional critics.

So is this criticism fair and justified? Is Albo really the die-hard Hawks fan his PR people claim?

Anthony Albanese walked into the Hawthorn dressing room at the weekend wearing a team scarf. He’s a Hawks fan, but clearly not a die-hard fan…

I have to admit I didn’t realize the PM was supporting the Hawks. Maybe I should have. I’m not a stalker, just a political commentator. I don’t follow his every move.

Now that I think about it, it’s true that he’s been a long-time Hawks fan and this isn’t the first time he’s gone to a game and celebrated with the team.

I’m not sure I would call him a die-hard fan, though.

Die-hard Hawks fans don’t wear another team’s jersey unless they are forced to do so, such as after losing a bet on the outcome of a game.

In Melbourne, football is a religion, and team loyalty is sacred. So while Albo may be a Hawks fan, he’s certainly not a die-hard one.

For those undecided: here’s the Prime Minister wearing a Collingwood scarf last September…

…and here he is in a Sydney Swans kit in April…

…but back in a Hawks scarf for a photoshoot in February

It’s hard to disagree that politics was at least part of the equation when he later walked into the premises and gave an interview, showing himself in a photo rooting for his winning team.

But the prime minister is not the first politician to do so with politics in mind. Scott Morrison created a love of rugby league to fit his political narrative as a man of the people. He also came up with the nickname “ScoMo”.

At least Either was always Either.

It is worth noting that South Sydney played its final NRL game of the season on the same night that Hawthorn played its first AFL final. The South Sydney Rabbitohs are a team that Albo is known to support. And a die-hard fan at that.

But instead of cheering on his beloved South Sydney team in their derby match against the Roosters, he went to see the Hawks.

Souths have had a dreadful year to forget in the NRL and are now mired in a white powder controversy involving their star player, Latrell Mitchell.

These are certainly not comparisons that would fit the Prime Minister’s current policies.

Perhaps the difficult political situation has turned the Prime Minister into a staunch supporter of the South, if such a thing exists.

Maybe that’s unfair – he’s probably lost a lot of Souths’ home games this year, including since they were bottom of the table.

At the end of the day, if Albo is privileged enough to have access to the Hawks’ locker room after the game, I wish him luck. It’s one of the perks of being prime minister. If he can get some free political coverage along the way, so much the better, his handlers would say.

He is not the first politician to do this, and he certainly won’t be the last.

And Brown is not an impartial observer who lets the Prime Minister get away with what he has done. Brown has been in front of the cameras praising Sportsbet’s gambling products, and since Albo wants to curtail some of their activities, perhaps that was a factor in his critical observations.

Ironically, the prime minister has recently received more media condemnation for not going far enough in his anti-gambling crackdown, a window into the competitive tensions to which political leaders are regularly subjected.

Another reason why politics is really a game for suckers.

Where does all this leave us?

In my opinion, Albo is just another politician who wants to secure some reflected glory from a winning sports team that he also supports when not wearing other teams’ colors, because it suited him politically at the time.

In the meantime, let’s go Hawks!