Jason Ball gained some national notice when he staged his coming out in 2012 as the second Australian Rules player to do so. He maintained the continuity of this national action by throwing himself into the LGBTI cause. Wanting to do more to correct the attitudes of Australian society, he joined the Greens, putting himself forward as a candidate for the federal seat of Higgins traditionally a super-safe seat for the Liberals. In the 2016 federal election, he succeeded in eating into the margin of Liberal MP Kelly O’Dwyer, showing there had been a demographic change in the electorate favouring the left. Buoyed by the results, and full of confidence, Ball pushed on with preparations for the 2019 federal election. But, alas, Ball’s imprudent behaviour seems to have destroyed any chance he had.

In July 2016, Ball, unable to control himself, had a bout of furious sweaty sex with a campaign volunteer in a toilet cubicle of a gay nightclub. This tawdry behaviour might have gone unnoticed except for the momentum of the #metoo movement. The Australian’s Chip Le Grand, supporting Ball with some euphemistic journalism, has favoured us with an account of the incident (23 Jan 2019).