He’s good, Peter Malinauskas, we’ll give him that.

In Gather Round, the South Australian premier has taken our share of footy and sold it back to us as if we’re the lucky ones. He’s selling our coals back to us here in figurative Newcastle, and the price we pay is a weekend without footy. On the way through, he’s getting a boon for his state’s economy and untold dollars worth of free advertising.

South Australian premier Peter Malinauskas (second from left) promotes Gather Round with Zac Bailey of the Brisbane Lions (to his right) , the AFL’s Josh Mahoney and North Melbourne’s Jy Simpkin.Credit: Getty Images

Usually, when you take something, you give something back. What did we get back here in non-Gatherland – that is, most of Australia?

A blitzkrieg about the charms of SA, after which we’re supposed to rejoice and be grateful that they’ve got the footy and we haven’t. Dreamy images of footballers and partners disporting themselves in exotic South Australian locations between failing to stick crucial tackles and missing to the near side, again. Our footy beamed back to us repackaged as a campaign.

Oh yes, Malinauskas is good. We’re guessing that’s a pretty high-grade merino fleece that he’s managed to pull over the AFL’s eyes.

Don’t get me wrong. SA is a lovely state – some of my best friends come from there – Adelaide’s beaut now that it has woken up and the Adelaide Oval is a treasure. You might have heard mention of all these virtues in various broadcasts and missives this past week. If you have a keen ear, you might even have picked up that they have wineries, too, and they’re really good.

At the weekend, you would have heard that the streets were teeming with people in all the footy colours and that there was a buzz about the place like no other. You might have heard about all the food and the wine and the footy that you could have infused if you were there, which most people who would normally go to the footy weren’t.

Here’s what I don’t buy about all those coals that Malinauskas was selling: