When we roar ourselves hoarse watching our favourite sporting teams, do we really know who and what we are barracking for?
Take Queensland rugby league fans, for example.
During this season's first big match against NSW, which for some reason is known as State of Origin, Queenslanders cheered on a team which included Greg Inglis, who was born at Kempsey on the Mid North Coast of NSW, as well as Israel Folau, Michael Crocker and Sam Thaiday, who were all born in Sydney.
The team known as Queensland also included Karmichael Hunt from Auckland, which must be in south-eastern Queensland, and Petero Civoniceva from Fiji, which I gather is in Far North Queensland. Very far north.
The NSW team was more true blue, though the celebrated new halfback Peter Wallace was born in Melbourne and plays for the Broncos in Queensland, Ryan Hoffman hails from the ACT and Willie Mason was born in Auckland.
At least none of them was born in opposition territory, which is a claim the banana benders can't make.
But that made a total of nine players born somewhere other than the state of origin they were representing.
Really, if the powers that be want to sell this concept, shouldn't they make sure it isn't a mere contrivance?
Even if State of Origin is all about where players first played, how did Greg Inglis end up in a maroon jersey?
He played his first senior football with Hunter Sports High before journeying to Norths in Brisbane.
After watching the Origin match last week, I got up the next morning to watch football's European Champions League final, which was billed as an "all-England" affair.
That is to say it pitted Manchester United against Chelsea.
But really they are no more English than souvlaki, with 16 nationalities between them.
Chelsea's team includes the likes of Cech (Czech Republic), Makelele, Malouda and Anelka (France), Carvalho (Portugal), Drogba and Kalou (Ivory Coast), Essien (Ghana), Ballack (Germany), Beletti and Alex (Brazil) and Schevchenko (Ukraine).
Manchester United is another United Nations outfit, featuring Cristiano Ronaldo (Portugal), Giggs (Wales), Van der Saar (Holland), Saha, Silvestre and Evra (France), Anderson (Brazil), Fletcher (Scotland) and Tevez (Argentina).
One team is owned by Roman Abramovich, a Russian billionaire, the other by Malcolm Glazer, an American billionaire.
One is managed by Sir Alex Ferguson, a Scot, and the other by Avram Grant, an Israeli.
None of this bothers me in the slightest.
What I don't understand is why fans get so territorial about their team when the bulk of players in it have nothing to do with their territory.
Sport used to be territorial.
The local club was much more likely to have local players in it, and those players were much more likely to stay loyal to the club.
Since money has taken sport over, clubs are simply composed of the players they can best afford, regardless of where they come from.
At Origin II next week, as a loyal New South Welshman, I must surely support the Blues - as well as a third of the Queensland team.
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