So while sport is like politics, politics is more like, well, chaos. "Lordy!" as Jim Comey would say.
In the midst of a huge week in politics it was a small, dry-balls story that made me wonder whether this government, heading into their own election, has frankly, got a bit up itself. And I'm not sure voters like that.
Transport Minister Simon Bridges' office was revealed to have repeatedly urged KiwiRail not to release documents which had been requested under the Official Information Act.
Kiwirail's own lawyers said it was clear the documents should be released. But twice the minister's office fought the release which they said was making them "extremely uncomfortable".
They didn't seem to care that they would feel even more uncomfortable if their stonewalling became public.
This is disturbing and arrogant.
Sure, voters might not care much about the paperwork in this particular case. But they do care when a government seems to be so smug it thinks it can get away with anything, complacent because ninety nine per cent of its work is done in the dark.
I'm not sure this government can afford to think it is above scrutiny. Voters may be emboldened by global upheavals. One change always leaves the way open for the establishment of others.
In the UK, youth turned the election. This year saw a spike in young people registering to vote in Britain - one million under 25 year olds - and on election day last week they really turned out.
Labour's Owen Jones said young voters had been "ignored, ridiculed and demonized, even. They just don't care about politics, it's said, or they're just too lazy."
He said young people have suffered disproportionately in the past few years: student debt, a housing crisis, a lack of secure jobs, falling wages.
The same could be said in this country. And I can't help wondering if this government, like Theresa May's is going to get a surprise come election day.
Nietzsche said "He who has a why can survive almost any how." Well it seems to me young people now have a "why" - there are any number of issues, especially housing, about which they can feel righteous indignation. This makes them powerful. The specifics of how are anyone's guess.
Overseas the movement towards populism doesn't seem to be following clear patterns.
The New York Times analysts say it's still foggy whether anti-establishment voters, in the UK election or others, tend to choose the most anti-establishment platform, the most outside-the-system leader or simply the opposite of whoever is in power.
Another factor: Parties are weakening, but polarisation is strengthening. Voters increasingly see themselves as voting against the party or person they dislike, rather than for one they do like.
So maybe the Nats should do a repeat House of Cards binge and this time, notice although Frank Underwood's character is defined for his ruthlessness he also knows when to fold and display a well-developed fawn response.
"What you have to understand about my people is that humility is their form of pride. If you can humble yourself before them they will do anything you ask."
Frank Underwood is a fictional character, but Machiavelli said one who adapts his policy to the times prospers and likewise the one who does not adapt to the demands of the times does not.
Well, I don't see much humble pie eating going on with this government. They seem to have forgotten, politics like sport can be deadly. But it certainly makes it fun to watch.
