Ricketson the Rooster with political goals

You will not be able to tell when he is scything down St Helens players at the Reebok Stadium tomorrow night, but lately Luke Ricketson's thoughts have been turning to matters beyond rugby league.

The veteran Sydney Roosters loose forward is here for the World Club Challenge, but his future direction could well lead away from playing and into politics. Ricketson has never been your average league player, his glamour-boy image off the field being well divorced from the generally unglamorous job he does on it.

But now he has stepped right out of line, by throwing his lot in with John Brogden, who is standing for News South Wales State Premier for the Liberal Party – that's Liberal with a large L, but conservative with a small c.

"If he gets elected, he's asked me to head up some health and fitness initiatives. After that, if I find that the political life suits me, I could stand for office myself," he says. "But that's a little time away and it's all got a bit blown out of proportion. I didn't realise it would ruffle so many feathers."

Part of the reason for that is that rugby league and the Australian Labor Party have strong links that go back almost to the birth of both institutions. To many league and Labor stalwarts in Ricketson's native eastern suburbs of Sydney, he looks suspiciously like a defector.

The Roosters' record holder for first-grade appearances makes no apology for that, especially after the events of last October. The club could easily have been in Bali on its end-of-season trip when the bombing shattered Australia's idyll. The wife of his former team-mate Craig Salvatori was killed, as was half a junior team from Ricketson's beach-side haunt of Coogee.

"We had close family friends whose son was killed," he says. "It brought it home to me that I wanted to do something for the local community and this political involvement could give me that chance."

Ricketson has undeniably put plenty into that community's rugby league club. Since his debut in 1991, he has become a fixture in the side, breaking Kevin Hastings' apparently impregnable record for appearances last season.

Last season was also the one which saw the Roosters win a Grand Final for the first time in 27 years – an event which has also changed his plans a little.

Ricketson, who played for Ireland in the 2000 World Cup, has long talked about finishing his career in Britain. But, at 29, he has committed himself to another two seasons with the club, which, for a man with his outside interests, could see him through to retirement.

"We have lost a few players since the Grand Final, because of the salary cap, but those of us who are still around have made a pact that we want to stick together and establish a dynasty."

That nucleus now includes an import to whom Ricketson allocates a big slice of the credit for last season's success.

"It took a while for Adrian Morley to find his feet. He's a pretty reckless sort of bloke on the field and we were worried all the time about him sticking an arm out and either getting injured or getting suspended.

"But, from the middle of the season, the way we were playing started to really suit Adrian. He intimidated a lot of people."

Morley, Ricketson and their team-mates are adamant about one thing. They have not come to England on any sort of pre-season jaunt.

They intend to carry over last season's intensity into tomorrow night at Bolton. "It's been a long time, but now we've tasted success, we're hungry for more," says Ricketson. It could be the Roosters' manifesto.