HAVE two sons playing schoolboy footy - one in the A's and the other in the C's. The older one was recently injured and forced on to the sideline for several weeks. He insisted on turning up to the two games he missed, so he could be around his teammates, run the water and share in the joys of team sport.
He didn't miss a training session, even though he couldn't do anything except watch. He did all of this off his own bat. He has learned enough about footy to know that team is everything - that loyalty to your mates and your coach is really the only lesson to be learned from schoolboy sport.
My younger son is in the C's. Last week, his team recorded its second consecutive win for the first time since he started playing footy when he was seven.
The boys are starting to talk to each other - on and off the field. They don't want to be put up to the B's, nor do they want to be dropped to the D's. They are starting to get an understanding of what it feels like to belong.
Professional sport is, of course, a different egg. It is essentially about winning. But the fundamentals remain the same - teamwork, loyalty, mateship. When you have these, coaches say, you have the three essential elements that create a winning culture.
The AFL has a draft system which ensures that an even distribution of player talent is divided among the clubs. Once you are drafted to a team, you sign a contract and you stay put.
If you are a member of an AFL club, you can't walk out in the middle of a year, or halfway through a week, just because the going is not good.
If you are a coach, you can't just tell a ruckman to get out of the club because his form is down, or because you really hoped you would be able to replace him with a mid-fielder. You stick with the player list you are given and get on with it.
The result is that the AFL has created a tradition that embodies all that is good about football. Your guernsey is treasured. You become a member of a club culture and you fit in with your teammates, come hell or high water.
That is why the National Rugby League has got it all terribly wrong. This week, something rotten happened to league that has left a very nasty taste in many fans' mouths.
No fewer than eight players jumped ship from their footy club or announced they would do so at the end of the year. More than 50 players are predicted to do the same in the next four weeks.
One young bloke called Jamie Soward played for the Roosters last weekend and will don a Dragons jersey this weekend. One of my radio colleagues suggested he should have jumped in a cab at halftime of last week's game and played the second half for the Dragons.
Newcastle's Clint Newton, son of golfer Jack Newton, was born and bred in Knights territory. He is a good, solid player who has always been a good club man. His team was flogged by nearly 70 points last weekend, so after a row with new coach Brian Smith on Monday he had no choice but to pack his bags.
Newton has found a home with premiership favourites Melbourne, which must tell the dills at Newcastle something about their genius coach.
We are fed absolute poppycock from coaches and administrators that this is what we must expect from professional sport and these are the facts of life. Elite footballers should be able to keep their minds on the job, no matter what team they are playing with.
If I hear the words "commercial reality'' again, I will scream. The notion that you could start the season with one club and quite happily switch mid-year sends a very bad message to the kids playing in the A's and the C's every weekend.
It says loyalty doesn't exist in league any more. Any coach can plug the holes left by injury or an out-of-form player by looking at the player list of a team up the road. Any player can change jerseys mid-season as long as the dollars are right.
One call to the ever-eager, greedy player manager and the deal is done. The whole sorry thing puts league fans at the bottom of the pile. Why bother teaching the rules and traditions of team sport to your kids when professional sport makes a mockery of them?
It is time for a draft in rugby league. Any AFL club will tell you it has largely eliminated all of this nonsense from the equation. You are picked and you stick - just like when you were a school kid.
