When I heard that a childcare clinic in Melbourne was replacing Santa Claus with a sustainability pirate, I didn’t think I would hear anything as stupid and ridiculous.

That was until I read the article about AFL Queensland's new 'Reward E-Point' system. Under their new system, teams that win by too much will be punished.

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If a team wins by 90-119 points they’d incur a one E-Point deduction. Win by 120-149 points and it’s two E-Points. Anything over 150 points and it’s three E-Points.

I understand the main priority for junior sport is participation, fun, fitness and skill development. Sport teaches our kids so many great life lessons.

Winning at that age isn’t important, but it is still a part of sport and punishing a team for trying their hardest is just wrong.

This system will create a scenario where as soon as a team is winning by close to 90 points the players will naturally stop trying and the coaches will start to make changes to the team that will restrict it from performing to the best of its ability.

We all know what that's called: tanking.

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People who run junior sport need to understand that wrapping kids in cotton wool, pretending there are no scores and the mentality of participation awards and 'everyone is always a winner' won't help them build resilience, deal with loss and want to work to improve.

I was at a junior game this year and after a goal I saw every player on the ground start clapping.

I was utterly confused and, when I asked what was happening, I was told the players were encouraged to celebrate when the opposition kicked a goal.

Now some schools have added a fourth-place dais for kids to stand on in school sport. When has there ever been a fourth-place dais?

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Everyone who has ever played sport would have been on the end of some almighty beatings.

Those losses make you want to strive to be better, to train harder. Those losses make you cherish the wins even more.

You learn a lot more from a loss than you ever will from a big win. Huge wins and losses have been happening forever.

If AFLQ thinks that it's a good idea to bring in a rule like this, that punishes a team striving to be their best and winning by a big margin, then they have lost their way as an organisation.

Campbell Brown played 205 AFL games across an 11-year career. Follow him on Twitter here.