Soon enough, free agency was green-lit by headquarters and stitched into the great quilt that makes up Australian rules football. It would be here to stay, and we all had best get used to it. A more business-savvy athlete emerged as a result. A growing number of players suddenly had a heightened interest in building a brand to sit alongside their football CV. There was some resistance from within playing ranks, but this new, flat-peaked-cap footballer was now in the majority. Full disclosure: I was a part of a resistance at the time, I guess I still am. I was offended by anyone who would tell me, “Football is a business and you just have to look after yourself.” In my final years in the game, I knew it was time to leave because my body started to give out under the strain. But my teammates warming up in oversized headphones was also a timely signal that it was probably time to step away. Truthfully, those of us within the “resistance” were simply trying to delay the inevitable. Buying time. We know we’re going to lose the war. It’s a generally accepted view now that we should try to emulate how the US codes are run. That’s not always a bad idea, but it ain’t always good either. When Josh Kelly recently signed a two-year contract with an option for six years, those of us in the corps considered hara-kiri. This was a significant moment in history. The battle had been officially lost, or so it seemed. One of the game’s brightest young stars, a darling of football observers, was carefully hedging his bets – or so it seemed from our headquarters.

Hadn’t Josh just signed a two-year deal a little while back? And what triggers the follow-on six years? If the Giants win the flag in the next two years, does that mean Kelly stays or goes? If the Giants go belly-up between now and 2021, does that mean he’s headed south for the big dollars? New deal: Josh Kelly signed a two-year contract with an option for six Credit:AAP For my comrades and me, it was all a bit too much to take. Could we blame LeBron James for this in some way? Our basic accounting could only work out that for Josh Kelly to be a Giant for life, they might have to finish between second and fifth in the next two years. Blimey, that’s a small window. I couldn’t help but wonder to myself that Josh Kelly is also vice-captain. Did any of his Giants teammates still staunchly hold the resistance line? Is it even conceivable that, in 2019, a league footballer might harbour some tiny morsel of a grudge, or in a moment of weakness might pose a question to one of the leaders of his team: Are you in or are you out? With the sun setting on the battlefield, surrounded on the flanks by a powerful opposition of Yankee Doodle progress, one brave, lonesome soldier walked to the front line and raised his sword in defiance. Patrick Cripps turned to us and spoke about wanting to stay. That he’d endured the tough times and wanted to share in the glory that he believed was in the Blues’ destiny. He wanted to build it from the ground up. Right at that moment, our small but inspired army of stubborn luddites looked each other in the eye with renewed inspiration.