Football has some nice codes of honour. Mr 7yo is playing his first game of football today. For such an unstoppable little spirit he was unusually apprehensive today. "Dad I'm a little bit scared about today".

That has given me pause to reflect on the benefits of this type of thing, especially at kids level, and being here at the game for an hour has given me time to write about it. Ms 11yo is currently also out at soccer so the principles tend to apply both across sports and across genders, at least at this age. Maybe the old saw "we are all born pure" is true.
Unfortunately the bad behaviour from 'adult' players in many codes of football compromise me a little here, but perhaps that's another discussion. Amazingly my first comments to my apprehensive son got this ball rolling. Mate, you'll do ok if you:
- Work honestly, and hard
- Care about your friends
- Communicate well
So they got there and started training and as with many things:
- Activity conquers apprehension
The boy started in the forward pocket. I was always a bit of a half back flanker myself but most people thought that was just rhyming slang.
We got to see that playing hard at the ball is a good thing, ignoring ones own pain is important, don't steal the ball or the glory from your teammates and be prepared to share.
There's a time to race in and get the ball yourself; there's a time to hang close to the action, waiting for the ball to spit out of the pack; there's a time to act selfish, run the ball forward and boot the goal; and a time to pass off the ball to a person who's in a better position than you. And if you're truly playing with the team's best interests at heart ANY of one these is an honorable action if you think it will work.
In the second quarter mr 7yo got moved to the opposition who was short of players and new thoughts emerged - go just as hard for them as you were for our team, you owe it to yourself.
Remember this is a game, your opponents aren't necessarily bad people, in fact you don't know anything about them. You need to learn things about people before you decide you don't like them.
What I respect is to play like you want to destroy them, but still be chums afterwards. Lofty ideals but one has to aim for something.
And the coach knew everything about every player, mentioned them by name and had a kind word for all. He managed to point out my boy's single taste of the leather as a plus. When I see a good sports coach in action I am humbled. And I think Craig Fosdike is one of those.
What impresses me is the genuine goodwill I see in every adult here today. The opponent team are getting thumped but umpires, dads, mums, coaches and grumpy old men like me are all there with a common purpose. To bring a little bit of something nice in, by getting these 36 kids to behave in a good way.
At least that's how it feels, and being here today helped remind me what "behaving in a good way" really is all about.