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They say all’s fair in love and war but when it comes to sport, we teach our kids to play fair. Be nice. But, in recent times, I’m reading about the AFL draft about expectations that clubs should play by some unwritten rule that requires them to be nice to each other. To play fair. A Herald Sun article last week referred to St Kilda Next Generation Academy midfielder Mitch Owen (Sandringham Dragons) who has shown great improvement over the year. Some said he was “exploding” before the NAB league shut down and that he could even be nominated in the top 20 which would preclude the Saints from matching a bid for him. The same would happen if Melbourne’s NGA Mac Andrew was nominated that highly. Dragons’ talent manager Mark Wheeler said that Covid gave Owens time to erase his weaknesses as he grew 15cm over two years to his current height of 191cm. In July, he was a late inclusion in the Vic Metro team against VIc Country and starred with 29 disposals, seven marks and a goal. Wheeler said: “We have heard rumours he is in those picks before 20, but it just depends if recruiters want to play nice or if they don’t want to play nice.” I don’t understand why Wheeler considers there to be an obligation in the draft for clubs to “play nice”. Surely, if a player is worth taking when a club’s pick comes, he should get taken - otherwise, the club might be dereliction of its duty. I have no qualms about the prospect of another club selecting Mac Andrew in the top 20. The main thing from the Demons’ perspective is that they’ve had plenty of time to get used to such a prospect. A similar situation applies with North Melbourne which has pick number 1 and has flagged its intention to take South Adelaide midfielder Jason Horne-Francis with that selection. However, there is a view that North should first nominate Collingwood father-son Nick Daicos to force the Pies to spend the maximum number of draft points to snare their father-son player who they have already indicated they will take no matter what. North can also cause similar inconvenience to the Western Bulldogs over their father-son prospect, Sam Darcy. The idea would be that North are h to the football world their intent to be competitive in every aspect of the game. But is this fair and does “fair play” come into the equation when it comes to matters such as the draft?