Article by Cameron Spink

 

"Don't blame the kid" were the words uttered by a shell-shocked Gary Lyon on last night's Footy Classified. To be fair Gary was probably the only one in the large AFL community that wasn't expecting it. I actually appreciate his naivety to believe that Tom Scully was actually going to stay at the Melbourne Football Club.

 

Yet, as we have suspected all along, Tom Scully walked. And he had 2 million good reasons to walk as well. That's right, next year his contract will be front-loaded (that is he will be paid excessively his first year and scaled back in the years to come) and he will be paid $2 million to play for new franchise club Greater Western Sydney. To put this into perspective he is getting paid more than Gary Ablett and much more than Chris Judd despite them being the best two players of the competition for the last three years. Given that Tom is also seven years younger (20-years old) than either Judd or Ablett this is impressive money.

 

Of course, compared to contracts in the EPL this is slim-pickings, yet this is big bucks for an Australia sports star (well, maybe not Sam Stoser). Of note is the reason why he is being paid so much. Looking at his list of achievements does not reveal the necessity of a large pay packet. The kid has only played 31 games and averaged 21 disposals and only received 3 Brownlow votes. By comparison both Judd and Ablett have played over the two-hundred games average over 23 touches (both significantly more than this in the past three years) and have combined for 279 Brownlow votes (and that is before this years count which, it is likely, one of them will win).

 

It is clear that what Greater Western Sydney are paying for, and why Melbourne are so disappointed in losing Tom, comes down to potential. And Tom Scully has oodles of it. I can't blame Melbourne supporters for feeling utterly crushed by this decision. After all, Tom was compensation for coming last in 2009, he was supposed to be their ticket into the top 8. Yet some, like Gary Lyon, believe a "don't blame the kid" mentality. That it was not his fault that the carrot dangled in front of his face was so enticing. Even fellow GWS recruit Callan Ward's mother has "blasted" the AFL for the system in place.

 

It is interesting that sometimes we can fall into this mentality as Christians. We blame the system that has seen us born in sin. We may not say we were "born this way" specifically but we do rationalise to ourselves that we are in a system that we can't break out of. Sin, after all, is continuously practiced by everyone on the planet. So, if God has dealt us a bad hand of cards, then why is it our fault that we succumb to our inane desires? Surely God allows us to sin so His grace is more powerful? Paul has much to say on this in his letter to the church in Rome:

 

What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it? Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as rChrist was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.

Romans 6:1-4

 

The fact that we cannot be free from all sin is not a justification for continuing to flaunt God's laws. The vast majority of times we step out of bounds we are aware of what we are doing but we insist, at least to ourselves, that our own way is far more important than the way given to us by our designer. We may not do this consciously but, intuitively, we know that we can make the decision between our way and God's way. In the end, no amount of pointing the finger at the system will save us from the wrath we deserve.

 

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