What are we playing at?

Standing in the winter sun at the local park on Saturday mornings, making small talk with the other parents as our children play Australian football, I think about competition. In their age group, under nine, scoring is banned. Let the kids have fun, the league is saying, let them run and jump and wrestle, learn how to kick and catch and bounce the capricious oval ball, learn how to play as a team and sing the club song, without worrying about winning and losing. The coaches and parents, in my experience at least, endorse this message, but the kids, despite the Zen blend of gusto and indifference with which they play, never quite forget that football is a contest. “We won!” my son cried after his first game. “35 to 26.” Apparently all the kids were keeping score.

Could we really expect otherwise? Their interest in