PUT aside discussions about on-field happenings and you would have seen my name in the media twice last week - and the two things may have seemed a bit contradictory.
On Tuesday, I made some comments at a press conference saying that expansion of the league and the introduction of free agency could mean the end of the one-club player. I said I could understand the pressure on some players when large amounts of money are being thrown in their direction.
A day later North Melbourne announced that I had re-signed with the club, effectively guaranteeing that I would finish my career at the club I love.
For me, the decision to recommit to the Kangaroos was easy. The club has stood by me, especially through a really difficult period last year when I was battling injuries to both feet.
As I said last week, I owe the club more than the club owes me. It drafted me as a gangly 18-year-old Ballarat boy almost 11 years ago and that counts for a lot.
But that's my decision. My point last week is that we have to be more understanding of those who make different decisions, because for every player there is a totally different set of issues and pressures. And there can be no doubt that expansion of then competition is multiplying the pressure on some players.
It is inevitable that some will choose long-term financial security for themselves and their families over the desire to be a one-team player. It's essential to the success of the expanded competition that they do.
I feel for Tom Scully. He's a young man with a big decision to make. Whatever he does, there's a downside.
There is a danger in putting all the focus on the way in which the big names are lured and we can forget that expansion and the looming introduction of free agency brings a different set of issues to another set of players.
This is the scenario that I think about: a new coach takes over the reins at a club. He has a five- or six-year window to take the team to finals and hopefully a grand final.
He will trade out the old and bring in the new in search of finding a list of players he can mould and teach. Hopefully this will bear fruit in three or four years.
So the middle-tier players these days are smarter and can see the writing on the wall and if they don't think they are going to be part of the next period of success they then will be proactive in finding a new club. Players will change clubs themselves in search of a premiership.
Is loyalty more important than the possibility of having a premiership medal dangling around your neck, especially when you are toiling away for a coach who doesn't really see you as part of his premiership blueprint?
Some fans will paint these players as ''greedy'', people who are just chasing the money. I think that's really unfair. We're in this game for only a short time and people have to think about a whole range of different factors when making these kinds of decisions.
If you had the choice of securing the future of your family - your children, your parents - for decades if it meant joining a new team, wouldn't you at least consider it?
For me, the decision to stay at the Kangaroos was also largely about family. Being a father to a nine-month-old boy meant thinking about the environment I want to bring him up in. Not that GWS was even on the radar - nor was moving to any other club, for that matter - but I want my son to grow up knowing his grandparents, aunties, uncles and cousins.
My wife needs family support around her and the ability to be able to call in a grandparent to babysit or just be that second set of hands occasionally.
I understand some players with families need to move interstate to begin careers, or to extend them to remain in the AFL system. A good mate of mine, Daniel Harris, moved his wife and two young children to the Gold Coast at the end of 2009 to extend his career.
Early on they found the move a challenge, having to build a new support network and meet new friends. Twelve months later, and the introduction of other senior players into the Gold Coast fold, the Harris clan is thriving in the new environment.
For me, it's all about choice. And in a lot of ways, modern footballers, like people in general, are increasingly spoilt for choice. There is not a single path any more.
I choose one path, someone else may choose another. That doesn't make either one of us wrong.
Drew Petrie is a board member of the AFL Players Association.
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