Snowy, the daughter in question, and captain for the day, led the Saints to a decisive 52-24 victory over Warners Bay, quite a result given that Warners Bay had demolished the Saints 60-nil in their previous encounter.

I found it to be a perfect example of junior sport - the play, the players, the referees (who appeared to be not a lot older than the players), the respectful enthusiasm from the parents and supporters from both sides... It made it very clear to me why there is such a groundswell trend towards the playing of Aussie Rules in junior winter sports.

In talking to other people at the game though I found myself to be surprised at how little was known about the history of AFL in Maitland.

My own footballing started with AFL (VFL in those days) in the '50s.

Our Maitland sides (four teams - 14s, 16s, reserve grade and firsts) back then played in an extremely competitive Newcastle competition. Our home ground was Maitland Park and we played in brown and gold, due to us being sponsored by Hawthorn.

St Ethels Public School was the predominant feeder into the Maitland juniors: In 1959 it provided every player bar one in the premiership winning under 14s side. (I was one of them)

With St Ethels feeding the kids section Maitland's senior grades were seriously consolidated due to interstate players doing national service at Singleton army base and playing VFL for Maitland on the weekends.

Not that we weren't without substantial local talent: Maitland's Noel Redding went on to play in Sydney and represented NSW.

The point is, I suppose, that Aussie Rules goes back further and played a greater role in Maitland sport than people realise, with the rugby league side often later benefiting from players switching codes and bringing their skills with them, such as Gary 'Bimbo' Collins.

When I began high school I was recruited into the school's rugby league fullback position due to me being able to both catch and kick a football - fundamentals in VFL, but a less than common combination in the rugby league players of the time.

If you could do both you played fullback; which I did, in the mighty under 5 stone 7s (35kgs) - a weight I maintained for two years...

There was a fairly serious rivalry between the codes, with '50s era VFL attempting to expand into NSW and the NSW Rugby League doing everything they could to keep them out.

I remember being called to the headmaster's office (Mr Hodge) and being told that if I continued to play VFL on the weekends I would be unable to play rugby league for the Boys' High.

I said, "fine, I'll give tennis a go". I was sticking with Aussie Rules.

I have no idea what strings were pulled behind the scenes but the rules, such as they were, were "bent", and I continued in both codes.

The real point for me, though, with this column, was made abundantly evident in Sunday's game when the smallest player in the match by far took the field - a 10-year-old who was playing up a couple of grades (from her usual under 12s) into the 14s and demonstrated to all and sundry that she was the best on the park.

She showed that in AFL, despite there being some obvious height advantages, there is still a place for smaller, quicker, skilful players.

I'm not sure that this is very much the case with rugby league anymore, and the connotations of this may be larger than the NRL seem to be doing enough about.

It's all well and good for us to attend these Colliseum style brutal clashes of giants on the weekends - and let's not pretend that "toughness" hasn't been a large part of the game's appeal since its beginnings - but, from my point of view, the nature of the game has changed enough that the question becomes, "who really wants their kids playing this?"

And so with the juniors drying up and no rugby league played in the schools I believe we're heading for trouble down the line.

Combine this with a look at attendance numbers at NRL games as compared to the AFL... rugby league should probably be looking a little more carefully over its shoulder.