Yes, the title is a reference to the 1989 hit "Infinity" by Guru Josh but I'm not here to talk about old school British acid house music. I'm talking about kids. Very, very young kids.
This year saw the first crop of kiddies born in the 1990's be drafted onto senior lists of AFL clubs. Tom McNamara* was drafted by Melbourne with their fifth round pick number 66. His birthdate is 29 April 1990. He is the youngest player on an AFL senior list. For God's sake, he's younger than West Coast.
So what? I hear you ask. Well, so plenty. Firstly, I'd say he doesn't remember the days when people had proper conversations with each other. Face to face. Without a keyboard. He wouldn't even know the correct way to spell "CU 2MORROW LOL."
He knows not of a Cold War or a divided Germany. Of betamax vs VHS. Of the Commodore 64. The Rubix Cube. When the West Indies ruled world cricket. All of these concepts, distant memories consigned to the history books (well, Wikipedia anyway.)
Of course with all of this that he has missed out on in his very short life, there is a positive in all this minimal life experience. In his young football memory, what he has seen and experienced in this short life, not just the insane ramblings of his grandad talking about the good old days when men were men and you could deck your opponent behind play when he wasn't looking. I'm talking about the stuff that moulded his dreams to play AFL.
In his short time on this planet, he probably doesn't know of a world without the Fremantle Football Club.
* Tom has been used merely to illustrate a point. I don't actually know if young Tom cares two hoots about Freo so if anyone has made any assumptions on his loyalty or otherwise, I am not sorry. By his age, he should know better.