The Rawlings BrotherhoodGlenn McFarlane | July 19, 2009
DES Rawlings can think of only two times his sons, Jade and Brady, spilled over from a healthy rivalry into fisticuffs.
The senior member of the close-knit Rawlings clan counts that as some sort of miracle given the number of hours, scraped knees and competitive juices exhausted by the brothers growing up in the Tasmanian sporting hub of Devonport.
The first time was in the family's milk bar-newsagency when Brady, then about 12, was "dacked" by Jade, 3 1/2 years his senior.
Brady recalled this week: "I was pulling the milk forward and there were a few customers around. Jade just came up and 'dacked' me, and in the same motion I turned around and gave him a right hook."
Jade confessed this week, but disputed there were customers in the store at the time.
No one can recall the cause of the second instance, though it was said to have involved dish-washing.
"I can't remember," Des said.
"I just recall seeing Brady hit Jade."
As a father trying to teach his inseparable, competitive boys the difference between right and wrong, Des even offered Jade a free hit at Brady.
The elder of the brothers sister Cascey splits the two of them in age declined. It was not in his nature to take a whack at his little brother.
"We used to have a few blues," Jade said with a laugh this week.
"Brady gave me two of the best whacks I've had in my life, but I deserved both."
That's the way it is with the Rawlings brothers. If there is a rare dispute, they resolve it and move on swiftly.
It was the same when Brady messed up part of Jade's proposal to his wife, Samantha, who is the sister of Matthew Richardson.
It came one Christmas night at the family home several years ago.
Brady was meant to switch on some mood music from Ronan Keating. Instead, as Jade asked the question, the Red Hot Chili Peppers blared from their parents' CD player.
Fortunately, Samantha said yes, and the moment is part of Rawlings family folklore.
As contrasting as the pair is in terms of personality traits Jade, 31, is gregarious while Brady, 28, is more reserved they are each other's greatest supporters.
They are best mates as much as they are brothers.
Today, they embark on yet another chapter in their sporting relationship.
For only the ninth time in AFL/VFL history, and the first time in 60 years, a brother will coach against his sibling, with Jade coaching Richmond in today's match against North Melbourne, where Brady is one of the club's best players.
Sport has always been the thing that has united them, but has also been partly responsible for dividing them in terms of locations.
Jade managed 148 games with three AFL clubs Hawthorn (1996-2003), Western Bulldogs (2004-05) and North Melbourne (2006) while Brady today plays his 195th game for the Kangaroos since his debut in 1999.
Only three times in those combined 343 games have they played on the same side.
Playing together was largely reserved for the Rawlings backyard or out on the street, where Brady would try to keep up with his older and bigger brother, as well as Jade's friends, among them the grandson of St Kilda legend Darrel Baldock.
"Brady was always trying to keep up with Jade and his mates," Des Rawlings said. "He was always a little bloke, hanging and scrapping. He would do anything to get a touch."
It was in the backyard, where almost anything goes, that the brothers gained an appreciation of how hard you have to work to get the ball and achieve things.
For Brady, it was the perfect example of what he needed to do to keep up with the pack, as he has managed to do as one of the Kangaroos' key stoppers.
"That was the best thing for me," Brady said.
"To be able to go up against Jade and his mates, and striving to be as good as them, made me work as hard as I could."
Jade agreed. "Sport was our life when we were growing up. Brady was so competitive as a kid. He hated being beaten," he said.
Hard work was something Des and Di Rawlings were determined to instill in their three children. That included earning pocket money by working behind the shop counter.
"It (the shop) was a five-year plan to put us through private education," Jade said. "But in the end they had it for 16.
"The upbringing was all about work ethic and you would like to hope it rubbed off on us. We have a passion for what we do. I suppose that comes from watching mum and dad."
While Brady was obsessed with football from day one, Jade was a talented cricketer and once harboured dreams of playing for Tasmania.
Then, the footy bug bit. Jade was drafted by Hawthorn at pick 94 in the 1994 draft.
That feat was celebrated by everyone in the family, but particularly by Brady.
It didn't hit him until Jade packed his bags that he was about to lose his best mate at least for a few years.
"I was the most excited person for Jade," Brady said. "I didn't think about him leaving home, but once it happened, it was pretty tough for a while.
"I had just turned 14. I lost my best mate for a few years."
That's why it was a "no-brainer", according to Jade, that the Rawlings brothers were united on the home front if not the club front when Brady was drafted by the Kangaroos as the No.15 pick in the 1998 national draft.
While they knew Brady would be selected before Hawthorn's first pick, at No.20, the brothers were happy to at least be in the same city again.
Living together again after a few years apart was a whole new challenge in itself.
"Brady was horrific around the house," Jade said. "He had no domestic skills whatsoever."
But Brady did come in handy when Jade broke his leg in an Ansett Cup game at Waverley Park in 1999. Brady, on his L plates, drove his brother home in his Hyundai Excel his first time driving a manual car.
Brady said: "I had to do the right thing and drive him home. We laid him up downstairs and in the middle of the night I heard him screaming in pain.
''So I had to give him some painkillers and look after him. It was usually the other way around."
Jade's Hawks and Brady's Kangaroos played each other four times between 2001 and 2003, but there was an almost unspoken code that should the opportunity arise, they would love to play with each other, not against each other.
That chance came at the end of Jade's best year at Hawthorn in 2003, when he was third in the best and fairest.
A contract dispute arose, and Jade had no hesitation nominating the Kangaroos as his club of choice.
But the vagaries of the AFL trading system controversially conspired to stop the move, as the infamous "Veale deal" saw Jade end up at the Western Bulldogs.
Brady was as shattered as Jade at the trade a three-club deal that delivered untried Hawk Lochlan Veale to Whitten Oval.
"Lea (Brady's wife) and I were on holidays in Rome, and I was getting on the internet all the time to check what was happening," Brady said.
"It seemed like it was a done deal that Jade would be going to North.
''But I checked on the last day and I was gobsmacked. It was tough seeing him go through the process and not end up where he wanted to go."
Jade said: "I wouldn't have gone through the process if we hadn't been serious about playing together.
"But I met some good people at the Bulldogs, and I did finally get the chance to go to North a few years later.
"My career was pretty much done when I got there, but it was an enjoyable season."
The Rawlings brothers played three games together in 2006. All were losses.
The first came at Manuka Oval, where, in a North tradition at the time, Jade's father presented him with the jumper, one of the more emotional experiences of his time.
So, too, was his last game in Launceston, where he farewelled football in his home state before family and friends.
"It was only three games that we got to play together, but we loved it and we will always remember it," Jade said.
Brady said: "Some brothers don't get the chance to play together. It would have been nice to have been more. But at least we got the chance."
Jade's sole year with North Melbourne also convinced him of something he had suspected for some time he desperately wanted to coach.
"I had it in my mind that I wanted to coach, but that really shaped it for me," Jade said.
"Our aligned team was Tassie and I got to travel with and help teach the younger boys. I got a real passion for teaching young people."
Brady noticed it, too. "He was pretty much the development coach because he would take our young guys down to Tassie as part of our alignment side," he said.
"He has always had that coaching aspect to him."
The brothers have not ruled out a football reunion in the future.
Brady, for one, likes to think he has a few years left in his AFL career.
But when it is over he would love to become an assistant coach, perhaps even under his brother as a senior coach.
"That's if he would have me," said a joking Brady.
http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/sport/afl/story/0,26576,25801326-19742,00.html
