ALTHOUGH the specifics of the exchange between Will Minson and Kane Cornes in last weekend's match in Darwin haven't been revealed, enough is known of the incident to make it instructive. It's a reminder that a hard, contact sport, which by its nature inspires such heroic virtues as selflessness and courage, is also capable of bringing out something less than the best in its practitioners.

Last weekend's drama was made particularly interesting by the identity of the players involved. This wasn't one of the usual suspects getting down and dirty with an opponent whose dubious practices were well known.

To the contrary: it was a case of a player who had been forging a reputation as a well-rounded, intelligent, young man, saying something beyond the pale to an opponent whose record has long been admirable.

Or that's the way the protagonists have appeared from the outside looking in.

What we don't know of their exchange in Darwin is whether Minson was lashing out in anger at something that had happened previously, or whether the comment he made to Cornes was unprovoked. It would clearly be totally unacceptable if such serious personal observations as those speculated upon this week were delivered without some sort of provocation.

Minson presents as a young man who would understand that there is, and should be, a line not to be crossed on these matters. That's what makes his involvement in such an incident so surprising. Yet, for whatever reason, he crossed that line.

He's obviously asking himself how and why this happened. As for those of us who look on, we've learnt that even a bright, apparently decent young bloke can carry some dark thoughts in the recesses of his mind and that these are capable of being unlocked in the heat of the weekly battle.

Within the artificial battleground football creates, it is inevitable that there will be hostile exchanges.

To expect otherwise is to ignore the difficulty of what the players do each week.

After all, this is a heated environment in which each of two groups is doing its level-best to stop the other achieving its objective, and both groups are permitted to physically hurt each other provided they do it within the limits stated by the rules.

The AFL has imposed strict limits on the degree to which such exchanges can be expressed in a physical sense but the verbal possibilities are less easily dealt with. Rules relating to racial and religious vilification have been successful beyond expectation, but as last weekend's incident shows, other circumstances can arise that are less easily defined.

Yet the game must continue to aim higher.

The outcome of this case would suggest it is on the right track.

Minson put his hand up and for that, at least, he deserves to be applauded. It makes a statement that players are coming to recognise there should be limits as to how far sledging can be allowed to go.

In a more general sense, just what, if any, level of verbal abuse ought to be considered permissible in sport remains a topical question. Steve Waugh once famously described sledging as a process designed to bring about the "mental disintegration" of opponents.

So how is this achieved if not by aiming at an opponent's sensitive spot and browbeating him into submission?

After all, if it doesn't hurt, if it doesn't strike an opponent in a vulnerable spot, it's hardly worth doing. And if that is how it's done, how is that different from what we frown upon as bullying? Seen in that light, serious, orchestrated sledging becomes difficult to justify.

On the other hand, within a game like football there always have been, and I suspect always will be, outbursts that warrant censure but which, within the war-like conditions of the contest, are not entirely surprising.

It's worth bearing in mind, too, that footy's environment has never been one in which angels predominate.

A look, over the past week, at this paper's assessment of the top 10 players in history bears that out.

The top 10 are what we might euphemistically call a "colourful" lot.

Scarcely two or three of them weren't guilty of some sort of anti-social behaviour at some time in their adult lives.

It's good that the AFL, in addressing matters like gambling, violence, and attitudes to women, is helping provide modern-day footballers with educational and counselling opportunities.

It's a tough game, though, and if we expect perfection we will frequently be disappointed.