The question was posed to me early in the week amid talk on Essendon veteran Dustin Fletcher’s impending 400-game AFL milestone.

Ageing may mean we are not as spry as we used to be, but it does not render us instant couch potatoes and armchair heroes when we reach the big 4-0.*

Sure, it is about knowing your limitations.

There is a point when those long Mondays spent icing and hobbling about become too much to bear, no matter how much you love the sport. Or post-match, coming home from the football field or netball court when you might lie on the floor and even the thought of how to attempt relocating to the couch just plain hurts.

If Fletcher is good enough to be picked in the Bombers’ starting 22, if he feels he can physically and mentally handle game-day and training pressure, and, importantly, if he wants to keep playing, then why not keep striving to play at the highest levels?

What Fletcher is about to achieve at the MCG on Saturday night is beyond admirable.

He made his AFL debut shy of 18 years old – 12 players on the Bombers list now were not even born then – he has played alongside 166 Bomber teammates, and he will become the third player to reach 400 games in the sport’s highest level, joining Michael Tuck (426 games) and Kevin Bartlett (403).

His milestone is admirable not so much because of his age but for his longevity in what has evolved into such an all-consuming career.

Olympian and Ballarat running legend Steve Moneghetti always says that once you step up to the start line in a race, you are a runner – rather than a jogger – because of the training and sacrifice you have put in to get there. It does not matter how fast you run, or where you finish in the field. You have the commitment.

Fletcher is not just nursed through each week for cross-

generational nostalgia. He can still play. He has to be able to still handle competition at AFL level where flaws can be harshly exposed. He is not out there for a social kick.

The best sport stories are those who strive to get the best out of themselves, at any level and in any game, each and every time. They push themselves to the limit.

There is the flip side of Fletcher, too – the younger athletes who pull off the unexpected.

Emerging Australian tennis star Thanasi Kokkinakis fought back from two sets down, a nasty hip injury from a fourth-set tumble, and three match points to oust more experienced countryman Bernard  Tomic in the French Open second round by the early hours of Friday morning.

The 19-year-old’s win was epic. He never gave up.

Now, he is preparing to meet world number one and title favourite Novak Djokovic.

He has earned his place in the third round and, before a larger crowd, Kokkinakis has a chance to beat Djokovic. 

Fellow Australian tennis rising star Nick Kyrgios beat then-world number one Rafael Nadal to reach last year’s Wimbledon quarter-finals. And trumped this with a dramatic win against Swiss master Roger Federer earlier this month in Madrid.

A tennis match is never truly over until match point is captured. And, until match point is captured, anything is possible.

These wins are telling of the young players’ grit and preparation.

They are not young flukes. 

Will they still be on the professional tour when they are 40? Who knows.

If they are still serving up a challenge to the tour’s next generation of young guns, then why not?

Should Dustin Fletcher retire after this round, spent from his time at the highest levels, he does not have to give the game away completely.

He would undoubtedly always be a welcome recruit by the newly formed Maryborough AFL Masters football club.

Being out there, playing a sport you love for as long as you can always has to be a better option than the couch.

*This columnist would like to point out she has a lot of years to log before feeling the effects of turning 40 on her  own game.

melanie.whelan@fairfaxmedia.com.au