This morning I took the kids down to the MCG precinct, hoping to deliver the smell of Spring and sausages, the flavours of my childhood, as well as paying tribute to the carspot Brian Lake got drunk at two years ago;

I knew what I expected to find. Overpriced food. Staged wrestles between oversized fluffy birds. Sauce promotions. Endless inflatable items that really should be labelled ‘future landfill’ but which in fact bear a sponsor’s name, to be waved dutifully when instructed to by the fun overlords of the AFL.

What I didn’t expect to find was Nick, swooping in with his card table and his Hama bead Luke Hodges. He set up at the walkway down to lightower one. He wore green shirt, green shorts and green cap. He meant business.

Hama beads, for the unitiated, are small coloured beads that are laid out in trays, and then ironed into shape through wax paper. To date, they have not featured heavily in traditional footy merch.

‘I made them over the last few days’ he said, as my seven year old daughter whistled at the beauty of his brown and gold star badge. ‘They’re five dollars each.’

No merchant licence. No AFL badge. Just $300 worth of awesome 10 year old craft. He already had some big notes in his bucket.

‘Can we buy one?’ my daughter begged.

‘Yeah, can we buy one?’ oldest son chipped in.

I bought three. Fifteen of the most wondeful dollars I’ve ever spent on Grand Final day. Fifteen dollars that refired my faith in the game, the event, and a Hama bead based craft economy, fuelled by little Hama bead Richard Bransons.

Twenty minutes later he was gone.

And Nick isn’t even his real name.