The photos of a shirtless Ben Cousins walking alone while being led to a police car really got to me last week.

Not because it was allegedly due to another drug indiscretion.

Not because he is an AFL player.

And not because it was the final nail in the coffin of a very promising career.

It was because he was alone.

And if there is one thing sport in Australia prides itself on, it is mateship.

It’s always having a mate to count on, a team member to turn to, a friend to have your back.

Where were Ben’s friends?

Where were his mates to stop him?

On the Sunshine Coast at least, Ben’s latest indiscretion hasn’t raised a lot of eyebrows. Not lately, anyway.

We’ve been worried about other stuff, like the bashing of two Caloundra men, resulting in permanent brain damage for one and death for another.

Ben Thorpe and Josh Mill were friends.

Their friendship was forged through a love of football.

And the rest of their friends, young men who are only in their early 20s, have rallied around to offer what support they can to their mates’ families.

It was Thorpy’s football club, the Caloundra Sharks, who got together to raise thousands of dollars for the popular centre to help ease the coming financial burden his Brisbane rehabilitation is going to cause.

Now, some of those same friends are banding together to raise money for Josh Mill’s mum and sister to help them get through the coming months.

These boys haven’t been asked to do any of this. They just feel it is right.

They support each other on the field and they support each other off it.

Many of them were with their mates when the moments, which changed their lives forever, happened.

They were powerless to stop it. But together, they are working towards ensuring it never happens again.

Josh’s surf life saving club, the Dicky Beach Surf Club, have offered the family the premises after the funeral, so they have a large enough space for everyone to gather.

Not because they have to, but because the people who run it considered Josh a part of their family.

And family – whether you were born into it or are accepted into one – is there for one another.

I was speaking to John Wallace, from the swim school of the same name, at the Caloundra Aquatic Lifestyle centre not so long ago, about the bonds you form while participating in a sport.

He said that his best mates, the ones he can count on no matter what, are all people he trained with back in the day.

Not his school friends, not his neighbours, not his work colleagues. His team.

So if a small team on the Sunshine Coast can stand together in the face of adversity, then what the hell is happening to our teams on a national level?

If you have your mate’s back on the sports field, you should carry that loyalty beyond the boundary line.

Because if you don’t, what are you left with when the glory of a win, or a great career has faded?