It's been a big week in art, with Jim Pavlidis

Some days it seems footy – that simple game we love – isn’t uppermost in AFL thinking.

Forays into territories that had never seen a Sherrin such as China and western Sydney, cruelly reducing the AFLW season and assisting visa applications appear to be the order of business these days.

It is, of course, the footy code wars that’s driving it all, as sports organisations battle for the hearts, minds and wallets of an easily distracted population.

Code wars are part and parcel of art history. The flamboyance of the Baroque era, typified by Giacinto Cimignani’s An Angel and Devil Fight For The Soul of a Child, was promoted by the Catholic Church as an attractive alternative to the sombre Protestant style.