UNIQUE would be a reasonable word to describe the relationship between Bayley Fritsch and Christian Salem.

They are premiership teammates on the field and best mates off it; well, most of the time.

In recent years, these two grown men have developed a rivalry which can flare-up anytime, anywhere.

But let’s start with the positives.

On Thursday, Fritsch took to the training track in Salem’s long-sleeve No.3 guernsey, which was just a matter of days after he donned his fellow left-footer’s boots against GWS.

Why?

Just because, really.

“We’re very good mates and he sort of said that he thinks that I should wear his boots,” Fritsch told Melbourne Media.

“And I said, ‘Yeah, well it probably makes sense’.

“He’d love to be out on the ’G, I’m playing out on the ’G, so I’ll bring him with me.

“He had the No.3 on the back of the boots, and I think all but one goal sailed through, so he was pretty happy with that.

“He actually messaged me before the game and he goes, ‘I reckon you’ll kick five and have 13 touches’.

“He came up to me straight after the game and he said, ‘You missed one – you kicked four and had 11 touches’.

“So I nearly got the job done for him.

“That was a pretty cool little thing and we obviously have a lot of little competitions and stuff around the club.

‘Little competitions’ is an understatement, by the way.

“We’re both really competitive, I think that’s where it stems from,” Fritsch said.

“We play table tennis, basketball, footy golf, uno in the hub last year – any competition we can have.

“We’ll be out on the training track, and he’ll go, ‘If you can hit that post before me you can have a point’.

“And we’ll have points every year – sometimes first to 50, sometimes first to 100 – and we might have a coffee or a lunch or something on it.

“It’s obviously just a bit of fun outside of footy, but still in the four walls of the footy club.”

Although that’s not entirely true, because in the coming weeks, the rivalry is set to be pushed beyond those walls.

And senior coach Simon Goodwin is getting in on the fun.

The trio, who are renowned as the best table tennis players at Melbourne, will be battling for bragging rights in an official (unofficial) competition.

“The tournament’s coming up on the 28^th of April, and the first one is the French Open … at Goody’s house,” Fritsch said.

“Apparently his floors are a little bit slippery so we’re calling it the French Open.

“There’ll be us three, and then we’re having a celebrity guest, at this stage I think it’s Gawny.

“But we’ll have to talk with the competition’s committee about that.

“It’s great fun, obviously we’ll go around, have a bit of dinner and hopefully I can get the job done.”

While there’s no doubt that night will involve some serious cheating allegations and a period of silence where Fritsch and Salem don’t look each other in the eye, they will somehow remain friends.

And that hunger to be the best – whether that be at kicking a ball through a chicken shop door on an interstate trip, or at slotting goals in an AFL Grand Final – might be why Fritsch has had such success in his 90-game AFL career to date.

“I think that’s something that we all carry with us, is the competitive nature,” he said.

“So we’ll review games – whether we win by 10 goals or lose by 10 goals – the same and we’re really competitive and want to get better.

“I look at everyone across from me when we’re going up the race and I know exactly what I’m going to get from each one of them.

“I think that holds us in great stead.”