Sydney Uni + Collingwood U/18 Team

[Junior]

Neither of you have answered my question. Can you name all the under 18 players that you suggest have come to East Coast this year? Also, to my original question, you seem to know who will receive the scholarships, can you please name them? Since it isn't to be announced until March 29, I would love to hear your opinions.

[mountainsofpain]

Look at the geographical area you are talking about. If a kid is a tallented footballer hailing from Penrith or up in the mountains and he wants to play the highest level of football he can, really his only two options are ECE or Campbelltown, or perhaps Pennant Hills. He could play for Camden or Penrith, but do we want our tallented kids playing in a competition where they will dominate or do we want them challenged?

I just don't understand the issue of kids in these areas looking to play for their nearest premier div club... just like any other kid moving into senior football.

If any kid wants to play at the highest level, they can make that choice themselves - I mean, they will have ambition anyway, so those sort of things would already be going through their heads. However I see no reason how on earth it justifies players being targeted by clubs external to the area - especially when said targeting apparently (and I emphasize apparently) goes on at AFL conducted and endorsed events.

The East Coast Eagles last year had enough Under 18s to field two sides. They simply don't need to be enticing players from outside their area with the amount of junior talent already at their disposal. Targeting the juniors from the outer west is greed, nothing else.

Stronger clubs viewing the juniors of the outer west as nothing more than an additional recruiting zone will have serious ramifications for the senior game out there. It will ensure the senior clubs stay weak and give them little chance to get stronger and be more competitive. In turn, that then of course ensures that the western juniors stay vulnerable to recruitment from clubs outside the area because the local clubs are weak - which simply means that the cycle continues.

The fact that this sort of thing is allowed to go on with the AFL doing nothing about it stinks. The outer west is apparently part of the game's great new development area and yet the senior game out there is being seriously stifled by the drain of talent out of the area. The fact that this whole process is seemingly unwittingly assisted by the Junior Development process makes it worse.

[RPM]

[QUOTE=ShortHalfHead;428950]The AFL send out to all clubs the contact details of all kids within a region in the 15-16 age bracket that will be moving to 18's in the next two years.

SHH do they really well i can tell you that the club that i have been on the committee of for the last 10 years has never received such a "contact listing" and i would like to know who the clubs are that do get this (or is it just a select group and now you have let the cat out of the bag) generaly clubs have to do the hard yards and help there local junior teams around them as much as possible so as to entice a junior to come and play for them.

[RPM]

[QUOTE=GoEagles;429035]I would have thought it was common place to recruit kids? Back in the day of being a youngster we had clubs come around home trying to convince us to play for their club and cant see why that would change???????

GoEagles back when i was a kid growing up in Adelaide we had no choice at where we went there where zones and if you where in that zone you went to that club, maybe the NSWAFL should look at something to that maner so as to try and even out the comp and stop all this rigmaroll

[mountainsofpain]

The AFL send out to all clubs the contact details of all kids within a region in the 15-16 age bracket that will be moving to 18's in the next two years. So basically senior clubs like East Coast, Nor-West, Penrith, Holroyd etc all get details of players within that region. I don't have a problem with that, with the exception that guys from Blue Mountains etc get calls from ECE (If they are any good, of course)

Contacts are easy to get. You might get one player moving camps and the parents of that kid decide to get brownie points with the new club and "suggest" other players from their old club are targetted. They have no problem getting the players contact details and passing it on. That has certainly been prevalent this year where I know of two different parents have been actively recruiting their childs mates to "jump ship".

If that is the case, why on earth should senior clubs get contact details of juniors outside their immediate area? Doesn't a club like the East Coast Eagles for instance have enough juniors coming through the ranks without being given access to players miles away from their own area?

The general gist of the above indicates to me that the access to players' details is far too easy and should be tightened up considerably. It makes it far too easy for players to be contacted by various clubs, which is even more of an issue once they progress to Under 18s and then become tied to a senior club.

The big issue is that of officials approaching kids at carnivals (happened at Coffs this year) telling them if they switch clubs, they will get "bigger opportunities" to make AFL a career ! Word around was that at Coffs, it was pretty well a closed camp. Parents couldn't get near their kids during the day, but certain coaches and AFL talent scouts not involved with the team, were allowed inside the inner sanctum.

If that is true, it is a disgrace. AFL events should not be a vehicle for certain clubs to have access to players with a view to recruiting them. The AFL staff conducting the events should be told it is not on, either by themselves personally or by giving individuals access to the players as implied above.

[mountainsofpain]

What would be the point of putting a team of predominantly first year footballers into First Divison when clubs like South West and Nor West before them get away with bullying sides in Second Div and carrying on like they invented football? Hopefully you will be able to sleep at night knowing that whilst we haven't won a premiership in Second Divison in several years we were placed up two grades for 2009.

I couldn't let this go by. Fancy someone from Sydney Uni making this allegation against another club, talk about the pot calling the kettle black.

Sydney Uni is the club which dropped back from the then top division in 96 and merrily dominated First Division (Reserve Grade in particular) consistently. And bullying weak sides was very much part of their modus operandi.

When they finally were promoted back into Premier Division in around 2006 it was long overdue. Their mere presence in First Division was a major reason why that competition was so lopsided.

[ShortHalfHead]

[QUOTE=RPM;429038]

The AFL send out to all clubs the contact details of all kids within a region in the 15-16 age bracket that will be moving to 18's in the next two years.

SHH do they really well i can tell you that the club that i have been on the committee of for the last 10 years has never received such a "contact listing" and i would like to know who the clubs are that do get this (or is it just a select group and now you have let the cat out of the bag) generaly clubs have to do the hard yards and help there local junior teams around them as much as possible so as to entice a junior to come and play for them.

RPM, Can assure you that my club gets no favours whatsoever so cat can stay in his bag. I develop a list from our four feeder clubs and never go outside the boundaries. When you are talking to kids that are thinking of going elsewhere because they have had a career carrot dangled in front of them, I have some morals and don't tell them they they will definately make the big time. All I can do is wish them the best and hope in a year or two when their aspirations fall flat on their face that they might return to their local club and enjoy footy with their mates. I suspect however, that most will just stop playing.

Obviously, I will not be putting the players details on here that I have received, but the heading goes:

First Name Family Name Date of Birth Address 1 Suburb PC Home Phone Mobile Phone Association Name Club Name

There are 268 names there for both Under 15's and 16's.

Maybe your pres didn't pass it on.

[ShortHalfHead]

I also recall Student telling us that the Uni poached kids were entitled to be playing a higher level of footy (Premier Cup) and SU were giving them that opportunity. Now they are in Challenge Cup, has his thoughts changed somewhat? Indeed gone quiet on the subject.

[RPM]

[QUOTE=ShortHalfHead;429047]

Maybe your pres didn't pass it on.

SHH I have been the Secretary (6 of the years) that means all correspondence to the club came thru me, Vice President (2 of the years) spent a lot of week nights together with the President organising and trying to get the club moving forward, that means that I have been privy to all info relevant for the club for at least 8 years, have stood back and just been a general committee member for the past few years, so my question still remains how many clubs actually get this ?Contact List? I?d like to know or are we just that one-off club that they don?t give it to i wouldn't mind some feed back from the other clubs out there

[Pekay]

I'll back you up RPM, nothing like that has passed through our hands, and i've held an executive position at Nor-West since 2002. Perhaps its just for the holier than thou Premier League clubs to use.

[ShortHalfHead]

Well, I really can't say who/where it came from. Was received late in 2008 but I have dumped email and just saved the file...honestly can't remember. But I do know that kids on the list have been phoned by neighbouring senior clubs recently...and I have been told that the junior club hasn't given out their details.
Despite that, it doesn't take much to find a kid that played 16's last year.
The stats for juniors Under 16's are still on website. All one has to do is check out his club, goals, best etc and a name. Not hard to check out the phone book. And it is good if a senior club can get the details and target their locals. It is just that some senior clubs don't know the meaning of the word.
I had a wry grin on my face when I saw an article in the AFL's website re the opening of a much publicised new ground saying how they can better cater for their players who have to travel 50k's to play a game of football. Someone should tell them they don't have to travel that far.

[Pace To Burn]

Neither of you have answered my question. Can you name all the under 18 players that you suggest have come to East Coast this year? Also, to my original question, you seem to know who will receive the scholarships, can you please name them? Since it isn't to be announced until March 29, I would love to hear your opinions.

DLH
Warming the Bench


Join Date: Jun 2004
Location: Penrith Quote:
Originally Posted by knownothing
Is that penrith? Are they in trouble?

And word is Macquarie Uni will also tap the mat in 18s.

No, our (Penrith's) numbers are fine, but with four of our best kids off to ECE and two other scholarship boys to Sydney Uni, the talent base has been diminished somewhat.

Holroyd-Parramatta are the ones I'd be concerned about, I think they might be struggling for numbers.

Not sure of their names as it isnt my club but im sure DLH could give you the names of the four you pinched/poached/recruited/gave an oppurtunity to become a better person to. I wouldnt know who else you have from other clubs also as i dont have anything to do with their lists. And as i said you also tried unsucessfully with three of our other rep players besides Bourkey. And i was told by him and others that he was getting the scholarship. Does that answer your question muppet. Now can you reply to all our comments and justify your position

[Pace To Burn]

I would have thought it was common place to recruit kids? Back in the day of being a youngster we had clubs come around home trying to convince us to play for their club and cant see why that would change???????

Isnt that normal? Or do we rely on their parents to ship them to a club they dont want to play at?

Bit of hoohaa about nothing to be honest.

I spose we cant all be so naturally talented as to have clubs bashing our door down to get us to change clubs . I think you can see from this and other threads that its def not normal for this to occur at u/18 level. As has been said it will only take a year or so for everyone to realise theres no real pot at the end of the rainbow. Id like to see a list of Drafted/Rookie Listed players from Sydney clubs over the last 20 or so years would make interesting reading

[tara]

[QUOTE=ShortHalfHead;429047]

RPM, Can assure you that my club gets no favours whatsoever so cat can stay in his bag. I develop a list from our four feeder clubs and never go outside the boundaries. When you are talking to kids that are thinking of going elsewhere because they have had a career carrot dangled in front of them, I have some morals and don't tell them they they will definately make the big time. All I can do is wish them the best and hope in a year or two when their aspirations fall flat on their face that they might return to their local club and enjoy footy with their mates. I suspect however, that most will just stop playing.

Obviously, I will not be putting the players details on here that I have received, but the heading goes:

First Name Family Name Date of Birth Address 1 Suburb PC Home Phone Mobile Phone Association Name Club Name

There are 268 names there for both Under 15's and 16's.

Maybe your pres didn't pass it on.

RPM's and Pekay I think it is on a need to know basis but the extent may vary. Ie do you have or intend to field and under 18's.

Pace Im not gonna get into an argument here so basiclly the numbers that were made available to us in the past two months certainly wernt anywhere near those quoted by other regions - just so there is no confusion. We only saw a small amount and have concentrated on the kids we have worked directy with not those at the clubs futhers south.

Must admit though that if the numbers quoted above are accurate then I have to question the administration of the senior clubs in that area who are complaining. Im sure that you and I as well as Trock etc could easily work in harmony if we had that sort of amount available to us.

[ShortHalfHead]

[QUOTE=tara;429157]

RPM's and Pekay I think it is on a need to know basis but the extent may vary. Ie do you have or intend to field and under 18's.

Pace Im not gonna get into an argument here so basiclly the numbers that were made available to us in the past two months certainly wernt anywhere near those quoted by other regions - just so there is no confusion. We only saw a small amount and have concentrated on the kids we have worked directy with not those at the clubs futhers south.

Must admit though that if the numbers quoted above are accurate then I have to question the administration of the senior clubs in that area who are complaining. Im sure that you and I as well as Trock etc could easily work in harmony if we had that sort of amount available to us.

The figures werent that accurate really. I did mean 168 kids...fat fingers. I should point out that quite a few had played less than 5 games. But what you said makes sense. If Nor-West had no intention of fielding an 18's side, then they probably aren't entitled to a list.