The Annual Player & Coach Merry-Go-Round

[Norris Lurker]

Been a bit quiet since the season finished, but clubs are busy working their recruiting networks....

Looks like Wests have hit the ground running; snapping up Swans' 2005 premiership player Paul Bevan as a player & assistant coach. He'll be a good signing for them. After returning to the finals this year, I'm sure there's a spring in the step and plenty of optimism about 2015 in the Magpie camp.

[Steiger]

Conway won't be playing for Wests in 2015 - Travelling OS

[often_confused]

The big impact is going to be the return of the Eagles to the Premier Division and what will be the makeup of their playing squad ?

[Pekay]

Chatting to an old head from Purser at the Phelan, apparently they will lose very little in terms of players, most of the NEAFL playing group are excited about the move back to Prems. James Dwyer returns to Sydney after a few years in the Essendon District Premier Division and will be a very handy inclusion.

Camden seem to be knocking on a lot of doors at other clubs as well, spreading the net pretty far from all reports.

[justabaraker]

Chatting to an old head from Purser at the Phelan, apparently they will lose very little in terms of players, most of the NEAFL playing group are excited about the move back to Prems. James Dwyer returns to Sydney after a few years in the Essendon District Premier Division and will be a very handy inclusion.

Camden seem to be knocking on a lot of doors at other clubs as well, spreading the net pretty far from all reports.

Pekay,
we can only hope that your informant at Baulko has got it wrong.
They were too good for our SFL comp after the three-peat, they rose a level to be in NEAFL1, then they rose again to be in NEAFL2, and they were damned good last year in the five games or so that I saw.

Now you say that they will come back to the SFL, pretty much intact, and I'm thinking that won't be much fun for anyone, least of all them.

I think that Milani has left, and I'm betting that Luke Jerico would too. As would Eckerman (you might travel from Port Macquarie and back each week to play in the NEAFL but you'd be unhinged to do that to play in the SFL !)

Then,of course, their 2014 PD team drops down to Div 1, sort of intact as well, and smashes that.

I hope for all of our sakes that they get some serious led in their saddle bags so everyone else gets a turn

[Tim Freedman]

I'm tipping St.George to be the big improver with Terry Mudge heading into his 5th year. They have fallen at the hurdle 2 years in a row and are primed for the next step. I am hearing that they are casting the net far and wide to add some experience to their young playing list.

[justabaraker]

I'm tipping St.George to be the big improver with Terry Mudge heading into his 5th year. They have fallen at the hurdle 2 years in a row and are primed for the next step. I am hearing that they are casting the net far and wide to add some experience to their young playing list.

Looks to me as if Sydney Uni might be rolling along nicely too. If both Pekay and TimF are right, then we're in for a cracker season in PD.
The pressure will be on Manly and Penno to step up a gear if that's the case.

Roll on 2015 !!

[saviour01]

I'm tipping St.George to be the big improver with Terry Mudge heading into his 5th year. They have fallen at the hurdle 2 years in a row and are primed for the next step. I am hearing that they are casting the net far and wide to add some experience to their young playing list.

I thought when you got whacked over the knuckles for being on here mid season and not focusing on your NEAFL team would have stopped you from all this. You're coaching Sydney Hills PD next yea right? I hear you're not to happy with approaches to your disgruntled players? P.S. It's a shame that your offsiders rang our players mid finals about next year. Interesting to watch what you really stand for when the shoe is on the other foot. At least our coach waited until the season was over.

[Chicken Legs]

I thought when you got whacked over the knuckles for being on here mid season and not focusing on your NEAFL team would have stopped you from all this. You're coaching Sydney Hills PD next yea right? I hear you're not to happy with approaches to your disgruntled players? P.S. It's a shame that your offsiders rang our players mid finals about next year. Interesting to watch what you really stand for when the shoe is on the other foot. At least our coach waited until the season was over.

Can anyone shed some light on the current off field circumstances at SHE or ECE? You mentioned disgruntled players? Are you saying they are unhappy moving back to PD or is there something bigger?

[justabaraker]

Interesting to read about the new restrictions on Sydney Uni PD - next year they are not allowed to recruit from "outside" and are not allowed to pay their players.
Not quite sure what that means for them but it puts them in a category of their own, outside the normal "marketplace" of picking up players.

It's an interesting path that they have embarked upon and I can't see any way back for them...but then, I couldn't see any way back for Baulko either, and events have shown that I'm not a very good judge.

[Norris Lurker]

Effectively Sydney Uni will be running a weekly Sydney AFL rep team.
I think the other clubs will like this model - any fringe NEAFL players will stay at their club rather than be playing for Sydney Uni Premier Division. And that should also end any concerns of their Premier Division team being stacked when the NEAFL team have the bye.
I doubt Sydney Uni are particularly thrilled with it, but I'm sure they'll find a way to make it work.

[The Student]

Interesting to read about the new restrictions on Sydney Uni PD - next year they are not allowed to recruit from "outside" and are not allowed to pay their players.
Not quite sure what that means for them but it puts them in a category of their own, outside the normal "marketplace" of picking up players.

It's an interesting path that they have embarked upon and I can't see any way back for them...but then, I couldn't see any way back for Baulko either, and events have shown that I'm not a very good judge.

I don't think PD players get paid anyway, but I could be wrong.

[justabaraker]

We all rock up each weekend to support our team....they are part of our vision of "family" and we love to barrack as they compete on their merits.
But this Sydney Uni model is something different - players coming from all over the place, staying for a match or more, and moving on somewhere else.
I don't understand how you develop love and loyalty to a club like that (just as I don't understand how you could support the Casey Scorpions or the Box Hill Hawks, or the Swans Reserves - their teams are cherry-picked week by week to support the Master).
But it's an interesting idea anyway.

I have no doubt that what the Uni loses in community spirit, they will make up in credibility with AFL on a national scale. They will become more professional with better practices, probably the most academically qualified footy club in Australia !

I'm looking forward to this.

[often_confused]

I think there are a couple of issues with the new 'model for NEAFL'. It would seem to me is very likely to attract a bunch of young players straight into Sydney Uni in the hope they will secure NEAFL opportunities, despite the use of lists, rookies and the like. It also appears to suggest that Swans can reach down into clubs to secure players after a mysterious process of finding others are not available, it appears to be as transparent as a brick wall.

Noting the payment restriction, that is completely without merit. Payment is a meaningless term. Does this mean the players do not get scholarships, engaged by the sporting union or the like; of course not. Any review of the Sydney Uni site discloses the elite athletes program and the other benefits. No problem with that but to suggest avoiding or securing a reduction in HECS and similar is not payment is disingenuous.

Potentially talented young players will be playing for one of three clubs now (Swans, Syd Uni or Home Club). It is also very unlikely that selection will be finalised by Wednesday each week during the season. You simply need an injury or illness to the Swans and you have the cascade up the line. How does this deal impact on the UWS NEAFL selection process, assuming there will be three NEAFL teams running out of Sydney ?

Even if those issues are put to one side and followers of Sydney AFL think this is beneficial, the central failing must be 'consultation' all Sydney Clubs are stakeholders in the competition. How many were invited to discuss this prior to it being announced as being carved in stone. The AFL must at some time become collaborative, pathways for players are great and must be encouraged, but if you want buy in from the stakeholders it is a better concept to explain your reasoning and have a discussion.

[justabaraker]

Potentially talented young players will be playing for one of three clubs now (Swans, Syd Uni or Home Club). It is also very unlikely that selection will be finalised by Wednesday each week during the season. You simply need an injury or illness to the Swans and you have the cascade up the line. How does this deal impact on the UWS NEAFL selection process, assuming there will be three NEAFL teams running out of Sydney ?

I don't want to go in too hard on this because I don't understand the finer points, but, OC, I think you might have missed a vital point...
Up to now, Sydney Uni tended to feed into the Swans, because of geography, and Baulko tended to feed into GWS, geography again.

But now it seems that Sydney Uni will feed into both.
(And Ainslie and Eastlake will feed into GWS too via the Academy.)

Sydney Uni will now have a greatly enhanced role to play in NSW footy, and Swans and UWS will have equal rights with each other. Matches involving Sydney Uni and one of the AFL teams will be compromised, like they have been up to now but, oh well, it's all in the name of growing AFL in NSW/ACT.

If you can treat the Swans reserves and UWS seriously then you will close your eyes and imagine it's all different when these three are playing each other.

And remember that NSW/ACT will now have a system that is consistent with Qld and that will make NEAFL simpler.

I'll be closing my eyes and overlooking the flaws in all this. Should be good.