Academy games 2026.

[imuninformedtwo]

You just wonder who makes up these rules and constant changes. If it's impossible for northern academies to match bids then what's the point of throwing a lot of money at academies, unless the AFL is prepared to fund these academies. So what do we do if we know we have a player of Gulden's talent. Hide him away for a year by faking an injury. Why should we be disadvantaged when clubs like Carlton and Essendon have been serial poor recruiters that has sent them to the bottom. The AFL has as good as buried the father/son rule. Bloody shameful given it has been a pillar of the competitions recruiting since for ever. So once again they are rewarding mediocrity. As far as I'm concerned the academies no.1 pick and F/S selections should be nominated before the draft. If we nominated a player then we must take him with our first pick, untouchable by any other club. Then others in the academies are available to the rest of the competition.

My understanding is the Swans will have a look at how much they invest in the academy, which would be tragic for the game. I know a decent chuck of money comes via the Foundation. But there’s a,point at which the value proposition is diminished.

What the Melb media mafia misses is how many Vic players refuse to leave. Bailey Smith openly told Gold Coast he wasn’t leaving Victoria. We interviewed Archie Perkins among others on the unlikely event Campbell dropped a bit (there was that Errol fella too but that’s another story) and he did the same. Well done knobhead, how’s Essendon’s player development going for you? And of course Josh Weddle was blunt with us in his interview. We were so keen that everyone from Cal Twomey had us picking him, but they’d missed the outrageous draft tampering.

I hope our future academy players do the same..

”You can pick me I guess, but I’m going to head home in a year.” (Weddle’s exact words.)