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.)

[Thunder Shaker]

Scouting Notes: NSW Academies reign supreme in Blacktown - Aussie Rules Rookie Me Central https://share.google/k6ju5aG89TcqbovM2

Reposting with direct link because I don't trust Google links.
Scouting Notes: NSW Academies reign supreme in Blacktown (rookieme.com)

[Thunder Shaker]

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.)

I hope the Swans and other clubs from NSW and Qld have been keeping records of every draft prospect that has said something like this. The AFL has been ignoring this draft tampering for years.

The first time a NSW or Qld draft prospect says they won't stay if recruited out of state by a Victorian club, the outraged howls of "draft tampering" will be very loud, followed by a demand that the AFL do something. The AFL will make up new rules (or selectively enforce old rules) and mete out retribution. Meanwhile, players like B.Smith or J.Weddle will not receive any punishment. The AFL has form here, as the infamous draft ban shows.

There is a distinction between "I want to play in a particular state" against "I want to play for a particular club". This is a finer distinction in NSW with only two clubs and this is where care must be taken to avoid the perception of draft tampering.

Having the list of players who've openly expressed a desire to stay in Victoria is intended to counter this selective enforcement.

I mention Victorians specifically because players from other states are less likely to do the "go home" whinge. There's a reason why the Swans are called the Swans after all. Western Australians have been at home playing for South Melbourne/Sydney since the 1930s at least.

[KSAS]

Re-posting below which i made yesterday and re-edited which somehow got blocked as ascam and hadn't yet been unblocked by Admin:


Long post, but bare with me please!


Yep, as TS mentioned above let's hope in future we get some go home factors going our way for a change!

I can see the day when the northern states will band together & threaten the AFL to pull up stumps with their Academies for not getting ROI with their ever tightening Draft rules. It will significanty reduce the quality of the draft pool and kill off AFL expansion in these markets.

Hopefully Tom Harley will bring some sanity before this eventuates. Crazy that F/S are seen the same as Northern Academy prospects. They are not charity organisations to also feed cellar dwellar Vic clubs!

This seems to have been brought about by the panic GC & Lions were able to match high end Academy & F/S picks with junk picks, but this is a novereaction imo, in both the timing and its implementation.

I can already see flaws with the chasm between the 5th - 6th picks in regards to obtaining an additional early 2nd round picks with matching bids in the top 5 of the draft

The big picture is being lost here with the Northerm Academies. The lists of the Northern clubs currently consists approx 30% local talent and 70% interstate. It is the opposite for rest of the competition in the traditional football states.

I would love to see the day when the Northern Academies are no longer required, with talent streaming yearly into the AFL draft from established AFL pathways created by the Academies in these statea. I.E uncompromised draft barring F/S and the rorting NGA's!

[dejavoodoo44]

Re-posting below which i made yesterday and re-edited which somehow got blocked as ascam and hadn't yet been unblocked by Admin:


Long post, but bare with me please!


Yep, as TS mentioned above let's hope in future we get some go home factors going our way for a change!

I can see the day when the northern states will band together & threaten the AFL to pull up stumps with their Academies for not getting ROI with their ever tightening Draft rules. It will significanty reduce the quality of the draft pool and kill off AFL expansion in these markets.

Hopefully Tom Harley will bring some sanity before this eventuates. Crazy that F/S are seen the same as Northern Academy prospects. They are not charity organisations to also feed cellar dwellar Vic clubs!

This seems to have been brought about by the panic GC & Lions were able to match high end Academy & F/S picks with junk picks, but this is a novereaction imo, in both the timing and its implementation.

I can already see flaws with the chasm between the 5th - 6th picks in regards to obtaining an additional early 2nd round picks with matching bids in the top 5 of the draft

The big picture is being lost here with the Northerm Academies. The lists of the Northern clubs currently consists approx 30% local talent and 70% interstate. It is the opposite for rest of the competition in the traditional football states.

I would love to see the day when the Northern Academies are no longer required, with talent streaming yearly into the AFL draft from established AFL pathways created by the Academies in these statea. I.E uncompromised draft barring F/S and the rorting NGA's!

Yes, I was just going to post about list demographics and the go home factor. One justification for the northern academies, is that they increase the number of local players and decrease the risk of lists being constantly weakened by players returning to their home states. At the time that the academies came in, I think Brisbane had real problems with that. While both the expansion clubs have had a huge number of their draftees go elsewhere, often Victoria.

And one element to that, which doesn't really get a mention, is how it effects the amount of money paid to players and the respective salary caps. That is, it now seems to be a fairly common tactic of player agents, that when a star player is approaching a new contract, then if that player is from a different state to where they're playing, then that player will be seen in their home states, catching up with old friends, having a family meal, checking out real estate opportunities, etc. Which is usually followed by a media storm speculating on how that player is highly likely to sign with such and such club. The clubs with a much higher percentage of interstate players are more vulnerable to that sort of manipulation, and often will find themselves paying extras for those players. I suspect that this could easily cost clubs hundreds of thousands of dollars, while the club in the home state, might even be able to get away with paying players who genuinely want to go home a little bit less.

[dejavoodoo44]

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.)

There was also Port telling Gold Coast that they shouldn't bother signing Rankine and Lukosius, because they're just going to go back home anyway. And I think Collingwood signed Nick Daicos to a four year contract, prior to the draft.

[Thunder Shaker]

Article on the AFL website with the Swans' and Suns' reactions to the draft changes: Swans boss calls for draft tax on clubs who poach northern talent in which Pridham called for a $200,000 fee whenever another club drafts a player out of a northern Academy. Suns say the AFL missed an opportunity to clean up free agent and trading inequities.

[dejavoodoo44]

Article on the AFL website with the Swans' and Suns' reactions to the draft changes: Swans boss calls for draft tax on clubs who poach northern talent in which Pridham called for a $200,000 fee whenever another club drafts a player out of a northern Academy. Suns say the AFL missed an opportunity to clean up free agent and trading inequities.

Yes, I suspect that Pridham had St Kilda in mind, when he said, "If we're going to help unsuccessful, poorly managed clubs by supplying them with players then I don't think it's unreasonable they would contribute something for those players".

[KSAS]

Interesting to read we spend $3.5m on our Academy annually compared to $2.5m with the Suns. No wonder Pridam is calling for a $200k draft tax!

Maybe the Northern clubs should also receive a compensation early 2nd round pick for top 10 Academy picks they aren't able to match and further comprimise the draft due to this ill thought changes by the AFL.