Victoria clubs get AFL funding for Vic and NT Academies

[iigrover]

It looks like Eddie surprisingly got his way with getting preferred access to Victorian juniors - who already play AFL and need no support to enter the code - plus exclusive access to all players coming out of NT. ie. WA, SA, NSW and QLD clubs permanently shut out of equal access to NT players.


"VICTORIAN clubs have been given seed funding to establish club-branded academies in allocated areas throughout Victoria and the Northern Territory. "

"The AFL will meet with South Australian and West Australian clubs regarding the allocating of regions in those states..."

Victorian clubs handed AFL funding for academies - AFL.com.au

[707]

The sky is falling Eddie

Well, well, well - AFL website just announced the carve up of other states amongst the 14 non northern clubs to create academies!

Weren't academies the evil that Eddie said was going to kill the game?

This is going to lead to horrible squabbles amongst clubs I reckon and has the potential to create a very uneven playing field come draft time. Be interesting to see what drafting rules are created for these other 14 academies but you can bet Eddie will ensure Collingwood comes out in front .........

[AnsweredPrayers]

Great to see the AFL expanding the game in inner Melbourne.

[Mug Punter]

It looks like Eddie surprisingly got his way with getting preferred access to Victorian juniors - who already play AFL and need no support to enter the code - plus exclusive access to all players coming out of NT. ie. WA, SA, NSW and QLD clubs permanently shut out of equal access to NT players.


"VICTORIAN clubs have been given seed funding to establish club-branded academies in allocated areas throughout Victoria and the Northern Territory. "

"The AFL will meet with South Australian and West Australian clubs regarding the allocating of regions in those states..."

Victorian clubs handed AFL funding for academies - AFL.com.au

Seems like a decent suggestion in principle to be honest as the AFL is not really culturally diverse as it is, much harder to implement in practice and I think the payoff will be fairly small in the short term so the incentive to invest actually not that great.

[lorakf]

Am I right in saying that The AFL are funding these new academies with seed funding and the Swans fund its own with no assistance? That was our argument right? That we invested almost a million per year to develop the likes of Heeney, Mills, Davis etc so we should get the right to select them first? Will the Swans now get equivalent funding from the AFL?

[lorakf]

So found it out, each club in NSW & QLD gets 250k per year from the AFL for its academies so hopefully it's the same for the Victorian clubs.

[Meg]

Interesting development. And worthwhile if it genuinely attracts young kids who would otherwise not play or be interested in Australian Rules football.

I wonder though how much interest AFL clubs will have in putting in the resources and sheer hard work that will be required to make this work? (It seemed as if a lot of people thought the Swans' Academy was a breeze when Heeney emerged as a star recruit - without understanding that hundreds of other kids had passed through the Academy without developing into a Heeney.)

I also wonder what the definition of "a young Australian from an Asian or African background" or "other youngsters from non-English speaking backgrounds" will be. First generation easy, second generation as well I assume, but third, fourth generation?

Also I notice these academies are to be open to girls. It really is time that the Swans and GWS opened their academies to girls, with a longer-term aim of having a Sydney-based women's team in the soon-to-be-introduced women's comp.

[ScottH]

Well, well, well - AFL website just announced the carve up of other states amongst the 14 non northern clubs to create academies!

Weren't academies the evil that Eddie said was going to kill the game?

This is going to lead to horrible squabbles amongst clubs I reckon and has the potential to create a very uneven playing field come draft time. Be interesting to see what drafting rules are created for these other 14 academies but you can bet Eddie will ensure Collingwood comes out in front .........

He is still not happy about this.
"The northern states are still the only ones to get a clear advantage out of it".

[Mug Punter]

Interesting development. And worthwhile if it genuinely attracts young kids who would otherwise not play or be interested in Australian Rules football.

I wonder though how much interest AFL clubs will have in putting in the resources and sheer hard work that will be required to make this work? (It seemed as if a lot of people thought the Swans' Academy was a breeze when Heeney emerged as a star recruit - without understanding that hundreds of other kids had passed through the Academy without developing into a Heeney.)

I also wonder what the definition of "a young Australian from an Asian or African background" or "other youngsters from non-English speaking backgrounds" will be. First generation easy, second generation as well I assume, but third, fourth generation?

Also I notice these academies are to be open to girls. It really is time that the Swans and GWS opened their academies to girls, with a longer-term aim of having a Sydney-based women's team in the soon-to-be-introduced women's comp.

I think the payoff, or lack thereof, will put many clubs off.

But, in reality, the challenge for these academies is LESS than for us. See, all they have to prove is that a person is indigenous or from a minority group but at least these kids will be in a football state, And in the case of indigenous kids it's probably their sport of choice.

Agree too that this is terribly subjective and we get that nasty connotations of someone categorising themselves as a % of a race (well, in 12.5% Asian so I qualify) - I really thought the AFL was better than such racial stereotyping. If they are so worried about the lack of non Caucasians playing the game then the AFL should fund this programme.

And agree 100% re the Swans and GWS academies including girls but that one should be largely AFL funded given it is at the amateur spectrum but I agree we need to be part of a national women's comp but I'd suggest we are way of the mark at the moment and could only look at one team.

Again the peanuts like Eddie just don't get it. The AFL needs the extra players from NSW and Qld to keep the standard. Yes the AFL could fund the programmes and provide no advantage to us at all but without a pathway it will be wasted money as kids in NSW and QLD who are talented sportsmen will not choose AFL over rugby or soccer when AFL success means a one way ticket away from their family. And the families will certainly try and veer their child away from a such a program.

So, AFL, the reality is you need a pathway to senior footy at NSW and QLD clubs to make this work. You know it, we know and I think Eddie in his thick head knows it too, it's just that his self interest overrides and interest in the game

[Auntie.Gerald]

Academy 2.0 swans vs Victoria

Victorian clubs handed AFL funding for academies - M.afl.com.au

Hmm

[Doctor]

This all seems rather piecemeal to me. A hastily cobbled together attempt to appease voices that should have been silenced long ago rather than indulged.

[Meg]

This all seems rather piecemeal to me. A hastily cobbled together attempt to appease voices that should have been silenced long ago rather than indulged.

Yes I agree. While the stated aim of encouraging kids from non-English-speaking backgrounds and indigenous kids into AFL is admirable, I don't recall this being widely discussed as a problem needing a solution before this announcement. But we do all remember the loud voices of complaint about the northern academies. This seems like a 'thought-on-the-run' attempt to shut down those complaints by giving every club an academy of their own.

But for the moment, let's assume the move were to be successful and dozens of these academy graduates were to start hitting the draft in five years time. (We know that won't happen, look how much investment went into the Swans' Academy to get one Heeney and then one Mills, but anyway .....).

Imagine the draft night chaos with the constant moving draft order under the points system as all these players came 'under the hammer'. And they thought last year was complicated!

By the way, for anyone interested there has been a blog running on The Roar today more or less on this topic. Most of it is covering ground we are familiar with, but if you skim read the comments at the bottom there are several from fathers of boys currently in the Swans' Academy which are really great stories. I love reading 'success' stories - not just of the Heeney type but of the wider footy-spreading reach of the academy.

The AFL needs fewer academies, not more | The Roar

[dejavoodoo44]

Yes, I agree with pretty well all that's been said above. That is, while there may be the occasional success story, with a kid who wasn't originally all that keen on AFL eventually being drafted, the real winners here will be the Victorian clubs. Especially the folks who by their incessant whining about the success of the northern academies, motivated the AFL administration to fix a problem that didn't actually exist.
To examine this, it's probably best to look at why the academies were set up in the first place. My understanding of this, is that there were two main reasons for their establishment. Firstly, it was to encourage kids to play Aussie Rules, in areas where other football codes have been traditionally dominant: mainly rugby league in NSW and Qld. And secondly, by boosting the number of kids being drafted from NSW and Qld, it was hoped that it would the four clubs from these areas would be less vulnerable to the return home problem; where a proportion of draftees only spend a couple of homesick years in Brisbane or Sydney, and then decide that they want to go back to where they were brought up.
So to me, both these issues are irrelevant when it comes to setting up academies in Victoria and the NT. That is, kids brought up in these places, already have every incentive to play AFL, as it is the dominant code. In Victoria, for instance: the media coverage is massive compared to other sports; the majority of people follow an AFL side; more juniors play the code than any other sport, and the attendance at matches is far greater for Aussie Rules. So if you're a kid with a bit of sporting skills, who has recently migrated to Melbourne, then Aussie Rules is the obvious sport for you to play if you want to fit into your new environment.
And with our code enjoying all these advantages, I don't think it's necessary for the administration to hand over a large wad of cash to the likes of Hawthorn and Collingwood, so they can do missionary work in areas such as Gippsland and Fitzroy.
I also think that the situation is just as silly in the NT. Perhaps the best way to comment on this, is to look at the Tiwi Islands being handed to Essendon. While some will say that this will encourage indigenous kids to take up AFL, I don't really see how. That is, Aussie Rules already does seem to be the dominant code. There is a very healthy and passionately supported local competition. The Tiwi Bombers play in the NT competition. And with Maurice Rioli, Michael Long and Cyril Rioli, it's possible that the Tiwi local competition has supplied more Norm Smith medallists than any other local competition. So once again, I don't think it's a situation where a Victorian club has to come in and convert the locals. What it will do however, is tie the Tiwi's best future prospects to Essendon. And with the carve up of the NT between five Victorian clubs, it now does seem to mean, that these clubs have been arbitrarily handed almost exclusive rights to many future indigenous draftees. Whereas NSW and Qld clubs will now have limited access.
And I don't think that this will do anything to fix the return home problem: in the case of NT players, there is no NT AFL club to return home to; while with Victorian players, Victoria already supplies the most number of draftees, so the Victorian clubs are already the ones who benefit most from homesick players returning home.
So anyway, I think the whole exercise is a reward to whining Victorian clubs, who will be granted cut price access to many highly promising juniors, in order to fix a problem that didn't actually exist.

[dimelb]

This all seems rather piecemeal to me. A hastily cobbled together attempt to appease voices that should have been silenced long ago rather than indulged.

"All have won and all shall have academies."

[iigrover]

Yes, I agree with pretty well all that's been said above. That is, while there may be the occasional success story, with a kid who wasn't originally all that keen on AFL eventually being drafted, the real winners here will be the Victorian clubs. Especially the folks who by their incessant whining about the success of the northern academies, motivated the AFL administration to fix a problem that didn't actually exist.
To examine this, it's probably best to look at why the academies were set up in the first place. My understanding of this, is that there were two main reasons for their establishment. Firstly, it was to encourage kids to play Aussie Rules, in areas where other football codes have been traditionally dominant: mainly rugby league in NSW and Qld. And secondly, by boosting the number of kids being drafted from NSW and Qld, it was hoped that it would the four clubs from these areas would be less vulnerable to the return home problem; where a proportion of draftees only spend a couple of homesick years in Brisbane or Sydney, and then decide that they want to go back to where they were brought up.
So to me, both these issues are irrelevant when it comes to setting up academies in Victoria and the NT. That is, kids brought up in these places, already have every incentive to play AFL, as it is the dominant code. In Victoria, for instance: the media coverage is massive compared to other sports; the majority of people follow an AFL side; more juniors play the code than any other sport, and the attendance at matches is far greater for Aussie Rules. So if you're a kid with a bit of sporting skills, who has recently migrated to Melbourne, then Aussie Rules is the obvious sport for you to play if you want to fit into your new environment.
And with our code enjoying all these advantages, I don't think it's necessary for the administration to hand over a large wad of cash to the likes of Hawthorn and Collingwood, so they can do missionary work in areas such as Gippsland and Fitzroy.
I also think that the situation is just as silly in the NT. Perhaps the best way to comment on this, is to look at the Tiwi Islands being handed to Essendon. While some will say that this will encourage indigenous kids to take up AFL, I don't really see how. That is, Aussie Rules already does seem to be the dominant code. There is a very healthy and passionately supported local competition. The Tiwi Bombers play in the NT competition. And with Maurice Rioli, Michael Long and Cyril Rioli, it's possible that the Tiwi local competition has supplied more Norm Smith medallists than any other local competition. So once again, I don't think it's a situation where a Victorian club has to come in and convert the locals. What it will do however, is tie the Tiwi's best future prospects to Essendon. And with the carve up of the NT between five Victorian clubs, it now does seem to mean, that these clubs have been arbitrarily handed almost exclusive rights to many future indigenous draftees. Whereas NSW and Qld clubs will now have limited access.
And I don't think that this will do anything to fix the return home problem: in the case of NT players, there is no NT AFL club to return home to; while with Victorian players, Victoria already supplies the most number of draftees, so the Victorian clubs are already the ones who benefit most from homesick players returning home.
So anyway, I think the whole exercise is a reward to whining Victorian clubs, who will be granted cut price access to many highly promising juniors, in order to fix a problem that didn't actually exist.

Fo me the is the most egregious part of the announcement. Not only is this the NT decision ridiculous from an 'academy' point of view, but also it takes kids away from the NT league and NEAFL. So if anything it creates a "go home factor" that would not have otherwise exist potentially reducing the number of NT kids in the AFL system over time rather than increasing it - all for the sake of preferencing VIC clubs. Simply stupid. Surely if the AFL was serious about proving a pathway for NT kids to the AFL - the NEAFL and by extension the existing academies are best suited to this. Second in line would be WAFL and SANFL, given strong existing geographic and community ties to NT, plus excellent state based competitions. The worst pathway, by a long shot, is VFL and Vic clubs.

I guess you call this Vic politics in action.