NEAFL discussion thread

[Mr Magoo]

Further what a joke those allies selectors are. An 18 year old like bailey Stewart dominates two weeks in a row at neafl (and racked up similar numbers in the div 2 comp) but not good enough for allies. Meanwhile bunches of kids from Queensland, gws etc continue to get their 10 touches in neafl, but somehow are better than Stewart and get into allies.
You would think that the swans academy must be about ready to tell allies to get stuffed and showcase their talent in neafl rather than putting up with the bs politics that goes on now.

It will be interesting how other clubs start to view this situation. Swans academy gets stronger against the other academies every year, yet two or three get drafted at most and pretty much only by the swans. This year u16s won their series against GWS 2-1 (and the only game lost was by three points), and u18s pretty much killed everyone but Tasmania.

I wonder how long before other clubs start to realise that in the Swans academy they are getting kids that are pretty much by draft age used "to the system" and have been exposed to AFL type training standards, game play and discipline for a couple of years already.

There is still most definitely a bias against the swans academy in favour of the more traditional second tier stronger areas of Riverina, South east Qld, NT etc.

[dimelb]

I don't know if you would call it politics, but I wonder whether kids, especially from southeast Queensland, are getting a run in these games to try and persuade them to persist with the teams they belong to.

[bloodspirit]

The problem about the showcasing of Academy talent may well be a problem for those players and possibly for other AFL clubs, but it certainly isn't a problem for the Swans because we are aware of their talents and stand to get them on the cheap if they fly under the radar and we think they are worth selecting.

[barracuda]

Fair comment, however the swans can only draft a certain number and have a large pool to pick from. If you were a talented kid from Sydney you would be better playing tac cup than being in the swans academy unless this changes.

[Pmcc2911]

Fair comment, however the swans can only draft a certain number and have a large pool to pick from. If you were a talented kid from Sydney you would be better playing tac cup than being in the swans academy unless this changes.

Paul Roos made a good point that when he moved to Melbourne and Tyler (I think) went to the local TAC training there were 80 kids in the program where as he Sydney Academy has 30? in the U/18 program. He said he k new which program he preferred, obviously the Sydney one.
Have heard a similar comment from another parent whose son moved to Melb to play TAC cup and they felt the Sydney program was better.
You would also think the U19 NEAFL kids have a fabulous learning opportunity as well.

[barracuda]

Possibly, however Sydney afl is similarly a pretty wobbly market so why not give those kids games as well.
I also think that the afl and the swans have butted heads for a long time over things like cola, academies etc. the afl is very protective of its ais academy, and people like Luke power, Kevin Sheehan are allies selectors and run the ais academy.
In general I think at the coal face the afl does not want the swans academy to succeed and become the model that displaces their system. Interestingly at the higher levels in the afl it is different and the cosy arrangements power and Sheehan have enjoyed are being broken up next year in favour of state based academies. So it seems the swans academy approach is starting to gain traction.

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The Sydney academy program is way better than the tac system, as the kids are integrated into a real afl club. However despite this they don?t get drafted much. I think the argument is that the swans bring the best out of them, whereas the tac kids who play well have more potential once they are in an afl club.

[liz]

Fair comment, however the swans can only draft a certain number and have a large pool to pick from. If you were a talented kid from Sydney you would be better playing tac cup than being in the swans academy unless this changes.

I only partly agree with you on this. Fact is that, despite the Swans U18 team going unbeaten in 2017, even the Swans only selected two of that team for their rookie list (and none for their senior list). They had a third B rookie spot available on their 2018 list, so they could have taken someone else if they thought they were ready. Of course, a dozen or so of those players are now in the U19 squad and still have a chance to win a spot for next year.


The players who have missed out on showcasing their talents in the U18 championships get to play NEAFL as a consolation prize. The standard is significantly higher than the U18 championships and they are playing alongside professionals and against grown men. Recruiters do watch NEAFL so if they're good enough they will be noticed. A downside is that they get to play peripheral roles but as Stewart and Stern showed on Friday afternoon, that doesn't stop them excelling.


I don't think there's any anti-Sydney bias or politics going on in the selection of players for the U18 team. My understanding is that it is largely based on recruiters' assessments of the "most draftable" kids from the combined pool. And I do think the Swans academy teams' success over 2017 and 2018 is as much to do with how well drilled and prepared the players are as it is to do with outstanding athletic talent. But eventually recruiters must put two and two together and realise that players who come into the system well-prepared and well-drilled are more likely to succeed than flashier talents. You only have to look at the number of "high ceiling" players who've been drafted early in various National Drafts who've never got close to an AFL career, and the less sexy (in football terms) players like Parker and Sloane, for example, who dominated in junior football, slid to latish picks in their drafts, and yet have shown that their ceiling was higher than more obviously athletic players taken way earlier than them.


And if they don't, and continue to ignore the Sydney academy boys, it just means that the Swans get to pick exactly who they want with no competition from other clubs, and will continue to produce decent quality players from the back end of the draft. From what I've seen so far this season, I reckon there's a handful of the current U19 squad that stand a pretty decent chance of a Swans rookie spot next year if no other club takes an interest in them.

[ugg]

NEAFL MVP votes
Sydney University v Sydney Swans


9: Bailey Stewart (Sydney)
7: James Rose (Sydney)
5: Dan Robinson (Sydney)
4: Craig Bird (Sydney Uni)
2: Dean Towers (Sydney)
2: Aliir Aliir (Sydney)
1: Tom Young (Sydney Uni)


Stewart 5-4
Robinson 5-0
Rose 4-3
Bird 3-1
Aliir/Towers 2-0
Young 1-0

[ugg]

NEAFL MVP Swans leaderboard

• D.Robinson 33
• N.Newman 29
• D.Cameron 23
• H.Marsh 14
• R.Fox 11
• B.Stewart 9
• J.Rose 7
• C.O'Riordan 4
• A.Aliir 2
• D.Towers 2
• J.Brown 1

[liz]

I watched a replay of the second and third quarters. Gee, the commentary was ordinary. I reckon they knew half a dozen or so of the Swans players - Towers, Aliir, Amartey, Schumack, Rose and Cameron (although they sometimes attributed McCartin's contributions to Cameron). They gushed over Stewart, deservedly so, except that the most gushing came after Stern had just kicked a goal. Robinson was consistently referred to as Robertson and the rest was pretty random. Nick Newman even got the credit for one passage of play.

[ugg]

My 2nd favourite piece of commentary (after the gushing over Stern's goal wrongly attributed to Stewart) was a piece of play I think in the 3rd quarter where McCartin on the wing magically kicked it to McCartin in the forward line.

[Meg]

a piece of play I think in the 3rd quarter where McCartin on the wing magically kicked it to McCartin in the forward line.

Gosh McCartin is QUICK!

[troyjones2525]

I watched a replay of the second and third quarters. Gee, the commentary was ordinary. I reckon they knew half a dozen or so of the Swans players - Towers, Aliir, Amartey, Schumack, Rose and Cameron (although they sometimes attributed McCartin's contributions to Cameron). They gushed over Stewart, deservedly so, except that the most gushing came after Stern had just kicked a goal. Robinson was consistently referred to as Robertson and the rest was pretty random. Nick Newman even got the credit for one passage of play.

I was going to make the comment myself on how incompetent the male commentator is. Have heard him a number of times and cringe the moment he speaks because I know it's usually just rubbish. "Off the carpet!" It's grass man!!! There was one play early in the game where he basically got every name wrong in the run of play! Standards are clearly low at BAR TV! Lol.

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[liz]

I was going to make the comment myself on how incompetent the male commentator is. Have heard him a number of times and cringe the moment he speaks because I know it's usually just rubbish. "Off the carpet!" It's grass man!!! There was one play early in the game where he basically got every name wrong in the run of play! Standards are clearly low at BAR TV! Lol.

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I just checked who the commentators were, and the woman was the same one (Jess Webster) who commentated the Suns Swans clash a few weeks ago. I remember thinking (and discussing with a few people on here) how good she was, so I was surprised to find out this was the same person. Maybe she just had a bad day on Friday.

I agree the man was even worse.

[Scottee]

With Toby Pink not on the injury list for the second week in a row , I will be making stern representations if Toby doesn't line up in the NEAFL this week.

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