Academy uproar rears again

[KTigers]

The key argument for the Northern academies is to grow the game in those states. Its not about cost or go home factor etc. So when players like Guilden or Heeney say that they would probably be playing soccer in Sydney or rugby league in Newcastle respectively then this is gold for justifying their existence.

One question that I have is why has the Swans academy seemingly been more successful than the other northern academies? The Giants academy has access to the rich pickings of the Riverina and so they have done quite well out of it. However, Brisbane and Gold Coast appear to have been less so despite active junior competitions in QLD.

The next generation academies are a total free kick for Victorian clubs in much the same way that the father-son rule has yielded great success for clubs like Geelong. Some of those pickups like Quaynor and the last number one draft pick were playing AFL anyway and would have been drafted regardless of the presence of these so-called next gen academies.

I would think there are just a lot more kids playing footy in the Sydney area compared to the other areas. Also, there is more of a footy
culture these days in Sydney (not withstanding the recent drop in Swans membership I was disappointed to see). Give it ten or fifteen
years and there will be kids taking up Auskick whose parents started playing Auskick in the early 2000s. Unfortunately the first 20
years of the Swans being in Sydney were mostly just lost years as far as junior development goes.
There are still just a lot of silly little people down south that can't see past the carpark of their own club. They are always going to hold back
the growth of footy in this country. Put it this way, the new broadcast deal for the NFL is worth $113 billion USD ($150 billion in our money).
They have a lot of people in the US, but they don't have THAT many.

[Ruck'n'Roll]

Why doesn’t someone at the AFL - Gil for example - come out and publicly defend the northern academies. And tackle the VIC media?

I think the AFL may actually be trying to protect the Northern Academies.

Or at least that's my interpretation of the NGA's anyway.
Any attempt to shut down the Northern Academies will shutdown the Next Generation Academies.

So as long as the other clubs get to pick up the occasional gem using the BS NGA's, then the Northern Academies will be allowed to continue.
The rules concerning them are being be tinkered with, and I hope the NGA's aren't fazed out in 2023, as their existence helps to protect the North Academy's with potent self interest by the NGA clubs.

[Thunder Shaker]

Academy players are in the open draft pool, which means any club can draft them. The club that has developed the player simply has the right to match a bid. This is exactly the same as how father-son operates, and certain clubs have done very well out of father-son.

Matching Academy bids has a cost. In 2015, the Academy cost Sydney a father-son player (Josh Dunkley) who was bid on at pick 25 after Callum Mills was bid on at pick 3. Many other players have not been drafted by the Academy clubs because these clubs have had to use their draft picks on Academy players.

These points are conveniently ignored by the usual gang of whiners, who only see the benefits and ignore the costs.

[Mr Magoo]

I think the AFL may actually be trying to protect the Northern Academies.

Or at least that's my interpretation of the NGA's anyway.
Any attempt to shut down the Northern Academies will shutdown the Next Generation Academies.

So as long as the other clubs get to pick up the occasional gem using the BS NGA's, then the Northern Academies will be allowed to continue.
The rules concerning them may be tinkered with, but continued existence of both sorts of academies is protected by everyone's self interest.

NGAs are a joke and the rules too wide for what is included within. I doubt there are any NGA kids taken that wouldnt have already played the game anyway.

The Swans academy is completely the opposite. It gives kids something to strive towards in a market crowded by League, Union and at junior levels in particular Soccer. If not for the academy set up , many kids would be lured to the larger pathways in the other sports.

And the whole thing about identifying talent at 10 or 11 is complete rubbish - while they have tryouts at the younger ages, its not until under15s where any sorting out begins when they go to albury to play in the joss trials against other swans and giants kids. Really then thats just sorting the wheat from the chaff and under 16s is where the rubber hits the road. Thats really no different to the TAC cup and school pathway systems in place in Melbourne and the colts systems in SA and WA anyway.

Ive said before , if the Melbourne clubs wanted to start diluting the academies ability to get some reward for effort , their must be a flip side, in that they then should be made as a minimum to rookie list a kid from one of the northern academies. That would then encourage them to have some skin in the game rather than just bleating about the talent they have not received. The reality is that 5 kids over 7 years have been drafted that probably would have been taken by other clubs anyway - Heeney, Mills, Blakey and now Gulden and Campbell. The rest I doubt (ie Sheather, Wicks etc) . I believe that many talented kids have not even been often considered as a result of being in NSW as they get little opportunity to show their wares . In comparison , the kids in the south are playing in high level TAC cup, colts and School competitions for a couple of years. The swans kids by comparison are really only starting to get noticed when they play at under 16s level in three games against GWS and then if they make the RAMs squad , a further three games. Outside of that , I would guess that little if any scouting goes on at club level at that time.

[DeadlyAkkuret]

While the NGAs make little sense, I think the point was that due to their existence it makes it a bit easier to justify the northern academies to the ignorant masses and therefore keep some of the heat off them.

If that’s the case I am more than happy for both to exist.


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[Ruck'n'Roll]

Thanks DeadlyAkkarat.

I'm not saying it's design rather than happenstance, but I can't think of a better protection for the Northern Academies than Victorian avarice. Très sophistiqué

I think Mr Magoo's eyesight isn't 100%
He needs to see past the colossal, and genuine iniquities of the NGA system, to the considerable value of those NGA's to the Swans.

[barracuda]

While the NGAs make little sense, I think the point was that due to their existence it makes it a bit easier to justify the northern academies to the ignorant masses and therefore keep some of the heat off them.

If that’s the case I am more than happy for both to exist.


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I thought NGAs were finished?

[Meg]

Academy uproar rears again

I don’t have the slightest doubt that the AFL invented the NGAs to distract the Vic attacks on the Northern academies. There had been no identified problem widely discussed in recruitment from the NGA categories before the NGAs were announced out of the blue.

The AFL knows the NAs are starting to bear fruit both in adding to the AFL draft pool and spreading interest in AFL in the northern states. The latter is vital to AFL revenue. And the AFL certainly don’t want to run the academies (as some Vic critics suggest they should do).

None of which excuses the very loose NGA eligibility rules when they were first established. The AFL implicitly has recognised this by tightening the drafting rules for clubs with NGA talent.

[Meg]

NGAs not quite finished but withering away.

AFL scraps top-20 NGA picks, new mid-season draft plan

[Ludwig]

Stripping the top 20 picks from the NGA cuts out the big advantage of the scheme. It's those obvious top level players going to designated clubs for doing next to nothing that was the annoying feature. Hopefully this doesn't end up passing through to the academy program, which would completely gut the academies. The AFL would have to take over the programs in that csse.

[Ruck'n'Roll]

Hopefully this doesn't end up passing through to the academy program, which would completely gut the academies. The AFL would have to take over the programs in that csse.

The timing of the reminder of the hamstringing of the NGA's, immediately after round #1, makes me wonder how safe from similar treatment the Northern Academies are.

As to what happens north of the Barassi line without the Northern Academies? The drafting wasteland that stretched from McVeigh to Heeney is a pretty clear demonstration.

[DeadlyAkkuret]

The timing of the announcement of the hamstringing of the NGA's, immediately after round #1, makes me wonder how safe from similar treatment the Northern Academies are.

As to what happens north of the Barassi line without the Northern Academies? The drafting wasteland that stretched from McVeigh to Heeney is a pretty clear demonstration.

It’s a bit odd, the week when another academy player is grabbing headlines, the NGA is scrapped. It has an eerie feel about it. Like the calm before the AFL pull the rug from us again.


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[Ruck'n'Roll]

Yes 10 goals from Swans Academy players in a single game, it gave the mouth frothers plenty to vent about.

[cherub]

I also think that academy kids have a strong loyalty to the academy, and a desire to do their part to promote the academy. Hence the comments by Gulden. In reality Heeney, Mills, Gulden, Campbell would have got drafted regardless. They were all in the national programs etc. Where the academy comes in, is to develop the kids like wicks, bell and sheather

Gulden and Heeney, and possibly Mills would have been playing soccer or Rugby. They would not have been drafted to an AFL club. The Northern academies grow the talent pool. The Victorian NGAs haven't done that. (I don't know Braeden Campbell's background, except he went to Knox. More of a Rugby school.)

[Ruck'n'Roll]

Heeney would have been an outstanding 5/8th