2023 List Management

[Velour&Ruffles]

In an article on the AFL site, Damien Hardwick was quite rightly defending the Suns academy, against the carping of its largely Victorian critics. However, I did find this quote mildly amusing.

"The investment is incredible, the amount of time and effort put into it. To be honest, it caught me by surprise how much work goes into it."

Mildly amusing, because I think it's a bit of hint, into how little work the Victorian clubs put into their NGAs.

" To be honest, it caught me by surprise how much work goes into it."

In other words -"I was previously happy to slag the northern academies off without actually having any idea what I was talking about, or any inclination to find out. And it turns out these academies are actually real academies putting in genuine development effort, instead of shams like the NGAs where frankly we put bugger all effort in."

Says a lot about the way the Vic power clubs approach this issue.

[Mel_C]

There is an article in the Age saying that "The AFL will overhaul the national draft to force clubs to pay a fairer market rate to secure father-son or academy players."

[barry]

This is just an exercise by the big vic clubs to assert power over the new AFL administration.
Hopefully they won't buckle. Norf's priority picks were the biggest cause of any problems.

[i'm-uninformed2]

This is just an exercise by the big vic clubs to assert power over the new AFL administration.
Hopefully they won't buckle. Norf's priority picks were the biggest cause of any problems.

It's pretty clear they'll cave, as they always do when the big clubs in Vic squeal.

There's another change the AFL is pushing through that's arguably just as bad. They're going to extend the salary pay out for sacked coaches from six to 12 months, lower the luxury tax rate on clubs exceeding the football department soft cap, and allow 20 percent of a coaches salary to sit outside that cap.

Who does that help - clubs with smaller profits and tighter margins (ie: northern state clubs, or small Vic clubs on the drip like Norf and St Kilda), or big powerful clubs who can afford to spray away (ie: Pies, Tigers, Carlton and West Coast)? Just a farce.

[KSAS]

There is an article in the Age saying that "The AFL will overhaul the national draft to force clubs to pay a fairer market rate to secure father-son or academy players."

I've been hearing suggestions to change the draft points system so that clubs can't easily match 1st round bids with host of back end draft picks.

.Collingwood's F/S Nick Daicos & GC Academy picks this year, has been used as examples where this has been exploited. Clubs trading out their early picks beforehand.

Idea is for clubs having to use higher pick to match bid, preferably a pick from the same round where the bid is made.

Whatever tweaks AFL decide to do, it MUST give Academy matching bids preference over F/S,
simply because of the amount of time & money invested in them compared to F/S which are a gift.

It is imperative the Northern Academies remain viable, as they are introducing ADDITIONAL talent to the draft pool & are to be the ever increasing lifeblood of the Northern States to be competitive.

I think there has been a gross overreaction to the GC 4 x Academy picks, which has been taken out of context overall considering its short history.

Agree with Barry, North's compensation picks had the compromised the draft more than the GC Academy picks. Wouldn't have drawn as much attention without North's compensation.

[dejavoodoo44]

I've been hearing suggestions to change the draft points system so that clubs can't easily match 1st round bids with host of back end draft picks.

.Collingwood's F/S Nick Daicos & GC Academy picks this year, has been used as examples where this has been exploited. Clubs trading out their early picks beforehand.

Idea is for clubs having to use higher pick to match bid, preferably a pick from the same round where the bid is made.

Whatever tweaks AFL decide to do, it MUST give Academy matching bids preference over F/S,
simply because of the amount of time & money invested in them compared to F/S which are a gift.

It is imperative the Northern Academies remain viable, as they are introducing ADDITIONAL talent to the draft pool & are to be the ever increasing lifeblood of the Northern States to be competitive.

I think there has been a gross overreaction to the GC 4 x Academy picks, which has been taken out of context overall considering its short history.

Agree with Barry, North's compensation picks had the compromised the draft more than the GC Academy picks. Wouldn't have drawn as much attention without North's compensation.

Agree with all that, so I'll just add a couple of things about the so called "junk picks". Firstly, they're not actually junk picks, in that you can often land very good players with picks in the range of 35 to 70. It's just that the chances are a little bit better with earlier picks. Hell, there's even been many stars who've come off the rookie list. There also seems to be the strange idea that the "junk picks" somehow appear out of nowhere. When in actual fact, they are usually the result of higher picks in past or future drafts being traded, or a present player being traded out. So, it's really just a case of a club giving up something at one point in time, in order to receive a benefit at another point in time.

And of course, the opposite argument never seems to be made. That is, that there's something dodgy, about a Victorian club trading lower picks to a northern club who wants match an academy bid, and therefore converting "junk picks" into a higher ranked draft prospect.

[dejavoodoo44]

It's pretty clear they'll cave, as they always do when the big clubs in Vic squeal.

There's another change the AFL is pushing through that's arguably just as bad. They're going to extend the salary pay out for sacked coaches from six to 12 months, lower the luxury tax rate on clubs exceeding the football department soft cap, and allow 20 percent of a coaches salary to sit outside that cap.

Who does that help - clubs with smaller profits and tighter margins (ie: northern state clubs, or small Vic clubs on the drip like Norf and St Kilda), or big powerful clubs who can afford to spray away (ie: Pies, Tigers, Carlton and West Coast)? Just a farce.

I learned a new word today. It's pathocracy. Which is, government by people with pathological personality disorders: such as narcissism and psychopathy. I do wonder if there's a bit of that in AFL administration?

[Thunder Shaker]

There's always an overreaction by certain Victorian clubs whenever non-Victorian clubs recruit good players.

After complaints to the AFL, Sydney got slapped with a controversial trade ban because they signed a couple of players other clubs wanted despite breaking no rules. Now some Victorian clubs are complaining because Gold Coast reaped one harvest of Academy players they had been nurturing for years at their own expense.

It must pain these Victorian clubs that Gold Coast have recruited some quality youngsters that the Victorian clubs can't poach.

These clubs forget that Gold Coast's draft picks are a finite resource. They can't recruit like this every year. They spent a few years trading into future drafts, just so they could recruit the players this year. Gold Coast's draft hand was also gimped by an AFL rule where the number of picks in a draft has to correspond to list vacancies - another recent rule introduced at the behest of certain clubs wanting to gimp the Academies. Gold Coast lost some points-bearing draft picks this year due to that rule. Never mind that these same Victorian clubs had been poaching players off the Gold Coast and GWS for years.

Meanwhile, the free agency rort hasn't been discussed. Why? The Victorian clubs are the biggest beneficiaries. Essendon got two players this year by free agency for no cost other than salary cap. The compensation draft picks were worth almost as much as pick 1 and Essendon contributed nothing for those picks. Yes, Sydney also got two free agents this year, but the compensation draft picks were worth a lot less (about pick 39).

So if rule changes are needed, free agency must also be included. The compensation picks have to go. Instead, make free agency operate by similar rules to the northern Academies. Free agent goes to the draft, origin club cannot bid on free agent. When the player is bid on, destination club gives up draft picks to get the player and the origin club for the player gets the next draft pick as compensation. This is not my idea, but I forget who originally suggest this so I can't give proper credit.

Another rule change that must be made is how clubs can "walk" uncontracted players from other clubs to the PSD and get them for nothing. I would scrap the PSD entirely. Such players should go through the draft, and risk being drafted by anyone. This creates more incentive for clubs to make fair trade offers.

The rookie list should be changed a bit. Veteran players really aren't rookies. Easiest way is to bring back the veterans' list under the same rules as the rookie list, or just rename the rookie list. Functionally there would be no change, just a clarification of function. I would call it the "rookie and veteran list", no other change needed.

[i'm-uninformed2]

It's actually nuts that they apply equal rules to father-son and northern academy picks. The latter involves a substantial investment of money, time and other resources - and needs the incentive of a reward. The second involves the dumb luck of a kid with talent having had parents that had a root at a certain time that coincided with the father playing footy.

I'm not opposed to some rules about how many/which picks can be used; but the argument about junk picks ignores the fact other clubs saw the value to trade up and get elite talent, so were beneficiaries of the scheme.

[Ruck'n'Roll]

It's actually nuts that they apply equal rules to father-son and northern academy picks. The latter involves a substantial investment of money, time and other resources - and needs the incentive of a reward. The second involves the dumb luck of a kid with talent having had parents that had a root at a certain time that coincided with the father playing footy.

I think linking of the F/S and Northern Academy rules was brilliant tactics, in that it prevented the Victorians from crapping all over Northern development (again) because it would harm their own F/S pathway.
That the two have become partially uncoupled is a serious problem for the northern states, any attempt to decouple them completely would be the thin end of the wedge.

[Bloods05]

I think linking of the F/S and Northern Academy rules was brilliant tactics, in that it prevented the Victorians from crapping all over Northern development (again) because it would harm their own F/S pathway.
That the two have become partially uncoupled is a serious problem for the northern states, any attempt to decouple them completely would be the thin end of the wedge.

Absolutely right.

[lwjoyner]

does anyone know what has happened to chris doerre Big footy and espn draft guru?

[Syd76]

For those into numbers ...the photo in the Age (piece on Brodie Grundy) has him having locker 4 and Taylor Adams locker 3

[giant]

It’s amazing how much they get it when outside Vic. Remember, when Eddie was in Sydney trying to run Ch9, he said he understood why we had COLA. It was only when he got sent packing for being a dud (and apparently, some personal shenanigans) that he began his campaign of vengeance.

Heard an interesting exchange with Stevie J on one of those "here's how to lose your money betting" shows - the host had a dig at SJ coming to Sydney in his twilight years to collect big $. Johnson effectively said he lost money given the increased costs - I imagine that's the reality for lots of players. Grundy effectively took a 10-15% pay cut coming up here on the same package (perhaps more when you consider Adelaide was the primary alternative).

[troyjones2525]

For those into numbers ...the photo in the Age (piece on Brodie Grundy) has him having locker 4 and Taylor Adams locker 3

Yeah saw that. It's what I expected. Be nice if Kirk Jr gets the 31 as well.

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