GC Team to debut in TAC cup

[Father Jack]

This'll be interesting. Looks like they want the club to get used to travelling from the outset. Gonna need a fair few dollars from the outset too, I reckon.

What happens if GC17 don't reach their targets? Everything already seems like it is ready to go regardless.

http://www.goldcoast.com.au/article/2008/06/05/12079_gold-coast-sport.html

AFL boss drops in to drum up support GC17

Nick Smart

05Jun08

AFL boss Andrew Demetriou last night made a surprise `hit and run' visit to the Gold Coast to drum up corporate support for the GC17 bid team.

Demetriou, key AFL executive Andrew Catterall and the GC17 bid team held an intimate meeting with the city's movers and shakers at Southport Sharks headquarters.
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Part of the AFL's criteria involves the GC17 bid team raising $5 million in sponsorships and signing 111 businesses by the October deadline.

And Demetriou said it was vital the AFL was involved in trying to woo the city's business and sporting leaders.

"It is important the AFL is up here supporting the bid team. This won't be my last trip I am sure," he told The Gold Coast Bulletin last night.

"It is just about catching up with the GC17 bid team and hopefully a few people are going to get on board, so it is very exciting."

The AFL chief executive said it was crucial the Gold Coast community supported the bid.

"In any football club you need a combination of corporate support and grassroots support," he said.

The surprise visit came as the AFL prepares to announce today the Gold Coast Football Club will debut in the Victorian under-18 TAC Cup competition next season.

By the end of 2008, the Coast franchise will have a coach, CEO and a batch of Queensland's best under-18 youngsters, who will play together for two years before joining the AFL in 2011.

Playing the Coast team in the AFLQ Division 1 -- home to Southport, Labrador and Broadbeach -- appeared the obvious choice. But playing the club in an under-18 competition was seen as more beneficial to the development of the youngsters.

The club will be known as the Gold Coast Football Club, will wear the same playing strip as when it debuts in the AFL and will play out of either Gold Coast Stadium or Southport.

Whether coach-in-waiting Michael Voss will coach the side has not yet been decided.

AFL game development manager Dave Matthews, also a GC17 committee member, said it was the best step forward.

"The TAC Cup competition has historically produced 50 per cent of the draft," he said.

"It is a competition designed to produce draftable players and in many respects the TAC Cup clubs operate as academies.

"What we want to set up is an academy model that supports talented Queensland players and is complemented by participation in the TAC Cup."

The team will travel to Melbourne every second or third week for away fixtures.

The AFL believes playing in the TAC Cup will prepare the Coast team for the rigours of travel, which is a part of life for all non-Victorian clubs.

Matthews said the team would be made up of Queensland's best youngsters.

"The players in it will effectively be the players in the Queensland talent pathway," he said. "But ... in due course there will be the opportunity to offer contracts with that club to players from Queensland eligible for this year's draft.

"So sooner rather than later we want to be in a position where Queensland players, eligible for this year's draft, will have the option of opting out of the draft and signing with the Gold Coast and have the opportunity to develop in the TAC Cup."

Matthews said deciding not to play the club in the AFLQ was the best option.

"It is important that the Queensland clubs can be seen to be collaborating with the Gold Coast and AFL Queensland on entry to that competition."

[Capitalist]

I like the concept – I also think they should look at giving them a crack at players who miss out on the draft (i.e the rookie draft) there is a fair bit of talent that gets missed out during the real draft and by giving these guys an extra two years they may be able to unearth additional players, it may take the pressure of other clubs down the track should they have a bigger number of players who are “AFL standard” so the looting of the existing teams isn’t as painful.

[Professor Knowall]

This'll be interesting. Looks like they want the club to get used to travelling from the outset. Gonna need a fair few dollars from the outset too, I reckon...
All TAC teams are fully funded by the AFL - so the cost won't be borne by the new club as such.

Here's more details - http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/sport/afl/story/0,26576,23812508-19742,00.html

Coast draft dodge
Andrew Hamilton, The Herald Sun June 05, 2008

QUEENSLAND juniors will get the chance to opt out of the draft and sign contracts with the the new Gold Coast team following an AFL decision.

The AFL will today announce that the side that will eventually be the 17th team will start its life in the under-18 TAC Cup from next season. Those players who skip the draft will be given age exemptions to be allowed to compete in the TAC Cup. The side will play a handful of its home games as AFL curtain-raisers at the Gabba or Carrara.

AFL game development manager David Matthews last night informed Queensland's representative under-16s squad of the latest developments relating to the formation of the Gold Coast club. "It is an option for the player. We are not looking to force anyone, but we think we can make it pretty appealing for them to consider entering a contract with the Gold Coast," he said.

Matthews said the TAC Cup gave the kids the best chance at development and was also considered a better forum than the AFLQ for the club to cut its teeth in. "It puts them against the best talent in the country and also gives the Coast the chance to assess them in that company," he said. "We think it makes sense for Queensland juniors and the Gold Coast to represent all of the state league clubs, rather than compete against them."

[Professor Knowall]

Here's a much more detailed article on this topic, finishing with the Collingwood "detailed" submission for a "more elaborate football academy" in Queensland, that " ... involved aggressively chasing talented athletes from other sports and offering them the scholarships ..."

http://www.realfooty.com.au/news/news/tac-cup-to-help-blood-new-team/2008/06/04/1212258909342.html?page=2


TAC Cup to help blood new team

Michael Gleeson The Age June 5, 2008


A NEW Gold Coast team will play in the under-18 TAC Cup next year, with the best Queensland teenagers offered contracts to step out of this year's national draft in favour of playing for the new team until it joins the expanded AFL in 2011.

The AFL will today announce the decision after last night informing the parents of Queensland's best under-18 players of the option to potentially play AFL football, yet be certain of remaining in their home state. The team, which is yet to have a name or jumper, will play for two seasons in the TAC Cup, potentially coached by Michael Voss, which could serve as the triple premiership-winning captain's coaching apprenticeship. The choice of a home ground is also yet to be determined, but the side will play its home games on the Gold Coast next year, with the AFL underwriting the cost of all TAC Cup teams travelling to Queensland to play.

There are two Queenslanders in the Australian Institute of Sport squad — Jesse Haberfield and Declan Bevan — who would be most obviously considered of draftable quality. The certainty of being drafted and being able to stay in their home state would be also of appeal. Equally, Haberfield, who is available in this year's draft, could decide to take his chance in the draft for the possibility that he could be playing AFL as soon as next year.


The Gold Coast club will not participate in this year's national draft, but Queensland players could choose to pre-sign to it — as occurs with NSW scholarship players — and opt out of the draft.

Now that the decision has been made by the working party of the AFL and GC17 members that a team will play in the TAC Cup next year, staffing appointments will be made, including the coach and recruiting manager. Initially the decision on who to offer contracts to for the TAC Cup team and bypass the draft will be made by AFL Queensland's game development team, headed by Mark Browning. Prospective players would be signed to the AFL but that contract would fold over to the new club when a consortium wins the licence to play in the AFL.

It is yet to be determined by the AFL commission if the players would be offered standard player contracts despite playing at a level below AFL or VFL. The desire to ensure the offers are attractive would likely mean this is the case. The league will work with the chief executive of Football Victoria, Peter Schwab, to manage the TAC competition, given a large number of mature-aged players would be playing in an essentially under-age competition. Presently, some 19-year-olds are permitted to play in the under-18 competition.

"We think developing generations of Queensland talent will be best done by having them play in the TAC Cup, which traditionally produces more than 50% of players drafted," AFL game development manager David Matthews said. "This fits our philosophy to not only fast-track talent, but to deepen the overall talent pool so that we not only find players for the new Gold Coast team, but for every team in the AFL."

To that end, the AFL also announced the creation of a form of football academy in Queensland, where educational help would be provided for promising athletes, which would allow them to be given increased and regular intensive football instruction. The academy system is an enhancement of the Voss scholarship program and will see students placed at a range of schools in Queensland. "We have had some significant gains in recent years with the program and we believe now it warrants further investment and the development of an elite intensive football academy," Matthews said.

Collingwood made a detailed submission to the AFL last Friday on the new teams and suggested forming a more elaborate football academy there. Under that model, players aged 15 and 14 would be accepted at a elite private boarding school and be available as a large group to be coached in football on a daily basis. The Magpies plan, loosely costed at up to $1.6 million, involved aggressively chasing talented athletes from other sports and offering them the scholarships. The Gold Coast team would have had exclusive access to the best players for the first three years before being given priority access under a bidding system similar to the father-son system.