No Oppo Supporters 2023 General AFL Discussion - incl. AFL Grand Final

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I still don't even think the Victorian, South Australian & West Australian clubs should have any prioritised access to NGA picks at all. What do they need them for? Their academies are their states, which between the three of them have accounted for an average of 88.1% of the last ten national drafts. And in a complete rejection of the Great Northern Invasion mythology, that number is actually higher in the last five drafts (92%) than in the five drafts before them (84.2%)

The NGA's were so disingenuous to begin with. They were thrown as a bone to McGuire et al because they were so upset at the Northern Academies and it was done so under the guise of wanting more culturally diverse kids to play footy. It was a sham from the get-go. Either scrap them or fund them through the AFL with the clubs as the host bodies. If you scrapped the prioritised access they get, the clubs wouldn't want to contribute any funds to them so let the AFL fund them if they care that much about bringing culturally diverse kids into footy (which is clearly not what they give a s**t about, to be very clear).
 
Who knows about the trade ban but definitely the board is not independent. It's hard for the board to have gumption because they're all approved by the AFL and serve at the AFL's pleasure. The AFL is their only shareholder. The Board is legally bound to do the AFL's bidding. The club doesn't have an independent existence any more except in the minds of fans. The AFL owns it all.

As far as I can tell, the club's allegiance to fans is comparable to a company's allegiance to its customers.
Accountability and allegiance not quite the same. They are definitely not accountable to the fans (or even members) but I suspect that they have some sense of allegiance or at the very least a desire to provide joy and satisfaction to keep us coming back and to build memberships.
 

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The reaction to this years' draft is simply knee-jerk. The issue is not that there were academy picks, but that the Suns got four very good ones, which has never happened with any academy before. The calls to overhaul the academy system will adversely impact the other three northern academies and kill off the good work that is being done in those states. Once again, Bris, GWS and Swans didn't get four academy picks in the first round so why should they be punished just because the planets aligned for the Suns?

A few years ago, the AFL assisted the Suns by increasing their list size, salary cap, and academy region (to include Darwin). It could yet prove that this years' draft was an anomaly for the Suns, but if it is a trend for them then couldn't the AFL simply remove Darwin from their academy area and initiate some kind of 'elite pathways' program there instead and all teams could share in the potential draftees from there on an equal basis?
 
Im waiting for a non Victorian club to have some sort of success going B2B would be amazing and spicy.

Please let it be GCS i dont think the AFL landscape is prepared for the aftermath.
Can think of one club I'd rather that for than Gold Coast :p
 
The argument by Mark Evans that we should allow "heartland" clubs the same access to NGA prospects as the Northern states is disingenuous IMO. If you give the "heartland" clubs more rope, they'll take it and completely take the piss with bending rules to get the most talented players into their academies because they already exist within states where football is the dominant sport. They're not competing for players like QLD and NSW clubs are - competing for players against other elite sports (NRL in particular) that can sign them up as 18 year olds to huge contracts because they don't have a draft.

The dummy-spitting by the non-Northern clubs about this is beyond even what I thought was possible. Plus the loud-speaker, uncritical adoption of those attitudes by media lapdogs. Nice to see Morris push back a little against it with some sensible thought.
I do not disagree with anything you have said here but we all know the AFL is controlled by the big Melbourne clubs. As a result, I see next year the 20% discount for academies and F/S picks will be abolished making it almost impossible for GC to do again what they did this year without going into significant deficit and that NGAs will only be unavailable until after round 1 is completed.
I would love to know how much the non northern state clubs actually spend on their so called NGA academies. I dare to say it would be about 10-20% of what we spend on ours. I also believe the NGA is little more than a sham.
 

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I wouldn't have a problem with Victorian clubs having to battle it out for NGA prospects with one another. For a kid to be eligible to be matched on they need to be within the academy for 3 or more years - this was not the same as the NGA.

Keep the NGA multicultural rules and have that they need to be a part of the NGA for 3+yrs.

Apply the same rules, then have the clubs battle each other over kids coming up through the draft. They wont get every Victorian and instead you will have 10 clubs battle over one another.

Sydney will also not have to waste our time with kids like Dawson or Jones and we'll know up front where they want to be.
 
Probably one of the ####### posts ive ever read
Its not Bedford. I don't think you understand just how much and how deep the anger is that we feel the competition is completely driven to serve Victorian interests.
 
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The afl implement these strategies then there is panic when they may work.
Which I think is the crux of the issue, really.

They don't really care if they work or not.

That's why, whenever there's pushback on anything from the Victorian clubs, the AFL's response is never a strong and decisive "this is how it's gonna be, we're committed to an equal, national comp, we believe in the system we've put in place".

It's always, "we'll continue to work through what it looks like, we'll consider all options, we might not always get it right."

I'm not saying the AFL should be a dictatorship, but it shouldn't be a democracy either, where the game is led based on popularity with the masses, because what's popular with the masses isn't always what's right or what's fair.

Time for the AFL execs to grow a back-bone and commit to the priorities they claim to be committed to, regardless of the backlash that comes with it.
 
Liam Duggan and Oscar Allan co captains of WC
 
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