Academies

[Val Keating]

Hey Hawkers, not here to s**t stirring, I’m waving the white flag.

I heard Johno Brown saying that Luke Hodge’s son is a star and that he’s in the Brisbane academy system and will have a tough choices to make, choose father son, move back to Victoria, or pick Brisbane and stay with his family and friends.

Personally I don’t think that any kid of a afl player should be eligible for academy selection, they should be in the open draft or father/son selection.

I rarely leave the North board, but I am very annoyed about the northern academies.

 

[kazzooka]

Hey Hawkers, not here to s**t stirring, I’m waving the white flag.

I heard Johno Brown saying that Luke Hodge’s son is a star and that he’s in the Brisbane academy system and will have a tough choices to make, choose father son, move back to Victoria, or pick Brisbane and stay with his family and friends.

Personally I don’t think that any kid of a afl player should be eligible for academy selection, they should be in the open draft or father/son selection.

I rarely leave the North board, but I am very annoyed about the northern academies.

Yep, Hawthorn and other clubs need to fight hard to make sure that what happened with Blakey never happens again.

Absolute nonsense, I think to be eligible for the academies you should have to come from a non football background. A guy growing up in AFL clubrooms is the furthest from that.

If my son were to be AFL capable he should be ineligible for academies because 1. I played vafa 2. Many members of my family including my son have memberships to AFL clubs. 3. I have a big footy account.

Academy should be the option for a kid who is an elite u15 rugby league player not the kids of AFL hall of fame legends.

 

[Back Pocket Rocket]

Simple solution which is not in the AFL's vocabulary. Father Son takes precedence over Academies. Going to be even more depressing watching Hodge jnr running around for the Lions then it was with Hodge himself.

 

[burger09]

Hey Hawkers, not here to s**t stirring, I’m waving the white flag.

I heard Johno Brown saying that Luke Hodge’s son is a star and that he’s in the Brisbane academy system and will have a tough choices to make, choose father son, move back to Victoria, or pick Brisbane and stay with his family and friends.

Personally I don’t think that any kid of a afl player should be eligible for academy selection, they should be in the open draft or father/son selection.

I rarely leave the North board, but I am very annoyed about the northern academies.

Watching Blakey play for the Swans boils my blood. Farce.

 

[briztoon]

Did Brown mention both his kids (daughter, who is a gun, and son, who is not) are in Gold Coasts academy?

Blakey was also father son eligible to Brisbane, spent every June/July school holidays up in Brisbane as part of our father son program, from age 12. Don’t read about Brisbane fans being p!ssed off. And this all happened before Hodge joined Brisbane, so can’t accuse Brisbane of playing any long game conspiracy.

Matthew Kennedy’s (188 games for Brisbane) son is also in Gold Coasts academy, is a pretty decent small forward by all reports, and draft eligible this year.

If you live in QLD or NSW the fact is, the academy’s represent the elite pathway the AFL has put in place, much like the Talent League is the elite pathway in Vic.

Also Cooper Hodge is a massive Lions fan, that’s from his own dad’s mouth.

 

[Sixpence]

Did Brown mention both his kids (daughter, who is a gun, and son, who is not) are in Gold Coasts academy?

Blakey was also father son eligible to Brisbane, spent every June/July school holidays up in Brisbane as part of our father son program, from age 12. Don’t read about Brisbane fans being p!ssed off. And this all happened before Hodge joined Brisbane, so can’t accuse Brisbane of playing any long game conspiracy.

Matthew Kennedy’s (188 games for Brisbane) son is also in Gold Coasts academy, is a pretty decent small forward by all reports, and draft eligible this year.

If you live in QLD or NSW the fact is, the academy’s represent the elite pathway the AFL has put in place, much like the Talent League is the elite pathway in Vic.

Also Cooper Hodge is a massive Lions fan, that’s from his own dad’s mouth.

Cooper Hodge still rocks Hawthorn gear in photos.

 

[hawk65]

Did Brown mention both his kids (daughter, who is a gun, and son, who is not) are in Gold Coasts academy?

Blakey was also father son eligible to Brisbane, spent every June/July school holidays up in Brisbane as part of our father son program, from age 12. Don’t read about Brisbane fans being p!ssed off. And this all happened before Hodge joined Brisbane, so can’t accuse Brisbane of playing any long game conspiracy.

Matthew Kennedy’s (188 games for Brisbane) son is also in Gold Coasts academy, is a pretty decent small forward by all reports, and draft eligible this year.

If you live in QLD or NSW the fact is, the academy’s represent the elite pathway the AFL has put in place, much like the Talent League is the elite pathway in Vic.

Also Cooper Hodge is a massive Lions fan, that’s from his own dad’s mouth.

If you play in the Talent league a club doesn't get a free kick to get you unlike the academy's up north

 

[extractasam]

Did Brown mention both his kids (daughter, who is a gun, and son, who is not) are in Gold Coasts academy?

Blakey was also father son eligible to Brisbane, spent every June/July school holidays up in Brisbane as part of our father son program, from age 12. Don’t read about Brisbane fans being p!ssed off. And this all happened before Hodge joined Brisbane, so can’t accuse Brisbane of playing any long game conspiracy.

Matthew Kennedy’s (188 games for Brisbane) son is also in Gold Coasts academy, is a pretty decent small forward by all reports, and draft eligible this year.

If you live in QLD or NSW the fact is, the academy’s represent the elite pathway the AFL has put in place, much like the Talent League is the elite pathway in Vic.

Also Cooper Hodge is a massive Lions fan, that’s from his own dad’s mouth.

So you would be fine with any FS eligible players at Brisbane that grow up in vic be academy eligible at clubs in Victoria?

 

[Val Keating]

Watching Blakey play for the Swans boils my blood. Farce.

I know I’m biased but it’s very frustrating. Sons of AFL players players should not be allowed to fall under Academy selection. I love the father son tradition and I would hate seeing the son of a hawthorn legend play for another team it’s just wrong.

Add to that, the southern academies are so watered down that if the player is any good they can’t be drafted by the club whose academy they’ve come out of.

I think we’re going to see more of these situations in the future because afl footballers will inevitably coach at the northern teams. s**t, Northern clubs might even start targeting ex players with promising sons purely to get them into their academies

 

[Val Keating]

Cooper Hodge still rocks Hawthorn gear in photos.

Yeah this is what I was hoping. I don’t think Hodge would want him anywhere but hawthorn. Though, one of our mods on the North board knows hodge a little bit and said that he (hodgey) loves living up there.

 

[cryptor]

Blakey was also father son eligible to Brisbane, spent every June/July school holidays up in Brisbane as part of our father son program, from age 12. Don’t read about Brisbane fans being p!ssed off. And this all happened before Hodge joined Brisbane, so can’t accuse Brisbane of playing any long game conspiracy.

It's called picking your battles.

Northern academies as they are now have far more scope to produce a constant stream of elite AFL talent. Northern state clubs and their fans would be stupid to make any noise about how father/son eligible players should take precedence over them.

 

[PattyKwasagun]

So you would be fine with any FS eligible players at Brisbane that grow up in vic be academy eligible at clubs in Victoria?

It's already happened to us actually.

Pick 63: Lachlan Johnson

Essendon has selected NGA member Lachlan Johnson with its final pick of the NAB AFL Draft on Thursday night.

www.essendonfc.com.au

 

[mpal6]

So you would be fine with any FS eligible players at Brisbane that grow up in vic be academy eligible at clubs in Victoria?

Marc Murphy. FS eligible but chose to stay in Victoria to be with family. No.1 pick even.

 

[hawk65]

It's already happened to us actually.

Pick 63: Lachlan Johnson

Essendon has selected NGA member Lachlan Johnson with its final pick of the NAB AFL Draft on Thursday night.

www.essendonfc.com.au

Pick 63 seriously??? If the lions wanted him they would have already taken him

 

[briztoon]

If you play in the Talent league a club doesn't get a free kick to get you unlike the academy's up north

If you play in a state outside of Victoria, you face multiple inherent disadvantages in the competition.

Swings and roundabouts.

Or we could restructure the league to be a truly national competition with a fair fixture, equal travel for all teams, and a rotating grand final location. Might mean the dissolution of 5 of the Victorian teams and the relocation of another.

 

[extractasam]

It's already happened to us actually.

Pick 63: Lachlan Johnson

Essendon has selected NGA member Lachlan Johnson with its final pick of the NAB AFL Draft on Thursday night.

www.essendonfc.com.au

I mean you had every opportunity to recruit him? The FS rule isn’t a free hit in the rookie draft, there is still a price to pay.

 

[extractasam]

Marc Murphy. FS eligible but chose to stay in Victoria to be with family. No.1 pick even.

Yeah but the difference is Carlton didn’t have the rights to him under some other kind of academy - they had to pay the ultimate price being pick 1. It’s not like they could match a bid with a handful of garbage picks in the 40’s and 50’s which is what would happen in the current format

 

[cryptor]

Marc Murphy. FS eligible but chose to stay in Victoria to be with family. No.1 pick even.

That's not an academy. That's a F/S eligible draftee electing not to exercise that option and going wherever he is selected in the draft. And his father played for Fitzroy when they were a Melbourne based club. It's not like he was lured away from his home state at any point.

If Cooper Hodge decided he didn't want to guarantee being drafted to Hawthorn via F/S and instead take a roll on potentially getting selected by Brisbane or Gold Coast then while disappointing for us, it would be fair.

A more appropriate hypothetical example would be if Will Ashcroft had been eligible for St Kilda's academy from his brief time living in Melbourne (if the NGAs had the same rules as the northern academies) and they had been able to spend his formative junior football years selling themselves to him.

I'm happy for the northern state clubs to have that advantage/self-assistance/whatever you want to call it of the academies provided it is balanced. The idea was originally sold as creating development pathways that would create AFL players that wouldn't have otherwise ended up playing AFL, and to give the northern states a pool of players that weren't going to be homesick to southern states.

Instead what we've got is a relatively unlimited talent pipeline of kids who really only want to play for the club that has been working with them for years - which is really good for the record. Well done. But on top of that these clubs are still free to go to the draft and where they can swing it, take the best young talent from other states too. Good example is Sydney taking Logan McDonald and then being able to match a bid for Braeden Campbell on the very next selection.

And I notice there doesn't seem to be so much of an issue with homesick Victorians leaving northern clubs in recent times. Perhaps homesickness was just a pretence for escaping the poor club cultures at the time (eg. Rockcliff as captain being a sociopathic bully, Suns building their initial list with those chasing cash).

 

[briztoon]

It's called picking your battles.

Northern academies as they are now have far more scope to produce a constant stream of elite AFL talent. Northern state clubs and their fans would be stupid to make any noise about how father/son eligible players should take precedence over them.

No one has made any noise that northern academy membership should take precedence over father son.

The AFL has been very clear that it is up to the kid which route he chooses to take.

Blakey chose academy over father son. Scott chose father son over academy.

Only one Northern academy is even close to producing a constant stream of draftable talent, and that is Gold Coast. Yet they might only have one draftable kid this year.

Otherwise, no Northern academy is even close to producing the same number of draftable kids each year, as the weakest Talent League club.

 

[briztoon]

Yeah this is what I was hoping. I don’t think Hodge would want him anywhere but hawthorn. Though, one of our mods on the North board knows hodge a little bit and said that he (hodgey) loves living up there.

Hodge has said multiple times on SEN and Fox Sports that it will be Cooper’s decision, if he’s good enough.

 

[briztoon]

Pick 63 seriously??? If the lions wanted him they would have already taken him

We couldn’t.

Essendon bid on Keidean Coleman in the 30’s, that wiped out all our picks until pick 65.

 

[HedgeFund]

Pick 63 seriously??? If the lions wanted him they would have already taken him

That’s not the point.

The kid was both a Brisbane F/S candidate and an Essendon Academy player.

Nick Blakey was also a (double) F/S but could be taken by Sydney as an academy player.

It’s not about how good the kid is or where they’re taken, it’s the fact that the Academy rules exist at all which was being debated.

 

[briztoon]

Yeah but the difference is Carlton didn’t have the rights to him under some other kind of academy - they had to pay the ultimate price being pick 1. It’s not like they could match a bid with a handful of garbage picks in the 40’s and 50’s which is what would happen in the current format

That’s the system the AFL introduced. It’s not any teams fault.

All teams with father sons benefit from this scenario, whether it be the Bulldogs or Collingwood with a top 3 rated father son, or Hawthorn, Essendon or Adelaide with a father son kid bid on in the late teens or 20’s.

You guys have used trading up the draft to your advantage, knowing you had later picks to match your own father son kid.

 

[cryptor]

No one has made any noise that northern academy membership should take precedence over father son.

The AFL has been very clear that it is up to the kid which route he chooses to take.

Blakey chose academy over father son. Scott chose father son over academy.

Only one Northern academy is even close to producing a constant stream of draftable talent, and that is Gold Coast. Yet they might only have one draftable kid this year.

Otherwise, no Northern academy is even close to producing the same number of draftable kids each year, as the weakest Talent League club.

No one would need to make noise for that. The academy itself does the heavy lifting of indoctrinating the sons. And I don't mean that in an insidious way. Everything I hear about the northern academy programs is about how well run they are. Why wouldn't anyone in such a program not want to "graduate" to join the club that runs it?

The issue ties back to my point in my other post about how the academies were sold to the competition as a way to bring in kids who wouldn't otherwise make it to the AFL (because they wouldn't be developed or would choose other codes) and simultaneously provide northern clubs with homegrown talent that will want to stick around. But now we know they can effectively be used as vehicles to cut in on other clubs potential father son's.

And for the record, I don't think Brisbane had any intention of this Cooper Hodge scenario happening when they offered a deal to Luke Hodge. But the fact is that there is nothing in place to prevent similar scenarios from happening by design in the future.

 

[extractasam]

That’s the system the AFL introduced. It’s not any teams fault.

All teams with father sons benefit from this scenario, whether it be the Bulldogs or Collingwood with a top 3 rated father son, or Hawthorn, Essendon or Adelaide with a father kid bid on in the late teens or 20’s.

You guys have used trading up the draft to your advantage, knowing you had later picks to match your own father son kid.

Yeah absolutely we have, almost every club has in some facet since pick bidding was introduced.

The guy I quoted was trying to draw parallels between two situations that were totally different IMO. I still think pick bidding is out of hand at the moment regardless of if we benefit from it or not