Does the AFL want to be a genuinely national competition?

[RUNVS]

This was posted on the Swans board but I think it should be seen here as well.

Sydney businessman slams Eddie McGuire for his views against interstate club’s academies
http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/sp...-clubs-academies/story-fni5f22n-1227236081503

THE Sydney businessman who has personally invested more than $3M into the Swans and Giants academies has slammed Eddie McGuire and the Melbourne clubs over their shortsighted views on talent nurseries.

Successful banker and now Greater Western Sydney board member Paul Moore said McGuire’s move on the academies would only hurt the competition and make the AFL a bit player in Australian sport with the proposed rule changes to the system.

“He’s putting the future of the AFL at risk,” Moore told The Daily Telegraph.

“It’s the AFL, not the VFL. They’re in a monopoly culture in Melbourne and it’s completely different in Sydney and they don’t get it.

“If we don’t get some talent out of the academies in NSW and Queensland it’s going to be Carlton against Collingwood in front of 5000 people at Princes Park in 50 years time.”

While Moore is only half joking about the 2065 scenario, he has watched the code struggle to produce AFL talent despite the red and whites great run of success.

Moore grew up playing local football for St Ives and North Shore and also represented the NSW Rams at the National Championships.

Six years ago he approached the Swans to help remedy the situation and stumped up in a big way to help establish the academy along with major sponsor QBE. He then helped the Giants out as well, where he is now a director.

“Eddie has concentrated on Isaac Heeney but 99 per cent of academy players won’t play in the AFL,” Moore said.

“These players will go back to the local clubs and leagues and help broaden participation and become coaches and teach kids. They will grow the game at the grassroots. Once you have established that base the talented players will select themselves.

“The academies are not just about getting top 10 picks, it’s about broadening participation.”

Highly regarded academy prospect Callum Mills is set to join Heeney at the Swans next year but Moore believes the move to change the bidding system surrounding academies is still too hasty.

“Melbourne clubs don’t want the integrity of the draft compromised and we agree with that,” Moore said.

“But the academies have produced just one player so far so how can that compromise it?

“There’s 99 draft picks in NSW and Queensland who all want to go home after two years. The Melbourne clubs have a huge advantage, they should be looking at redressing the balance between the clubs. At the Giants we won’t have a father-and-son pick for a long time.”

With more than half of Australia’s population residing in NSW and Queensland and producing less than 10 per cent of the AFL’s talent, Moore also believes the indigenous game is under serious threat from globalisation.

“The Melbourne clubs don’t get this,” Moore said.

“They think they’re No. 1 but on a global scale we’re irrelevant.

“We are a niche sport in NSW and Queensland and if we don’t become main stream and if we’re not producing our fair share of talent from NSW and Queensland it will never be a national game.

“The more the global games grow with the associated TV revenue the more Aussie rules will retreat back to it’s core states.”

Moore is now questioning his ongoing investment in the academies.

http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/sp...-clubs-academies/story-fni5f22n-1227236081503

So this is the theory of grow or die. Is the AFL and more importantly are the fans willing to do what is necessary for the code to grow in NSW and QLD and if they are not what will the consequences be for the code in 50 years time?

 

[LeppaMessiah]

More importantly, we gotta hear what Eddie McGuire has to say about this

 

[Abomination]

Cry me a river. Nobody's saying the Academies are bad, but the rules associated with them are flawed. Why on earth should a team as successful as Sydney be able to get the best midfielder in the draft for pick 18? It's bloody ludicrous and completely mocks the "equalisation" of the league if the most powerful and successful teams continue to get the best talent every year.

All it's doing is strengthening the divide between the haves and have-nots.

 

[Art Vandelay_]

Sydney doesn't deserve an academy. You already can get father sons like the rest of us and up until a couple of seasons from now extra salary cap space too.

Give gws and GC an academy until they can get f/s picks but not the Swans, they've got no reason to need one

 

[CHIMP MAGNET]

The AFL should pay for the Academies themselves if it's about growing the game, and the talent they produce goes in to the draft like every other kid.

 

[Riccardo11]

Sydney is always screaming about having an "equal" competition, but it's only equal if they get more money and draft concessions than the Melbourne clubs. The AFL just tipped another $3.4 million into the Giants, and a large part of the Swans success has been the increased salary cap due to COLA.

Why do the mega-successful Swans get access to an Academy, but Victorian based strugglers like Melbourne, St Kilda, Bulldogs, etc have to rely on the same draft system as everyone else? How is that in any way "equal"?

Moore heavily criticizes the AFL for being Melbourne centric, but he should have a look a little closer to home for a competition looking after it's traditional heartand at the expense of a true national competition.

 

[flamethrower]

The fact is if the AFL want genuine equalisation then all players entering the system should do so through an uncompromised draft. No father-sons and no academy picks.

 

[basashi]

Once again, I would like to point out that the AFL needs to recommit to treating all clubs fairly.

If any deal they enter into, media contract, extra rule they agree to, special fixture, academy, domination of time slots, limitation on travel....

.....if ANYTHING they do has the effect of advantaging any team in relation to any other team, then a reasonable effort must be made to redress the imbalance with cash, draft picks and salary cap concessions.

Want a special deal from the AFL? Pay for it - have some of your picks relegated, lose some cash and lose some of your salary cap in relation to other teams.

 

[Suma Magic]

I'm happy to grow the game so long as said quest for growth doesn't significantly or unnecessarily favour one club over another.

 

[BallaratBulldog]

Another year, people still don't understand the same topic and arguments. Too busy playing favorites.

 

[NathanMX]

The AFL is meant to be about equalization....for all clubs not just those in regions the AFL wants to build supporter bases like Sydney. Salary cap should be equal for all, give Western Bulldogs and St Kilda COLA for as many years as the Swans have had it and I am sure we both would have snared a flag or two also. In a perfect world every team would win one flag every 18 years, but various factors, including injuries, player development and draft picks does not make that possible. But neither does giving certain teams financial bonuses above and beyond other teams also.
The academies are not bad things, but when players like Heeney and others in future come out of it every team should have a chance at them at the expense of a live draft pick, and if Sydney want him then they should have to match or even trade to move up the draft order to pay a fair price. It is ridiculous that if in a year the Swans win the flag that if the best player in the country is coming out of their academy that they would get him for Pick 18.

 

[blue harvest]

Lol, this Paul Moore guy sounds like a Bigfooty poster but with better grammar.

 

[greatwhiteshark]

To answer the OP question the answer is NO. They never have really wanted a a national competition, they wanted a perceived national comp to protect their local Victorian clubs. They have achieved this.

 

[Furn2]

The new bidding system doesn't stop any of those benefits from happening, it just removes the possibility of getting a huge leg up in the draft from the academies.

As for the 99 players ALL wanting to go home after 2 years, give me a break.

The go home factor is highly overrated. Sure some players get homesick but for most 20 something, fit, highly paid young men, being driving distance from your parents isn't a high priority when decided where u want to live. It's cold and there's no surf in Melbourne, surely there needs to be some assistance for that ?

 

[Riccardo11]

To answer the OP question the answer is NO. They never have really wanted a a national competition, they wanted a perceived national comp to protect their local Victorian clubs. They have achieved this.

Absolutely. Watching my club fall apart due to lack of funds while GWS gets another $3 million big ones makes me feel very safe.

 

[vonn]

Woo this is going to end well.

 

[Wooljay]

Point of difference between Father-Sons and academies is genetics vs. selection.

Plenty of mundane and average footballers produced from the loins of champions, but if you're able to just effectively select whoever you want to develop and then get them at a disgusting steal then it's a joke, and it diminishes the integrity of the competition.

 

[aussierulesrules]

I'm willing to grow the code in these areas, but I'm not OK with one club just perennially staying in the top 8 year, after year, after year, after year, because they have such strong competitive advantages keeping them there, like COLA and now a potential talent production-line in the form of these elite young talent academies that they get first crack at.

It's hard enough for clubs like mine to make the top 4 or in particular a GF without having to beat teams that have had these leg-ups and now with 4 teams having this potential competitive advantage into the future, I just hope that we don't get to the stage where all 4 of them just live in the top 8 for as long as Sydney seem to have in the past 18 or so years.

 

[blue harvest]

To answer the OP question the answer is NO. They never have really wanted a a national competition, they wanted a perceived national comp to protect their local Victorian clubs. They have achieved this.

Who is 'their'? The commission, they majority of who are non Victorian including the Chairman and CEO or is it something or someone else?

 

[Colonial]

Whats this? The 59th academy thread. Cant wait till the footy starts....

 

[Masto]

There are millionaires in WA lining up to pour in $$$ to kickstart a WCE academy. Paul Moore and the AFL are stopping the growth of footy in WA.

 

[smeltitdeltit]

I'm willing to grow the code in these areas, but I'm not OK with one club just perennially staying in the top 8 year, after year, after year, after year, because they have such strong competitive advantages keeping them there, like COLA and now a potential talent production-line in the form of these elite young talent academies that they get first crack at.

It's hard enough for clubs like mine to make the top 4 or in particular a GF without having to beat teams that have had these leg-ups and now with 4 teams having this potential competitive advantage into the future, I just hope that we don't get to the stage where all 4 of them just live in the top 8 for as long as Sydney seem to have in the past 18 or so years.

Whoa whoa whoa.
Ease up.

The salary cap concessions and academies are there to even up the disadvantages they have, like travel, go home itis and away grand finals. Still they're at a disadvantage.
Why are they always in the finals??? Oh that's coz of bludz culcha. Couldn't be from leg ups. No sir.
Players want to go home after two years up north didn't you know??
But buddy and tippet only went there to get sum bludz culcha, so doesn't count.

 

[I am Jack]

Lol, this Paul Moore guy sounds like a Bigfooty poster but with better grammar.

You are being far too generous to Paul Moore.

 

[Albert Ross]

“Eddie has concentrated on Isaac Heeney but 99 per cent of academy players won’t play in the AFL,” Moore said.

“These players will go back to the local clubs and leagues and help broaden participation and become coaches and teach kids. They will grow the game at the grassroots. Once you have established that base the talented players will select themselves.

“The academies are not just about getting top 10 picks, it’s about broadening participation.”

Successful businessman makes poor argument of logic.

Producing players who will enhance grass roots, become coaches and establishing a base is NOT dependant upon Swans and Giants being able to pick players in the draft.

If his objective is to broaden participation, fund the academies and place those players in the draft pool.

 

[Pessimistic]

Well paul, you can invest in success but you cant buy it.

Ant the AFL 'wants' to be a successful competition. Going national is a means to the end not the end, otherwise theyd be wating money setting up in cairns, wollongong etcetc