Game of Sloane (THE OFFICIAL HE IS STAYING thread) Thread now closed

[Johnny Rutten]

I've been saying it for years now, we're far too Vicentric with our recruiting.

We've continually run the gauntlet by recruiting so many Victorian players (significantly more than Freo, WCE and Port) and have put ourselves at greater risk of defection than other clubs.

On your first point, that is reflected in the number of SA players (that played during the given season) since our first flag in 1997.

1997 = 24 SA players, played during 1997.
1998 = 26
1999 = 25
2000 = 25
2001 = 26
2002 = 25
2003 = 26
2004 = 24
2005 = 22
2006 = 22
2007 = 20
2008 = 16
2009 = 15
2010 = 17
2011 = 16
2012 = 15
2013 = 15
2014 = 14
2015 = 11
2016 = 8
2017 = 9

On your second point, current state-by-state breakdowns of SA/WA teams

Adel - 23 Vic, 2 WA, 11 SA, 1 Qld, 2 NSW, 1 Tas, 1 NT, 0 ACT.
Port - 18 Vic, 5 WA, 12 SA, 1 Qld, 2 NSW, 0 Tas, 1 NT, 1 ACT.
Freo - 13 Vic, 16 WA, 4 SA, 2 Qld, 0 NSW, 2 Tas, 1 NT, 0 ACT.
WC - 10 Vic, 19 WA, 7 SA, 0 Qld, 0 NSW, 0 Tas, 0 NT, 0 ACT.

 

[FR0GGY]

Nearly all of these departures (ie the back home ones) have been partner related. The club do a lot for the players and the partners to try and settle them in Adelaide. Its often easier to settle the player because they have the club and their team mates. Often the partner never really settles. Not sure how you fix that.

Break them up

 

[Vooligan]

So the rumour from SEN is that Belinda has accepted a job at Channel 7 in Melbourne. If he's leaving at the end of next year anyway, I'd rather he leaves now and we get decent value for him, rather than lose him for nothing as a UFA. It's selling your soul, but it's worth it in the long run (if he's leaving in 12 months anyway). Of course, I hope all of this is bullshit and he plays for us until well into his 30's.

 

[J_Crow]

On your first point, that is reflected in the number of SA players (that played during the given season) since our first flag in 1997.

Adel - 23 Vic, 2 WA, 11 SA, 1 Qld, 2 NSW, 1 Tas, 1 NT, 0 ACT.
Port - 18 Vic, 5 WA, 12 SA, 1 Qld, 2 NSW, 0 Tas, 1 NT, 1 ACT.
Freo - 13 Vic, 16 WA, 4 SA, 2 Qld, 0 NSW, 2 Tas, 1 NT, 0 ACT.
WC - 10 Vic, 19 WA, 7 SA, 0 Qld, 0 NSW, 0 Tas, 0 NT, 0 ACT.

These figures are unacceptable to me. I knew it was bad but not that bad.

 

[FR0GGY]

Last one out turn out the lights please.

 

[relapse]

Don't think Burton alone is fair. He had a shocking injury.

SA draftees have been disappointing for years now, so I have no problem with best available.

It does look like we have missed a couple recently though.

I just think Burton/Doedee is a microcosm of our current recruiting strategy.

What is viewed as talent is subjective to the recruiter, especially when players are playing in entirely different competitions to each other.

You can argue that we take the best available, but the fact is that it's the "best available" in the eyes of someone who I suspect rates TAC players higher than the SANFL under 18 comp.

I think we have great junior development programs at the club and I would like to see us back ourselves in sometimes with the development of some home grown talent.

 

[Wood_Duck]

Dunstan and pick 7 from Saints?

 

[Wood_Duck]

Break them up

Agree. Where do you find Jake Stringers hussys in S.A

 

[pirate bob]

I just think Burton/Doedee is a microcosm of our current recruiting strategy.

What is viewed as talent is subjective to the recruiter, especially when players are playing in entirely different competitions to each other.

You can argue that we take the best available, but the fact is that it's the "best available" in the eyes of someone who I suspect rates TAC players higher than the SANFL under 18 comp.

I think we have great junior development programs at the club and I would like to see us back ourselves in sometimes with the development of some home grown talent.

The Burton vs Doedee question probably won't be fully answered until later in their respective careers. There were reports that Burton's career is likely to be shorter (much according to some) based on his knee injury prior to drafting.

The club has shown it is prepared to take risks on drafting players with major injuries, Davis and Lever would be the most obvious 2. Without hindsight it is quite easy to understand why they weren't prepared to take a risk on another player who'd experienced a bad knee injury as a 1st round draft pick so soon.

 

[CrowsB4hoes]

Now the genie is out of the bottle re Sloane, club and player need to make a strong statement.

If trade week passes and Sloane's future is still up in the air, I'll be mighty pissed off. I'd rather trade him than deal with a will he/won't he next year.

 

[MRB37]

Dunstan and pick 7 from Saints?

No way. Losing a star and getting a very average player in return.

 

[CrowsB4hoes]

This is probably just confirmation bias, but as a Vice Captain, Sloane has been very quiet of late. His twitter profile is still him and numbnuts Dangerfield in their junior club guernseys. No postings of late re Smith, Jacobs, Gov. Havent seen him front the media like Talia, Jenkins, Betts and others.

 

[pirate bob]

Going to be a long year in 2018 talking about Sloane's contract if nothing is resolved prior to the season starting

 

[The Karma Bus]

Have we tried everything? Is there more that we can do?

So do we just throw the arms into the air and say bugger it, there is nothing we can do about it? How come other clubs don't have these issues?

Inside the club, all the players (and their partners) see is a number of guys it's been now, deciding to go.
Many or most of them, they would have looked up to, learned from, respected, shared a lot with. Were friends with.
The previous young guys have witnessed this culture, young guys there now witness it.

It grows and grows and they see how easy it is and how happy they can be afterwards.
It's not so scary. They can chat to the guys who left who are telling them "greatest move I ever made mate, all the clubs are pretty well good professionally run environments, get on with the new team mates and be close in no time, be back home etc"

It's right there in their faces, it's not such an unknown.
If so many are making it the way to be and that is the culture being sold, there is no need to stand your ground. No accountability to stay, no expectation and thought that we're in this together as we've heard other playing groups talk about who even take less money to stay together. It's so easy to just roll out the excuse like the ones before them and shoot off into the sunset.

The playing group is being consistently fractured and splintered and it has an impact in many ways.
This was a ripple that became a wave and is growing into a tsunami.
We need a circuit breaker in it but I don't know how.

 

[SuperBashBros]

AFC don't usually comment on players contracts etc but they or Sloane need to put out a quick statement similar to GWS with Shaw. Just knock it on the head so there's no talk during the next 3 weeks.

On HTC_PN071 using BigFooty.com mobile app

 

[Thetrader15]

Dunstan and pick 7 from Saints?

Or Dunstan, 7 and 8 thanks plus swap of 2018 firsts

 

[mtbkym]

So the rumour from SEN is that Belinda has accepted a job at Channel 7 in Melbourne. If he's leaving at the end of next year anyway, I'd rather he leaves now and we get decent value for him, rather than lose him for nothing as a UFA. It's selling your soul, but it's worth it in the long run (if he's leaving in 12 months anyway). Of course, I hope all of this is bullshit and he plays for us until well into his 30's.

That’s it, I’m done!!

 

[Murray2503]

We get their 7 & 8, they get Sloane and Atkins

And throw in Jenkins for free. The salary cap space would help. Losing nick riewoldt and mccartin's concussion injuries might allow us to offload jenkins.

 

[the universal]

Witnessing the slow, excruciating death of the club here.

 

[CrowsB4hoes]

So the rumour from SEN is that Belinda has accepted a job at Channel 7 in Melbourne. If he's leaving at the end of next year anyway, I'd rather he leaves now and we get decent value for him, rather than lose him for nothing as a UFA. It's selling your soul, but it's worth it in the long run (if he's leaving in 12 months anyway). Of course, I hope all of this is bullshit and he plays for us until well into his 30's.

If true, the club should sever all ties with Channel 7

 

[Pea Nut]

Agree. Where do you find Jake Stringers hussys in S.A

High school parties in Elizabeth !!

 

[Archie87]

FFS this better not be true.

Surely it's not that hard to get Belinda a job with Channel 7, 9 or 10 here in Adelaide.

 

[Stiffy_18]

I've been saying it for years now, we're far too Vicentric with our recruiting.

Our side is pretty much Adelaide in name only because we have 23 players on our list for Victoria, even our grand final side included only 5 players from SA (Betts, Jacobs, Knight, Laird and Brown)

Don't get me wrong Hagis is a great recruiter, but I'm convinced that he doesn't see a lot of the SANFL talent and seems to have an unconscious bias towards TAC players.

Ryan Burton was a perfect example, he was available and yet he was overlooked for him to select Tom Doedee. That in a nutshell sums up our recruiting strategy for the past decade or so.

We've continually run the gauntlet by recruiting so many Victorian players (significantly more than Freo, WCE and Port) and have put ourselves at greater risk of defection than other clubs.

This is the sort of thinking I just can't support.

Draft pool each year is made up of approximately 80% Victorian players. Its unavoidable! Unless the recruiting zones are brought back in, we simply cannot just focus on SA talent because there is barely any in any given draft. We used to prefer SA talent to other states and all that got us over the years was James Sellar, Darren Pfeiffer, Chad Gibson, Nick Gill, Bryce Campbell etc... It is not a viable strategy for as long as you have 80% of the draft pool as Victorian kids.

People keep bringing up Burton. Lets wait a few years before we make a call on that one shall we? What happens with Burton is done playing football by the time he is 26/27? We had an extensive medical checks done on Burton, did mountains of analysis into his medicals and made a call literally the day of the draft that we are not going to do it because it is not worth the risk in the long term. Everyone is jumping up and down after a couple of seasons. When you are spending your first round pick you need to make sure you are getting a 12-15 year AFL player. Time will tell whether Burton will last that long. I genuinely hope he does but from all the work that went into l Ryan Burton by our club, I am happy to back them in on this one in the long run.

We cannot avoid recruiting non-SA players. We just cannot do it if we want to field a competitive team out there. We went down that path for a few years and underachieved in a major way. I think we look to select SA kids when the call is close. We picked Milera when we could have picked a Victorian kid. We even put a bid in for Himmelberg (non-SA) kid before we picked Doedee. We do prefer Vic Country kids as those have a less of a go home factor than Metro kids. Dangerfield being the obvious exception to the rule.

 

[Jarman3]

On your second point, current state-by-state breakdowns of SA/WA teams

Adel - 23 Vic, 2 WA, 11 SA, 1 Qld, 2 NSW, 1 Tas, 1 NT, 0 ACT.
Port - 18 Vic, 5 WA, 12 SA, 1 Qld, 2 NSW, 0 Tas, 1 NT, 1 ACT.
Freo - 13 Vic, 16 WA, 4 SA, 2 Qld, 0 NSW, 2 Tas, 1 NT, 0 ACT.
WC - 10 Vic, 19 WA, 7 SA, 0 Qld, 0 NSW, 0 Tas, 0 NT, 0 ACT.

On the other hand, out of those 4 clubs, which has the best list? We just made a grand final, the other 3 made up the numbers or missed the finals entirely. I'll take our list of quality homesick Vics over their lists of contented, just-happy-they-didn't-have-to-move locals.

 

[displacedaussie]

FFS this better not be true.

Surely it's not that hard to get Belinda a job with Channel 7, 9 or 10 here in Adelaide.

Channel 7 did give her a job in Adelaide: http://saweekender.com.au/presenters/belinda-sloane