I think you'd find most traditional footy states would be the same with the big private schools recruiting the talented juniors for their school teams and using scholarships as incentive. Examples - Lance Franklin attending Wesley College in Perth (despite being from a little country town called Dowerin) or Chad Cornes, Kane Cornes and Matthew Pavlich attending Sacred Heart College in Adelaide. There are many examples but I've just mentioned those guys to give you a quick snapshot of WA and SA. Then you have the Northern Territory situation where talented kids are often offered scholarships to attend the big private schools in Victoria and play football for them. Cyril Rioli (Scotch College) and Steven May (Melbourne Grammar) are recent examples of that.
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Interesting. I wonder if he'll follow in Jesse Joyce's footsteps and switch from Cooly/Tweed to PBC in the next year or two. I imagine it would be better for his development if he switched to PBC since it's the only QAFL team based on the southern side of the Gold Coast.
I understand the frustration, particularly if you are involved with a club like Coolangatta or Burleigh who have produced their fair share of exception juniors. However, the structure of Queensland footy right now has been specifically designed to lessen the exact problem you brought up.
So I take it his mother is Thai and his father is Aussie? What position does he play?
No doubt. Crossley and Dawson are Burleigh juniors who switched to PBC. Also, Jacob Heron is from Cairns so none of the PBC draftees from last year are actually PBC juniors. Having said that, there's a pathway, and the pathway for southern Gold Coasters involves PBC these days so that's just the way it is.
Some very good players come into the PBC seniors every year, but the last few years I cant help think a lot of real dominating game winners have graduated. Will be interesting to see if Helensvale can start to get some wins on the board this year.I think it's worth following the 2018 AFLQ Schools Cup in this thread because our Gold Coast schools almost always win and become state champions. There are also lots of our academy kids competing throughout QLD. For example, Jack Bowes used to play for St Augustines in this competition back when he was based in Cairns.
There does seem to have been a step up at the pointy end of talented recent PBC graduates. What can we put this down to? Is it pure luck/coincidence or did something change at PBC 3-5 years ago? Helensvale seem to have fallen well behind PBC in recent years but it wasn't that long ago that they were on par, if not better, than Palm Beach. Fingers crossed they can step up again over the next few years because the Suns would be the big winners if they do.
My feeling is Graham is the one that's going to need a very high pick. The good thing about that is he will be worth it.
Beat me too it.... Graham is the one we want need most. Key Forward / Back .
I love Graham. He's a combination of Lever and Hipwood
It's pretty likely we'll have two top 10 picks this year so, if we have to, we can match a top 10 bid on Graham. Also, fortunately for us we have a few second and third round picks in the bag for this year and can use them to match bids on Graham and Scott if they come outside the top 10. We're in a pretty good position to keep our best academy talent this year while also picking up two top 10 picks. Hoping Koenen can also get at least a rookie spot with us this year because he's a talented lad that can add to our key position depth.
