QAFL 2021

[Dezario]

Actually now it’s 612 & over 72,000 reports of adverse effects and allot don’t report the side effects.

COVID-19 vaccine weekly safety report - 21-10-2021

Information about the TGA's safety monitoring of COVID-19 vaccines.

www.tga.gov.au

Can you not read?

 

[Danske]

I think the bottom line is that this year was just not a strong year for junior footy in the Lions Academy. It goes in swings and roundabouts and you could see that it wasn’t in that they got a touch up from the Suns Academy and also in the couple of games they played against the Melbourne NAB league teams.

With approx. 65 players drafted and 10 rookie, on a % basis if we get one player drafted we are probably doing well.

I think parents get too excited about how good their kid is, and forget to remember just how big AFL is in Victoria, SA and WA. Every lunchtime those kids will be playing AFL whereas here, at lunchtime they will be playing touch and tossing a rugby ball around.

What is the % of youth AFL players here as a total % of youth players nationally?


On iPhone using BigFooty.com mobile app

 

[NeverEddie]

I think the bottom line is that this year was just not a strong year for junior footy in the Lions Academy. It goes in swings and roundabouts and you could see that it wasn’t in that they got a touch up from the Suns Academy and also in the couple of games they played against the Melbourne NAB league teams.

With approx. 65 players drafted and 10 rookie, on a % basis if we get one player drafted we are probably doing well.

I think parents get too excited about how good their kid is, and forget to remember just how big AFL is in Victoria, SA and WA. Every lunchtime those kids will be playing AFL whereas here, at lunchtime they will be playing touch and tossing a rugby ball around.

What is the % of youth AFL players here as a total % of youth players nationally?


On iPhone using BigFooty.com mobile app

I agree to an extent (although I think the current popularity and participation levels in QLD are sometimes wrongly dismissed based on realities of the past). However, the reason the academy was put in place was to try and make up that shortfall by putting extra development into the players that we do have and to bring them up to standard. But they don't actually do that.

 

[ablett]

It’s says 9 deaths due to immunisation in that link Ablett. You understand that just because somebody dies after immunisation doesn’t mean the jab caused it right?

9 deaths in 40 million jabs in a year vs 5-10 deaths from covid every day.

get the jab mate if for no other reason but being able to go to the pub after Dec 17

So you believe the jab doesn’t automatically cause the sudden deaths administration Yet you believe the COVID deaths aren’t because they already had serious health conditions and died with COVID but not from it?

 

[ablett]

AFL players will experience the same during next season and some during preseason.
The vaccines cause scaring of the heart which has lead to a huge spike in cardiac arrests

Log into Facebook

Log into Facebook to start sharing and connecting with your friends, family, and people you know.

l.facebook.com

 

[boxxie2022]

We have ourselves a live one here

 

[GC2015]

Probably already well known in this thread but Andrew Boston

Andrew Boston

Age

31

Ht

180cm

Wt

80kg

Pos.

Mid

Career

Season

Last 5

D

10.3

3star

K

7.4

3star

HB

2.9

3star

M

2.7

3star

T

1.8

4star

CL

1.4

4star

No current season stats available

D

6.4

2star

K

4.8

2star

HB

1.6

2star

M

1.4

2star

T

0.8

3star

CL

0.6

3star

was officially announced as a Labrador player for the 2022 season this morning. Good signing for the Tigers.

 

[LaggingBehind]

Actually now it’s 612 & over 72,000 reports of adverse effects and allot don’t report the side effects.

COVID-19 vaccine weekly safety report - 21-10-2021

Information about the TGA's safety monitoring of COVID-19 vaccines.

www.tga.gov.au

No one could ever accuse you of a lack of persistence

Probably already well known in this thread but Andrew Boston was officially announced as a Labrador player for the 2022 season this morning. Good signing for the Tigers.

Why Labrador and not Broadbeach? Has there been some sort of fallout?

 

[2010premier]

No one could ever accuse you of a lack of persistence

Why Labrador and not Broadbeach? Has there been some sort of fallout?

Take a guess. And it’s not a fallout

 

[smy1305]

So the answer is there hasn't been enough money thrown at the Academies??

Well I'm not sure one season all of a sudden makes a trend. WA had a spate of stuff all kids being drafted (multiple years in a row). All i'm saying is it isnt panic stations and yeah there are definite areas that could be done better but I think if you want the best people involved you need to provide some incentive rather than ask people to be at training 3x/wk (plus their club training usually). maybe the $$ can be rediverted...

 

[smy1305]

I agree to an extent (although I think the current popularity and participation levels in QLD are sometimes wrongly dismissed based on realities of the past). However, the reason the academy was put in place was to try and make up that shortfall by putting extra development into the players that we do have and to bring them up to standard. But they don't actually do that.

Now you have all other clubs with academies too where as you once did not.

 

[NeverEddie]

Now you have all other clubs with academies too where as you once did not.

Agree. The problem as I see it is this. There has been a definite increase in participation and popularity of Australian Rules Football in QLD since 2001-2003 (I'm speculating based on a gut feel but I'm sure there will be figures that would back that up). But I will also wager that there has not been a parallel increase in the number of Queenslanders being drafted (someone may be able to prove that comment wrong, but it sure doesn't feel like our representation has been increasing over time). The academy was put in place to bring about the increase in the number of draftable Queensland players. . .yet, while participation has likely increased, number of QLD draftees feels that it has stayed the same.

If that is true it means the academy(s) have been an abject failure . . .and in fact, it would mean that, in real terms, we're actually going backwards. If it is false . . .fair enough, I'll be open to changing my view

 

[NeverEddie]

That’s a good point. Perhaps the coaching is the bigger concern rather than the number of players in the academy system

I have had two of my kids involved in the academy program.

Based on my observations and experiences, my opinion is that the problem with the academy is this:
1) The issue is with the program/coaching and the overall intent of the academy, not with the so-called "blanket" approach.
2) The program simply is a glorified selection trial . . . there is no "development" whatsoever.

Participants are never given any real feedback/guidance and they are not mentored, shown vision (with specific example of what they need to do better) over the years. It is basically just another training session. In my view that is the the smoking gun which shows their intent. There is no development occurring and there is not even any real intent to develop. All the Lions want here is to have the privilege of the first look and then priority access to any talent that they do spot. So they bring kids in and they watch them. And that's it. They don't teach them a thing.

They don't make better footballers out of the kids in the program. They bring them in, identify a couple with potential (usually the ones who were bigger and therefore dominant at U12 level) then they favour these few players (who are then held up on a pedestal) through the entire program. They tend not to change their mind once they have chosen (even though these choices were often made when the kids were U12s) The rest of the players are chewed up and ultimately spat out with little to show for their time in the academy. They leave the academy not having a clue what they have done wrong or why they were considered inferior to the others. The pedestal players are (as we can see) now also being spat out . . . because they are also ultimately not good enough. They are not good enough because they also have not been developed. The coaches are good at drawing lines through a players name. It is their greatest (and only) skill.

Players do lose confidence and are being lost to footy through this process . . .no doubt.

The Lions Academy is a total failure. Its remit should be to develop as many footballers to AFL standard as possible, or failing that, to QAFL standard (so that the overall standard of football in Queensland is lifted). But it doesn't do that at all.

 

[Bob Neil]

My’so called talented’ 15 year old made some enquires about going to boarding school in Victoria mid this year. It was an interesting process.

nWo without prying may I ask what you learned in that process? And what was the 'interesting' part?

More broadly the idea that Qld kids (or indeed their parents) would feel that they have to send their kids south to school just to have a shot at being drafted is pretty rough. My (perhaps naive) thought process was that the compounding effects of time and dollars invested in this market and the tangible evidence of greater grass-roots participation numbers would all, eventually, be pointing towards increased numbers of kids drafted (on average)

 

[NeverEddie]

836 players nominated for the draft and 60/70 odd were taken.

If the point that you are trying to make is that QLD should not expect to be seeing an increase in the number of our kids being drafted, I don't agree. The number of kids being drafted should be commensurate with our comparative participation numbers (unless there is some inherent bias in the system or our development is inferior. I think there is a bit of both. Our development is inferior and there may actually also be a bit of anti QLD bias contributing). Anti QLD bias is the whole concept that if you are from QLD you can't play because QLD is a rugby state

 

[boxxie2022]

If the point that you are trying to make is that QLD should not expect to be seeing an increase in the number of our kids being drafted, I don't agree. The number of kids being drafted should be commensurate with our comparative participation numbers (unless there is some inherent bias in the system - and there may actually be some of that which is also contributing).

the point i am trying to make is that its incredibly difficult to get drafted, You need to be in the top few % of players in the country. Do the numbers for traditional footy states match up and compare. I think a lot of the blame on the issues within the Academy's fall on the shoulders of the AFL club that is supposedly running it. They have the responsibility to local football to nurture that talent but to also grow the standard in the local region. How many QLDers are on the Lions/Suns list and compare that to GWS and the Swans.
The underlying goal for the Academy should be to strengthen the quality of local football (then kids dont have to go interstate). The likely hood of being drafted is remote but you can send them back to local clubs better equipped to be good State league Players lifting the standards, which will open more doors

 

[NeverEddie]

The underlying goal for the Academy should be to strengthen the quality of local football (then kids dont have to go interstate). The likely hood of being drafted is remote but you can send them back to local clubs better equipped to be good State league Players lifting the standards, which will open more doors

Couldn't agree more

 

[briztoon]

Actually now it’s 612 & over 72,000 reports of adverse effects and allot don’t report the side effects.

COVID-19 vaccine weekly safety report - 21-10-2021

Information about the TGA's safety monitoring of COVID-19 vaccines.

www.tga.gov.au

Actually it’s not, it’s still 9.

Are you deliberately trying to deceive people, to what agenda.

 

[Choppers]

the point i am trying to make is that its incredibly difficult to get drafted, You need to be in the top few % of players in the country. Do the numbers for traditional footy states match up and compare. I think a lot of the blame on the issues within the Academy's fall on the shoulders of the AFL club that is supposedly running it. They have the responsibility to local football to nurture that talent but to also grow the standard in the local region. How many QLDers are on the Lions/Suns list and compare that to GWS and the Swans.
The underlying goal for the Academy should be to strengthen the quality of local football (then kids dont have to go interstate). The likely hood of being drafted is remote but you can send them back to local clubs better equipped to be good State league Players lifting the standards, which will open more doors

Admittedly we have an extended list, but at last count the Suns have 11 Qlders, 3 from NT, and 1 from PNG......I might have missed one or 2.

 

[Miller1971]

I have had two of my kids involved in the academy program.

Based on my observations and experiences, my opinion is that the problem with the academy is this:
1) The issue is with the program/coaching and the overall intent of the academy, not with the so-called "blanket" approach.
2) The program simply is a glorified selection trial . . . there is no "development" whatsoever.

Participants are never given any real feedback/guidance and they are not mentored, shown vision (with specific example of what they need to do better) over the years. It is basically just another training session. In my view that is the the smoking gun which shows their intent. There is no development occurring and there is not even any real intent to develop. All the Lions want here is to have the privilege of the first look and then priority access to any talent that they do spot. So they bring kids in and they watch them. And that's it. They don't teach them a thing.

They don't make better footballers out of the kids in the program. They bring them in, identify a couple with potential (usually the ones who were bigger and therefore dominant at U12 level) then they favour these few players (who are then held up on a pedestal) through the entire program. They tend not to change their mind once they have chosen (even though these choices were often made when the kids were U12s) The rest of the players are chewed up and ultimately spat out with little to show for their time in the academy. They leave the academy not having a clue what they have done wrong or why they were considered inferior to the others. The pedestal players are (as we can see) now also being spat out . . . because they are also ultimately not good enough. They are not good enough because they also have not been developed. The coaches are good at drawing lines through a players name. It is their greatest (and only) skill.

Players do lose confidence and are being lost to footy through this process . . .no doubt.

The Lions Academy is a total failure. Its remit should be to develop as many footballers to AFL standard as possible, or failing that, to QAFL standard (so that the overall standard of football in Queensland is lifted). But it doesn't do that at all.

could not be more accurate, you have just said it more eloquently than Tommo42.

There is no specialist coaching going on, there is no genuine development and the players turn up, get their singlet think they are getting drafted and get little to no feedback until they are shown the door at some point in their 18th year. I'd argue many of them would get better coaching, game sense, decision making drills and general skill acquisition from their club training if they are at some of the better clubs (not just QAFL clubs either)

If you question the academy, like I know some of you have - you get labelled a trouble maker, the coaches actively direct players away from your club and they will point to a powerpoint they sent around 18 months ago talking about IDP (Individual development plans) that have never been specilaised at all, probably aren't referred to regularly and would be as basic as 'skinny kid needs to get bigger by going to gym' or 'kid is a poor kick, needs to improve skills' and other generic nonsense like that, without actually having any specific plans or strategies to fix those identified weaknesses.

 

[NeverEddie]

could not be more accurate, you have just said it more eloquently than Tommo42.

There is no specialist coaching going on, there is no genuine development and the players turn up, get their singlet think they are getting drafted and get little to no feedback until they are shown the door at some point in their 18th year. I'd argue many of them would get better coaching, game sense, decision making drills and general skill acquisition from their club training if they are at some of the better clubs (not just QAFL clubs either)

If you question the academy, like I know some of you have - you get labelled a trouble maker, the coaches actively direct players away from your club and they will point to a powerpoint they sent around 18 months ago talking about IDP (Individual development plans) that have never been specilaised at all, probably aren't referred to regularly and would be as basic as 'skinny kid needs to get bigger by going to gym' or 'kid is a poor kick, needs to improve skills' and other generic nonsense like that, without actually having any specific plans or strategies to fix those identified weaknesses.

You are dead right in everything you say. Yes there are IDPs. They are "pretend" development in my view. There is no real effort put in to help players out. All academy does is it saves scouts from going around to games too much and instead makes the kids come to a central location to be viewed. And, at academy, the kids are generally not being viewed under match conditions (there are nearly no actual matches played). Secondly, the academy is not supposed to influence kids away from certain clubs and direct them to others . . .but they do. On the record they say, it doesn't matter if you are at a Div2 club, if you are good we will find you. Off the record they say the opposite. If you are not at a Div1 club you are not even being looked at.

 

[Thommo 42]

the point i am trying to make is that its incredibly difficult to get drafted, You need to be in the top few % of players in the country. Do the numbers for traditional footy states match up and compare. I think a lot of the blame on the issues within the Academy's fall on the shoulders of the AFL club that is supposedly running it. They have the responsibility to local football to nurture that talent but to also grow the standard in the local region. How many QLDers are on the Lions/Suns list and compare that to GWS and the Swans.
The underlying goal for the Academy should be to strengthen the quality of local football (then kids dont have to go interstate). The likely hood of being drafted is remote but you can send them back to local clubs better equipped to be good State league Players lifting the standards, which will open more doors

The failure of the academy is not the lack of kids getting drafted, as I completely agree that there is a cyclical nature here, kids need the baseline talent etc. Though, as outlined above I do wonder if we are developing that identified talent well. I’ve heard of the mythical ‘IDP’s’ as well – every time I ask for some sort of feedback, they refer to these things – but never seen one for a player from our club. Kids have told me their IDP hasn’t changed for 3 years when I’ve asked for a copy, and they might say ‘waste of time showing you Thommo, the academy doesn’t even look at them’

The major failing is that kids that come out of the academy undrafted (which will be 99% of them) come out hating footy, not wanting to continue to play and are giving away the sport en masse. So while we aren’t getting any better results in the draft, we’re now in a situation where a significant proportion of the talent in our game is being taken out of clubs into the academy, as a stepping stone to not playing at all ever again, or going to another sport.

So in effect, our draft results are going backwards, or stagnant – but our sport is actually getting weaker locally as the talent is filtered OUT of the sport via the academy, and thus creating a self fulfilling prophecy about the standard of senior footy in QLD

Saxon Crozier, Jake Farrell, Chris Moloney, Jack Clayton, James Ward, Jesse Quint, Tom Ansell, Nate Dennis, Blake Jones, Tom Wischnat – where are all these blokes playing in 2022…?


Take a look at this list from 2018 from u13 to u18 Lions academy:

Lions Academy announce 2018 lists

Lions Academy have announced their U18 squad for 2018.

www.lions.com.au

I reckon 30-40% of the people on that page don’t even play anymore, drop out rate is much higher when you look at u18 lists only. To me that is concerning, but doesn't seem to register on the radar sadly.

 

[Miller1971]

You are dead right in everything you say. Yes there are IDPs. They are "pretend" development in my view. There is no real effort put in to help players out. All academy does is it saves scouts from going around to games too much and instead makes the kids come to a central location to be viewed. And, at academy, the kids are generally not being viewed under match conditions (there are nearly no actual matches played). Secondly, the academy is not supposed to influence kids away from certain clubs and direct them to others . . .but they do. On the record they say, it doesn't matter if you are at a Div2 club, if you are good we will find you. Off the record they say the opposite. If you are not at a Div1 club you are not even being looked at.

correct, its a box ticking exercise. They tick alot of the boxes of things they should do, but without actually doing them

It should be an elite program, with specialised coaching, specific plans for each player to work on an identified defiency that is checked and referred to regularly. Really advanced drills (sink or swim type stuff) that is all about high performance and getting talented kids to an elite level. Weed them out faster, have kids leave then earnt their spot back if you have to etc etc. Proper video reviews, send players their edits with commentary on what to work on.

Really now all it is is just another training session, no different to your average club junior training where they do a bit of running, a few rudimentary drills and a few bum pats on off home with the folks. Some of the kids drive upwards of 2 hours for this 'elite experience' too!

the best thing they could do is disband the academy programs, go back to an elite state program and leave the Suns draft zone the same as their academy zone and the same for the Lions, where any kid in those zones is zoned to the respective club regardless of academy involvement, but with a bidding system (same as academy bidding system)

 

[NeverEddie]

The failure of the academy is not the lack of kids getting drafted, as I completely agree that there is a cyclical nature here, kids need the baseline talent etc. Though, as outlined above I do wonder if we are developing that identified talent well.

Agree on most of what you say. Re the above point, this is true as well, but for the vast majority that don't get drafted, I personally still do think they academy should be looking to developed them as footballers. I don't just want the academy pouring their full effort into the two or three from each age group that they think might make it. If they are going to do that, they should just have those two or three in the academy and leave the rest of the kids alone. Because as it stands, all they are really doing is destroying all those other kids. Destroying their confidence and destroying their love of the game.

 

[NeverEddie]

I’ve heard of the mythical ‘IDP’s’ as well – every time I ask for some sort of feedback, they refer to these things – but never seen one for a player from our club. Kids have told me their IDP hasn’t changed for 3 years when I’ve asked for a copy, and they might say ‘waste of time showing you Thommo, the academy doesn’t even look at them’

This is how they do the IDPs at the Lions Academy:
Step 1 - ask kid to send email outlining what their key strengths and weakness are
Step 2 - Cut and paste responses into proforma
Step 3 - in "action" column for strength write "continue to work on this strength"
Step 4 - in "action" column for weakness write "work on this weakness"
Step 5 - save and email back to kid . . .never speak of it again