Kildonan
Premium Platinum
This post is in response to Chris Fagan stating that "the hefty price tags attached to the signatures of Nasiah Wanganeen-Milera and Tom De Koning were a "danger" to the rest of the League."
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This stance is rather ironic coming from the coach of the club which has benefitted so greatly from an unequal system.
It is the northern academies that Brisbane and Gold Coast and to a slightly lesser extent Sydney and GWS have had exclusive access to some of the very best players at very low draft cost. The benefits were confered because these academies were sourcing talent from traditional Rugby League regions but the concessions have resulted in a much more unequal competition. This has been and will remain for some time the most serious danger for the game.
The AFL has finally conceded that the benefits derived were so egregious that they are significantly tightening regulations for Northern Academies (Brisbane, Gold Coast, GWS, Sydney), requiring earlier applications (15th year), stricter development proof, and minimum, mandatory investment requirements to retain bidding rights. While clubs can still match bids for academy talent, they will face higher costs and stricter scrutiny to ensure development.
Now that Fagan is losing one of his advantages and is forced to compete on a more level playing field, he has turned into a whinger.
His club has been built up with such a wealth of talent that he fears that he may not be able to retain all his players, many of whom could be earning significantly more in today's salary potential.
St Kilda have been forced to compete this way (huge salary enticement) because we cannot compete by relying on draft alone - we will fall further and further behind even with the reduction in northern concessions, we were forced to innovate to compete. The St Kilda approach may result in a rebalance of player payments throughout the league but it was directly brought about because of the huge advantage of the northern clubs' concessions and consequent concentrated accumulation of talent.
LINK
This stance is rather ironic coming from the coach of the club which has benefitted so greatly from an unequal system.
It is the northern academies that Brisbane and Gold Coast and to a slightly lesser extent Sydney and GWS have had exclusive access to some of the very best players at very low draft cost. The benefits were confered because these academies were sourcing talent from traditional Rugby League regions but the concessions have resulted in a much more unequal competition. This has been and will remain for some time the most serious danger for the game.
The AFL has finally conceded that the benefits derived were so egregious that they are significantly tightening regulations for Northern Academies (Brisbane, Gold Coast, GWS, Sydney), requiring earlier applications (15th year), stricter development proof, and minimum, mandatory investment requirements to retain bidding rights. While clubs can still match bids for academy talent, they will face higher costs and stricter scrutiny to ensure development.
Now that Fagan is losing one of his advantages and is forced to compete on a more level playing field, he has turned into a whinger.
His club has been built up with such a wealth of talent that he fears that he may not be able to retain all his players, many of whom could be earning significantly more in today's salary potential.
St Kilda have been forced to compete this way (huge salary enticement) because we cannot compete by relying on draft alone - we will fall further and further behind even with the reduction in northern concessions, we were forced to innovate to compete. The St Kilda approach may result in a rebalance of player payments throughout the league but it was directly brought about because of the huge advantage of the northern clubs' concessions and consequent concentrated accumulation of talent.
