Preview 2026 AFL Draft General Discussion

[Johnny Bananas]

Port doesn't go through the process for his older brother, but goes through the process for the number one pick. Look forward to the pro-academy people try to make the 'clubs should get academy access because they invest money and time into their development pathway' argument.

What a shitty system

I've said it before and I'll say it again, I'd give up Northern Academy access tomorrow if the AFL got off their fat arses and did all the development work themselves, with the proper level of funding. But they won't, they're too lazy. And until that happens, northern clubs will justifiably be given access to the talent they've helped develop. And until that goes, NGAs are here to stay, as stupid as the criteria for access may be.

 

[briztoon]

Port doesn't go through the process for his older brother, but goes through the process for the number one pick. Look forward to the pro-academy people try to make the 'clubs should get academy access because they invest money and time into their development pathway' argument.

What a shitty system

Different eligibility rules for NGA academies, compared to Northern academies.

Would be happy for southern clubs to put the same amount of investment in to their nga academies. Right now, all it costs is a subscription to ancestry dot com.

 

[briztoon]

Yes but if the mooted 2 picks only to match comes in.

Twomey on the Dyl & Friends youtube channel pretty adamant it's coming in next year.

 

[txbyhull]

I wouldn’t mind actually being allowed to develop our players

 

[eaglevision]

Twomey on the Dyl & Friends youtube channel pretty adamant it's coming in next year.

Long overdue

 

[SSSSSS]

I wonder what the reasoning is for Hawthorn being knocked back on Greeves but Cochrane being approved for Port.

 

[bzparkes]

I wonder what the reasoning is for Hawthorn being knocked back on Greeves but Cochrane being approved for Port.

 

[keydefender]

I wonder what the reasoning is for Hawthorn being knocked back on Greeves but Cochrane being approved for Port.

Port on the way down (and they cost the AFL lots of money) before Tassy.
Hawks on the way up.
Cant have the tarpaulins out again.

 

[JimmyBC]

Port on the way down (and they cost the AFL lots of money) before Tassy.
Hawks on the way up.
Cant have the tarpaulins out again.

Save it for the bay, Port are debt free.

 

[KanesBurner]

I wonder what the reasoning is for Hawthorn being knocked back on Greeves but Cochrane being approved for Port.

It could be 100% incorrect but I saw somewhere the Hawks only applied for him to be NGA in his draft year (this year). Port have been going through the process for a fair while, the AFL have just been super slow in making a decision.

 

[KanesBurner]

A few of us Port supporters are ... we should have used a 2nd & 3rd round pick for Luko, and we should have never taken Atkins. it was probably Ken trying to be smart in saying that is what he wanted the deal
personally, if I had known we were going to have a difficult year (with the injuries / draw) I would have kept the 1st round pick and used it in this draft to get a midfield player (to cover in case Butters goes)

Do you like Whitlock? Because without taking Atkins on for a year we don’t get pick 29. He was a salary dump.

 

[SSSSSS]

It could be 100% incorrect but I saw somewhere the Hawks only applied for him to be NGA in his draft year (this year). Port have been going through the process for a fair while, the AFL have just been super slow in making a decision.

We applied last year according to Twomey. It got knocked back this season.

"The AFL has been assessing the Hawks' submission for Greeves, who has an Indigenous background, to be a part of their Academy, which would also give the club access to him at this year's Telstra AFL Draft. The Hawks have been working with Greeves over the past 12 months as part of their submission from last year."

He trained with us over the preseason as well.

 

[Yoda_]

Different eligibility rules for NGA academies, compared to Northern academies.

Would be happy for southern clubs to put the same amount of investment in to their nga academies. Right now, all it costs is a subscription to ancestry dot com.

carn man, this is just dumb

 

[briztoon]

carn man, this is just dumb

View attachment 2477539

Essendon have reportedly put the investment in, but some other Vic clubs do sfa.

 

[KanesBurner]

We applied last year according to Twomey. It got knocked back this season.

"The AFL has been assessing the Hawks' submission for Greeves, who has an Indigenous background, to be a part of their Academy, which would also give the club access to him at this year's Telstra AFL Draft. The Hawks have been working with Greeves over the past 12 months as part of their submission from last year."

He trained with us over the preseason as well.

Welp in goes into the AFL ‘secret herbs and spices category’ of who knows what they are doing. No one has ever accused the AFL of being a well run organisation and things like this don’t change that. Did they say why or was it just ‘because reasons’.

 

[sc2001]

Essendon have reportedly put the investment in, but some other Vic clubs do sfa.

Essendon have the best zone to put in the investment. Some clubs don't even have a metro zone so putting in investment into some backwater country town doesn't make sense.

 

[Yoda_]

Essendon have the best zone to put in the investment. Some clubs don't even have a metro zone so putting in investment into some backwater country town doesn't make sense.

elaborate please? genuinely keen to hear your reasoning behind this comment

 

[Yoda_]

Essendon have reportedly put the investment in, but some other Vic clubs do sfa.

correct!

took a much bigger following into our NGA's this year, from local footy etc, found that we are the highest spending NGA club in Melbourne, we're likely to see fruits of this in the 2+ years.

Think it openly helps having a competition as diverse as the Essendon District Football League where we actively try to be involved in. I know we have put out 2 x "come and try" days for 16 year olds (NGA's to be club tied for 2 years+).

For how much investment we have made, we haven't seen a club released updater for over 14 months which is the most disappointing aspect ov it all

 

[sc2001]

elaborate please? genuinely keen to hear your reasoning behind this comment

Richmond doesn't have an NGA zone in Melbourne we only have the Echuca region atm, therefore there is less population in our zone and therefore less academy eligible kids to develop. This is why Richmond don't get many academy kids and invest in that program because its essentially a waste of money. Compare that with Essendon's zone of north/west metro Melbourne and there is plenty of 1st and 2nd gen immigrants and way denser population so there is a way bigger pool of eligible NGA kids to develop.

 

[Yoda_]

We applied last year according to Twomey. It got knocked back this season.

"The AFL has been assessing the Hawks' submission for Greeves, who has an Indigenous background, to be a part of their Academy, which would also give the club access to him at this year's Telstra AFL Draft. The Hawks have been working with Greeves over the past 12 months as part of their submission from last year."

He trained with us over the preseason as well.

to be fair, I wonder if Greaves knowledge of his heritage had anything to do with it, where as, Cochrane only just found out and explored it further.


Im with the masses and don't like it but here we are. I wonder if Pauly Vandenbegh who worked at Port Adelaide for 12 years and is now at AFL house, had anything to do with the decision?

 

[Yoda_]

Richmond doesn't have an NGA zone in Melbourne we only have the Echuca region atm, therefore there is less population in our zone and therefore less academy eligible kids to develop. This is why Richmond don't get many academy kids and invest in that program because its essentially a waste of money. Compare that with Essendon's zone of north/west metro Melbourne and there is plenty of 1st and 2nd gen immigrants and way denser population so there is a way bigger pool of eligible NGA kids to develop.

probably why Richmond have 2/5 of the state

 

[sc2001]

probably why Richmond have 2/5 of the state

what?

 

[briztoon]

Essendon have the best zone to put in the investment. Some clubs don't even have a metro zone so putting in investment into some backwater country town doesn't make sense.

If you don’t put anything in, you’re not going to get anything out.

 

[tigs2010]

If you don’t put anything in, you’re not going to get anything out.

Not true. We've got Tanner Armstrong in the AFL Academy next year.

 

[sc2001]

If you don’t put anything in, you’re not going to get anything out.

way to miss the point about the inequality of the NGA zones.