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News AFL overhauls Academy and FS bid matching, discussing draft lockout

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I would like to give clubs ability to use 1 first rounder every 3 years for a f/s or academy. (Or even 5 years). That way they still have an avenue to prioritise certain father sons however can’t take the piss.

Most clubs would have an opp at least once every 5 years. And if they don’t they wouldn’t have opposition bringing in 2/3 or 4 in the same period. Clubs would have a view 3-5 years in advance whose coming through to save there 1 for and should know how to prioritise.
agree. I reckon one every 5 years. And re-set the premierships tally considering most of the premierships has been decided by father/son and academy rich teams.
 
I would like to give clubs ability to use 1 first rounder every 3 years for a f/s or academy. (Or even 5 years). That way they still have an avenue to prioritise certain father sons however can’t take the piss.

Most clubs would have an opp at least once every 5 years. And if they don’t they wouldn’t have opposition bringing in 2/3 or 4 in the same period. Clubs would have a view 3-5 years in advance whose coming through to save there 1 for and should know how to prioritise.
Ok, so can you "bank" these picks?

It was a very long break between Jono Brown in 2000 and Will Ashcroft in 2022. Surely that would have allowed us to bank 4 father son picks.

Is it a fixed 5 year period or a rolling 5 year period? Because we could have drafted the Ashcroft brothers in sperate 5 year blocks?

Brisbane may have a problem in the early '30's, as Zorko's, Dan Rich's and Mitch Robinson's boys are all in the same age group and team. Though it's Mitch's boy who is the standout.
 
Ok, so can you "bank" these picks?

It was a very long break between Jono Brown in 2000 and Will Ashcroft in 2022. Surely that would have allowed us to bank 4 father son picks.

Is it a fixed 5 year period or a rolling 5 year period? Because we could have drafted the Ashcroft brothers in sperate 5 year blocks?

Brisbane may have a problem in the early '30's, as Zorko's, Dan Rich's and Mitch Robinson's boys are all in the same age group and team. Though it's Mitch's boy who is the standout.

Rolling 5 years, no banking would be my suggestion.

If you have a dry spell then you are ready to grab the next decent kid coming through (unless you foresee another in the ranks a few years later but that’s where the strategy needs to come in).

Keeps the door open, Brisbane could have snared Will, then stocked draft capital for Levi and still got both for the romance. But adds an extra layer of fairness in the process. Stops the piss taking like GC with 2x top 5 this year. (Or Bulldogs with JUH/Darcy/Croft, would have forced there hand to choose or trade).

With the trading of future picks now there’s more than enough flexibility to stockpile or get up the ranks in a certain year if they plan/foresee properly, still doable, but fairer.
 
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Wat.

There are 18 clubs, there are 18 picks in each round. That's how it works. If WC get 1 and 19, Richmond get 2 and 20 etc. then it's just two rounds.

Are we going to make it WC 1, 2 Richmond 3, 4 North 5, 6 etc? Can't see the Bulldogs in 10th being happy with picks 19 and 20 let alone the eventual premier with 35 and 36.

That’s what Bartel’s idea was every club gets 2 picks in the first round I have zero idea what the point of it was but it’s worth looking at
 

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Going around in circles, finding new ways to answer the same questions.

The AFL will make a decision, clubs will adjust, it won't go great for some clubs, there will be a bunch more self-interested whinging, it will go for a bit longer than it should, the AFL will float some changes, the circle will get reactivated, see the start of this sentence.

Hoping that any decision is made after the 'actual evidence' from the new DVI formula is available, which was introduced in answer to so many of the questions that keep getting asked.
 
Seems to me the AFL has a growth in the Northern states at grass roots level problem.

Perhaps that's where the money should be going, getting AFL into the school's system, not hoping for the odd kid or two to choose AFL over another sport.
 
Reality with the non football state junior participation is your bound to have more kids signing up if the teams their are playing in finals and putting on a good viewing product. AFL can’t really afford northern teams to be bad like a north or a west coast right now
 
Thanks for the link but can you explain to me why all the complaints about Cooper Hodge not being able to play school footy and therefore being in the Lions academy or be lost to AFL forever as he'll have to play Rugby League?

Lions academy is the only reasonable pathway to the elite level here. If he wants to play AFL footy it gives him the best opportunity to be ready to do so.

The northern academies are subpar compared to the pathways down in vic but it’s all we have.
 
Lions academy is the only reasonable pathway to the elite level here. If he wants to play AFL footy it gives him the best opportunity to be ready to do so.

The northern academies are subpar compared to the pathways down in vic but it’s all we have.
So, once again, seems as though the AFL should be focusing on grass roots. If all those under age kids are playing, the AFL needs to get into developing a youth league as well as kids in school all the way up to under 18s in NSW and QL.

To me that would be a better way and the AFL would show it's truly a national code than expecting and hoping the four Northern clubs can find money to run their own academies for the chance at the odd kid.
 
Still think we havent addressed the actual reason they are doing this, which is to not have situations like north melbourne and wce, potentially richmond and other teams staying bottom 3 for prolonged periods of time. It you want to keep academy and fatherson find a solution for that first and we wouldn't be having this conversation. Putting a bidding system or modifying it does not help these teams.
 
Still think we havent addressed the actual reason they are doing this, which is to not have situations like north melbourne and wce, potentially richmond and other teams staying bottom 3 for prolonged periods of time. It you want to keep academy and fatherson find a solution for that first and we wouldn't be having this conversation. Putting a bidding system or modifying it does not help these teams.

What kept teams on the bottom of the ladder pre-academies.
 

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What kept teams on the bottom of the ladder pre-academies.
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Lack of talent on the list, how did they get better being able to access high end talent to get better.

The academy talent didn’t exist and there was next to no talent coming out of NSW and Qld. Yet teams stayed in the bottom of the ladder. Teams went up the ladder.
 
The academy talent didn’t exist and there was next to no talent coming out of NSW and Qld. Yet teams stayed in the bottom of the ladder. Teams went up the ladder.
Teams didn’t stay as long at the bottom or the top either pre academies.
We now have sides bottom 4 for five or six years straight.

Conversely Your own club could play finals for another 8 years or so. That would be 15 years in a row but of course your one eyed supporters would see nothing wrong with that.
 
Teams didn’t stay as long at the bottom or the top either pre academies.
We now have sides bottom 4 for five or six years straight.

Conversely Your own club could play finals for another 8 years or so. That would be 15 years in a row but of course your one eyed supporters would see nothing wrong with that.

Is it a problem that Geelong has played finals almost every year for almost 20 years
 
How do you make a level playing field when some clubs have access to significantly more young players than the other clubs?
Well we've been asking the same question as interstate clubs when first round picks put their preference to stay home in Victoria rather than get drafted elsewhere. Made West Coast trade out instead of getting your sheezels or wardlaws. It was convenient to 10 vic clubs so draftees were encouraged to "speak their mind and express their feelings". The word "brave" was thrown around a lot. The reason you're all wound up is now interstate talent via academy is starting to stack up and clubs like gold coast are starting to benefit from it in a big way. Not to mention lions luck changing with our father sons too over last 3 years. That's what has triggered the knee jerk inequality argument. There was no one arguing the inequality side when vic kids chose to stay home.
 

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And many sons have gone through banners with their fathers on game days.

Far longer attachment to their club than a bunch of academy kids appearing at junior levels.
Didn't affect Cooper Hodge for example. Seems to prefer Lions over Hawks and is a Lions supporter apparently.

Ashcrofts for example would've been drafted by Gold Coast if Marcus didnt have a fallout and left the club. I bet you if Lions lost those 2 to suns there wouldn't be a peep in Victoria. It would've been considered "good for the game" just like when we lost Marc Murphy or Blakey.
 
Teams didn’t stay as long at the bottom or the top either pre academies.
We now have sides bottom 4 for five or six years straight.

Conversely Your own club could play finals for another 8 years or so. That would be 15 years in a row but of course your one eyed supporters would see nothing wrong with that.
We stayed in bottom half 9 years straight from 2010 to 2018. Drafted players left, established players were picked off, compromised drafts for Gold Coast and GWS added to our spell.

We came out of that misery phase and now on a upswing primarily with drafting (rayner, bailey, McCluggage, berry, wilmot, lohmann, starcevich, morris), father sons giving us a good boost on top (ashcsrofts fletcher) and to a lesser extent academies (hipwood, Andrews, payne, reville, brain, Coleman).

Winning and playing finals attract more talent from other clubs and we are able to prolong the cycle.

It's no different to Hawks bottoming out, rebuilding and once they got back to finals were able to attract battle and barrass.. not to mention talking to Merrett now, Butters Harley Reid and Allen earlier.
 
The academy talent didn’t exist and there was next to no talent coming out of NSW and Qld. Yet teams stayed in the bottom of the ladder. Teams went up the ladder.
Do you think there is a point in time where the academies shouldn't be club run so those players can be put into the open pool?
I have more of an issue with fatherson then academy because it's reasonable to say this kid never would have played afl if it wasn't for this academy etc.
 
Do you think there is a point in time where the academies shouldn't be club run so those players can be put into the open pool?
I have more of an issue with fatherson then academy because it's reasonable to say this kid never would have played afl if it wasn't for this academy etc.

In an ideal world the academy would never have been tied to a club and would be entirely funded and run by the AFL. But it makes no sense to do that given how cost prohibitive it is and the existing clubs already have all the infrastructure etc. I suspect it also strengthens it to have the pathway aligned to an AFL club.

Having club run academies is the best of the options reasonably available imo.

I think in another 5-15 years the model could maybe change to the AFL bankrolling the entire thing at which time there should be next to no matching power. We would still run them but wouldn’t have any resource implications past personnel and use of infrastructure. And even that should be financially accounted for as though you’re a third party renting the facilities etc.

The goal is to do whatever is needed to get quantity of afl players coming out of Qld and NSW.

What St Kilda and Freo offer is complaints with no solutions to this.
 

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