News AFL to overhaul the draft, discuss changes to Academy and FS bid matching

[Lore]

 

[Buget]

TBH the AFL has really dropped the ball in its defacto stewardship of the game. Should be working with Tas, WA, SA on supporting grass roots development pathways, and should be paying for the Academies out of their own pocket.

The SANFL poor administration through shear negligence and bitterness has resulted in poor develop in SA.

 

[go_the_dockers]

There's still bodies like WAFC that run football in WA. The AFL teams in those states continue to pay fees to the WAFC, and clubs get additional money when players get drafted from those clubs.

This will drop to zero when a 2nd tier comp is started.

 

[GC2015]

Or maybe the AFL could put some money into sa and wa grass roots football.

Or give us academies as well.

It feels like some kind of bizarro world where we have a draft class that appears to have multiple Queensland prospects rated inside the first round and zero WA prospects rated inside the top 60. I never thought I'd see the day, but here we are.

I suppose you have to consider the AFL's end goal when discussing prioritising of grassroots funding. Aussie rules is already number 1 by a large margin in WA & SA so there isn't the same kind of incentive there is in QLD & NSW. Especially when you consider over 50% of the national population live in either QLD or NSW. So I think for those reasons alone you are always going to see the AFL's prioritising grassroots funding for the northern states.

What has caused this drop off in WA anyway? Last year WA produced four first round draft picks and the year before they produced five first round draft picks. Now they all of a sudden have nothing in the top 60? Is it just a down year or has something gone drastically wrong out west?

 

[go_the_dockers]

It feels like some kind of bizarro world where we have a draft class that appears to have multiple Queensland prospects rated inside the first round and zero WA prospects rated inside the top 60. I never thought I'd see the day, but here we are.

I suppose you have to consider the AFL's end goal when discussing prioritising of grassroots funding. Aussie rules is already number 1 by a large margin in WA & SA so there isn't the same kind of incentive there is in QLD & NSW. Especially when you consider over 50% of the national population live in either QLD or NSW. So I think for those reasons alone you are always going to see the AFL's prioritising grassroots funding for the northern states.

What has caused this drop off in WA anyway? Last year WA produced four first round draft picks and the year before they produced five first round draft picks. Now they all of a sudden have nothing in the top 60? Is it just a down year or has something gone drastically wrong out west?

I would like to know how money the AFL invests in grass roots football per state.

I think it is two fold, 1- lack of investment to improve some players, 2 - just a bad year.

 

[northeasttiger]

Why should WA football make it easier for the eastern states to identify their talent?

They could hide their talented kids in the Private School comps and pick them up later in the draft.

Clubs need to invest more in scouts in other states.

 

[Snuffaluphagus]

Why should WA football make it easier for the eastern states to identify their talent?

They could hide their talented kids in the Private School comps and pick them up later in the draft.

Clubs need to invest more in scouts in other states.

The school comp is not good enough to do that and get a good result. You need to see the kids play in decent competition and PSA is not it from my understanding. Average talents can dominate there, skewing the performance

 

[sydney_gws]

What about free agency compensation?
I think it should be kept, but lowered.
It still should include in my opinion the signing team giving up part of the compensation, it seems extremely large offers will come the way of players available for free like
Hayward , Florent , Cumming , Perryman , Yeo.
I don't begrudge them personally, but it causes other issues.
Like eagles pick 19 getting pushed back to 28 last year.

Another way to do free agency compo is to only compensation is to do in 5 year blocks.
Perhaps you don't get compo for the first player you lose, but after that you do.

 

[amazingjoshy]

What about free agency compensation?
I think it should be kept, but lowered.
It still should include in my opinion the signing team giving up part of the compensation, it seems extremely large offers will come the way of players available for free like
Hayward , Florent , Cumming , Perryman , Yeo.
I don't begrudge them personally, but it causes other issues.
Like eagles pick 19 getting pushed back to 28 last year.

Another way to do free agency compo is to only compensation is to do in 5 year blocks.
Perhaps you don't get compo for the first player you lose, but after that you do.

It's free agency, there shouldn't be any compo

At the moment one team gets the player, the other team gets a (completely made up) draft pick, and every other club pays

 

[juss]

What about free agency compensation?
I think it should be kept, but lowered.
It still should include in my opinion the signing team giving up part of the compensation, it seems extremely large offers will come the way of players available for free like
Hayward , Florent , Cumming , Perryman , Yeo.
I don't begrudge them personally, but it causes other issues.
Like eagles pick 19 getting pushed back to 28 last year.

Another way to do free agency compo is to only compensation is to do in 5 year blocks.
Perhaps you don't get compo for the first player you lose, but after that you do.

Compo distorts the draft for every other club not involved in the deal. Hate it for that reason.

Just get rid of compensation, it frees up cap room and you can then chase someone else. That's basically how FA works in most other leagues it's implemented.

FA is player driven designed for player movement. The AFL is incorrectly trying to use it as an equalisation measure and bungling it.

 

[sydney_gws]

Compo distorts the draft for every other club not involved in the deal. Hate it for that reason.

Just get rid of compensation, it frees up cap room and you can then chase someone else. That's basically how FA works in most other leagues it's implemented.

FA is player driven designed for player movement. The AFL is incorrectly trying to use it as an equalisation measure and bungling it.

It is I think so Gold Coast and GWS don't get stripped of all their A-Grade players after 8 years.
Hence my suggestion it works in 5 year blocks, where you don't get compensated for your 1st loss, or perhaps your first loss in the 5 years is set at an end of 2nd round pick.
Clubs can try to manage it better by signing their players to end of 7th or 9th year, not till end of 8th year.

 

[The 747]

It is I think so Gold Coast and GWS don't get stripped of all their A-Grade players after 8 years.
Hence my suggestion it works in 5 year blocks, where you don't get compensated for your 1st loss, or perhaps your first loss in the 5 years is set at an end of 2nd round pick.
Clubs can try to manage it better by signing their players to end of 7th or 9th year, not till end of 8th year.

That could have been countered by having a rule for the expansion clubs though. I do get that point but it could have been dealt with by a rule with a much smaller scope.

 

[Ants]

Unless bottom and mid tier clubs get compensation from losing players to free agency, it would make a policy that has viciously hurt equalisation even worse. Those clubs need that compensation - which generally is not worth the value of the player - to have any chance of building towards the summit. Where that compensation comes from is a much bigger issue. The two changes should be:

• Top teams don’t get compensation unless they’re losing the player to a similarly placed team.
• Clubs gaining the player contribute to the points cost of the compo picks, depending on their position. A team in the bottom 4 pays nothing. A team in the top 4 taking a free agent from a bottom 4 club pays 100%, taking it from a mid tier team 59%, and from a top team say 20%.

This improves equalisation while reducing the cost all other clubs bear for compensation picks.

 

[threenewpadlocks]

Just get rid of compensation, it frees up cap room and you can then chase someone else. That's basically how FA works in most other leagues it's implemented.

This basically isn't true! Compensation picks occur in both NFL and MLB. The only reason they don't exist in the NBA is because they have mechanisms for going over the salary cap for players that you draft yourself, rather than take in free agency (Bird rights, named after Larry Bird).

 

[Cleric]

The SANFL poor administration through shear negligence and bitterness has resulted in poor develop in SA.

Leave the Port anti SANFL speeches to the Port board.

The issue is the amount of money the AFL puts into Jr development in Vic compared to what it does in SA and WA.
How would the Vic talent look like if the VFL had to fund it instead of the AFL?
It's been reported that some of the U18 Vic clubs have better facilities than a number of SANFL and WAFL teams do.

 

[threenewpadlocks]

Leave the Port anti SANFL speeches to the Port board.

The issue is the amount of money the AFL puts into Jr development in Vic compared to what it does in SA and WA.
How would the Vic talent look like if the VFL had to fund it instead of the AFL?
It's been reported that some of the U18 Vic clubs have better facilities than a number of SANFL and WAFL teams do.

SANFL wants an element of its independence from the AFL though. With that independence comes the fact that they have to fund and develop on their own and without AFL interference, to some extent, though. Can't have it both ways - wanting the AFL's money without the AFL's governance.

 

[RUNVS]

I've been thinking about it and I think every club in the country should be given an Academy.

However, change the rules for the academy a bit, make it possibly, but quite a bit more expensive to draft a player from your academy in the first two rounds, maybe even make it so you can only match the bid of one of your academy kids in the first round.

That would produce so much more talent than the current system. There would be a lot of bleed over too, for instance, say Hawthorn have two really good top players in this draft, but because of the rules they can only actually afford to match the bid on one of them, so the other really talented kid gets drafted to someone else.

I think it could work.

 

[Dangerousfield]

Geelong academy kid taken by another club won't want to go back to Geelong and the surf coast and the property Costa Living Allowance immediately their first contract expires? Yeah, pigs might fly.

Dumb idea, NGA's are also a dumb McGuire appeasing idea anyway. Clubs argue about unequal zones now!

 

[.Shotties.]

I've been thinking about it and I think every club in the country should be given an Academy.

I'm all for it as long as the academies aren't in places covered by existing talent pathways.

 

[sydney_gws]

I'm all for it as long as the academies aren't in places covered by existing talent pathways.

I think Sydney has pathways anyway.
It is the clubs like St george, unsw bulldogs.
I watched an under 19.5s game on the weekend at Olds park, I was going to leave at 3qtr time to watch Swans/ Giants on TV but stayed as it was interesting.
Not that different from an AFL game (players don't run as much, not quite as big).
That is surely a good pathway, when combined with the under18 national championship.

 

[.Shotties.]

I think Sydney has pathways anyway.
It is the clubs like St george, unsw bulldogs.
I watched an under 19.5s game on the weekend at Olds park, I was going to leave at 3qtr time to watch Swans/ Giants on TV but stayed as it was interesting.
Not that different from an AFL game (players don't run as much, not quite as big).
That is surely a good pathway, when combined with the under18 national championship.

If you said 'The St. George Dragons 17s is equivalent to a Talent League team' you would be laughed at. With good cause.

 

[mpal6]

All the arguments keep going back to increasing points for first round and reducing points for later rounds etc.

We can just make first round pure (no father son, academy, NGA, priority picks etc) and this problem goes away entirely. There won't be such a big hoo-haa if clubs get to use these mechanisms from second round onwards.

FS player can ask for a trade later if they are desperate to play for dad's club. There is a way to go back where they want to go.

 

[sydney_gws]

If you said 'The St. George Dragons 17s is equivalent to a Talent League team' you would be laughed at. With good cause.

I am sure it isn't as good, that's why future afl players play seniors like Gulden at 17.
I just think it gets a little bit disrespected that's all.

 

[.Shotties.]

I am sure it isn't as good, that's why future afl players play seniors like Gulden at 17.
I just think it gets a little bit disrespected that's all.

Be that as it may, it's not an elite talent pathway. It's a community league run almost entirely by volunteers. There's a reason it produced 2 AFL players in however long before the academies.

 

[sydney_gws]

All the arguments keep going back to increasing points for first round and reducing points for later rounds etc.

We can just make first round pure (no father son, academy, NGA, priority picks etc) and this problem goes away entirely. There won't be such a big hoo-haa if clubs get to use these mechanisms from second round onwards.

FS player can ask for a trade later if they are desperate to play for dad's club. There is a way to go back where they want to go.

This won't happen. I think the AFL knows that the Swans on particular seem to benefit from the
A grade talent they get, Gold Coast do as well now ( and GWS did well before the Riverina was removed from the recruiting zone).

 

[Adnico26Parker]

From the Jay Clark article re. midseason trades:


There could also be changes to the draft points system including removing the points attached to picks after selection No. 40.

It means it would serve no benefit for clubs to accumulate picks in the third and fourth round to try and amass points for academy and father-son prospects.

The discount attached to academy selections and father-son pick-ups is likely to be reduced so clubs have to stump up more for top prospects.