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Understand the game is a gimmick and difficult to take anything meaningful from, but the players had to contribute as 1 of 7 which would have put a bit of pressure on.

Dow & O'Brien both did well.
 
mediumsizered said:
In its latter years, the VFL Under 19 competition proved to be a fairly poor source of talent for the senior clubs.

If you look through some of the team lists for Under 19 GF teams in the late '70s & through the '80s, you will generally be lucky to find a handful of players who want on to have long term careers at senior level. Our own Under 19 GF teams of the late '70s only produced Glascott, Kourkoumelis & Mark Buckley & of course only Glascott went on to be a regular (& champion) best 20 player in the seniors & some of our kids e.g. Harmes, Buckley & Sheldon totally bypassed the Under 19 competition.

Clubs of course had a number of recruitment sources alongside the Under 19 competition including suburban & country zones & of course carte blanche on interstate talent. Basically the draft has rolled all these sources into one, with the TAC Cup being the prime source of draftees. What the TAC Cup ensures is that players are not being elevated to AFL senior level before their bodies are ready. Give clubs an Under 19 team of their own & it wouldn't be long before they would be looking to bend the rules & elevate junior players to senior level (imagine having Paddy Dow showing some impressive signs as a 17 year old & his AFL club wanting to elevate him into the senior team due to injuries to senior players or loss of form, before long it will have rolled back into the old Under 19 competition).

The TAC Cup has gone forward in leaps & bounds since its inception in the '90s & the teams really seem to be doing most things well. The SANFL & WAFL also seem to be making progress at Under 18 level & talent identification in NSW & Qld is also much superior to what it was in the past. Tassie is still a concern, but reports indicate there will be a couple of very good Tassie kids putting there hand up for this year's draft.
Click to expand...
I was right in the middle of this period (1973-1975) as a member of Carlton’s Under 19 squad. I joined North Melbourne in 1975 before finally getting the shove by Ray Jordan in the pre-season of 1976.

At Carlton I briefly saw the likes of Mark Maclure, Russel Ohlsen and Wayne Harmes pass through the squad and onto bigger things. Tony West went onto Essendon and became a VFA legend as well as Billy Swan. At North Melbourne I saw Steve McCann (who was from WA) and Xavier Tanner do the same thing.

I’d estimate the squad size at both clubs at 50 which made it difficult to get a game in the U19s let alone reserves and seniors. And it was doubly hard when clubs could source better players from the bush or interstate.

I can assure you that it was a deflating experience to watch this parade of stars happen year after year. I was burnt out after the experience and struggled to enjoy football from that time on.

Your correct in saying that the TAC is a better way of developing players. AFLX could be another way of player development. Who knows?

If I had my time again...
 
Its like playing chess on half a chess board. And of course the players are gonna say its fun. The only good thing about it would be that we get to see our players a bit earlier. Its shit. If we had won my obs might be slightly more tempered.
 

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The one and only Kouta played under 19’s, Ang Christou did as well....
You’ll find a lot of players played reasonable amount of u19’s before it was canned

Anyhow, I didn’t waste a single second on this format, so did we get through it without any injuries?
 
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StandByyourMan said:
Its like playing chess on half a chess board. And of course the players are gonna say its fun. The only good thing about it would be that we get to see our players a bit earlier. Its shit. If we had won my obs might be slightly more tempered.
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Game of keepings off ring a ring a rosie. Didn’t like. No real bearing on how game is played.
 
teagueyubeauty said:
The one and only Kouta played under 19’s, Ang Christou did as well....
You’ll find a lot of players played reasonable amount of u19’s before it was canned

Anyhow, I didn’t waste a single second on this format, so did we get through it without any injuries?
Click to expand...
No injuries [emoji108]

Sent from my SM-G935F using Tapatalk
 
Just watched our two AFLX games. My obs of our players. (Yes...I know it’s only AFLX)
NEW PLAYERS
DOW - the hype is justified. He’s strong, explosive and finds the ball. Barring any setbacks he’s a round 1 lock.
LOB - composed, neat kick, team player. Probably start in the 2s due to our backline being so strong and to gain confidence in our systems.
KENNEDY - like the look of him - strong, head over the ball, good size (looked like he needed the run). Looked most confident when bullocking and contesting for the ball. Reckon he’s a lock for round 1.
O’SHEA- understandably looked like he couldn’t quite keep up to the fast pace. Depth
MARCHBANK- has a go but missed A LOT of targets by foot
KERRIDGE - tries his guts out, skill errors & turnovers
LAMB - reasonable. Would hope he’s depth this year
JACK - smart. Needs to make the most of his opportunities
FISHER - seriously smart - will bring a lot of team-mates in to the game. Looks relly confident. Could see him doing some serious damage on the wing this year. Round 1 lock.
WILLIAMSON- good size. Penetrating kick. Very left-sided. Really disciplined. Round 1 lock
POLSON - didn’t mind his game. Looks really fit. Has a bit of small mans syndrome
PICKETT - flashy. Looks so much fitter than last year. Needs to find more of the pill
LEBOIS - skilful. Needs to build his tank (looked spent after 12 minutes of 1 game)
and finally...
MACREADIE - really like this kid. Shows so much promise. Still very slight BUT good skills, brave and importantly knows where the ball is going so positions himself really well.
 
Robbo's my hero said:
I was right in the middle of this period (1973-1975) as a member of Carlton’s Under 19 squad. I joined North Melbourne in 1975 before finally getting the shove by Ray Jordan in the pre-season of 1976.

At Carlton I briefly saw the likes of Mark Maclure, Russel Ohlsen and Wayne Harmes pass through the squad and onto bigger things. Tony West went onto Essendon and became a VFA legend as well as Billy Swan. At North Melbourne I saw Steve McCann (who was from WA) and Xavier Tanner do the same thing.

I’d estimate the squad size at both clubs at 50 which made it difficult to get a game in the U19s let alone reserves and seniors. And it was doubly hard when clubs could source better players from the bush or interstate.

I can assure you that it was a deflating experience to watch this parade of stars happen year after year. I was burnt out after the experience and struggled to enjoy football from that time on.

Your correct in saying that the TAC is a better way of developing players. AFLX could be another way of player development. Who knows?

If I had my time again...
Click to expand...

I can echo many of these comments, from the early 80's with the under 19's. Enjoyed it more at the Bullants under Shaw in the mid 80's

But times have changed and i believe the concept would be more professional now and a better pathway on and off the field
 

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