Aboriginal & TSI Decline in Indigenous AFL players. Should the AFL do more to address it?

[South of the Yarra]

We can, but knowing people that have lived in the n.t, I'm lead to believe full Aboriginals don't even consider people that are half as "one of them".

It just needs to be a reasonable cut off similar to the multicultural academies of a parent or grandparent. The equivalent in some of these cases would be someone doing a DNA test and seeing they're 5% South African ancestry and that making them become available as an NGA multicultural talent.

Absolute Rubbish. Please don’t use the words ‘full’ and ‘half’. It is insulting.

 

[p4p1]

AFL mandates that every club gets extra Cat B rookie spots and they MUST use them.

That would get more indigenous AFL players.

Right now Eagles hold an empty Cat B spot and decided against offering it to an eligible NGA or use the pick in the rookie draft.

More list spots available for indigenous kids that must be filled is how you get more players in the system

In this situation, dedicated list spots don't make it a good thing. Having racial quotas to fill is more than often a negative for everyone involved except the execs who get to pat themselves on the back.
Upheaving a kids life for two years has next to no point and could struggle to have a positive benefit on the kid themselves and the communities involved.
The problem with mandating it is that clubs will have to pick kids that are on the borderline talentwise (or below the border) or are talented but don't have the attitude to be a full time professional footballer. There would no doubt be some great stories that come out of that. But for every good story you would likely have significantly more that have been negative (to different degrees and for different reasons) experiences for players that have had to make major life changes to play football for a year or two. It wouldn't really solve the problems faced by regional people or open up the pathways to them in general, it would just artificially boost the numbers in the AFL system.

The Lions have a great success story IMO with Bruce Reville who is now a premiership player, so there is absolutely some potential positives to your point. From memory he was driving 4 hours to and from training while holding down a full time job etc before he was given a chance as a cat B rookie and he has grabbed that opportunity with both hands and achieved every players dream.

 

[The Feeder Club]

In this situation, dedicated list spots don't make it a good thing. Having racial quotas to fill is more than often a negative for everyone involved except the execs who get to pat themselves on the back.
Upheaving a kids life for two years has next to no point and could struggle to have a positive benefit on the kid themselves and the communities involved.
The problem with mandating it is that clubs will have to pick kids that are on the borderline talentwise (or below the border) or are talented but don't have the attitude to be a full time professional footballer. There would no doubt be some great stories that come out of that. But for every good story you would likely have significantly more that have been negative (to different degrees and for different reasons) experiences for players that have had to make major life changes to play football for a year or two. It wouldn't really solve the problems faced by regional people or open up the pathways to them in general, it would just artificially boost the numbers in the AFL system.

The Lions have a great success story IMO with Bruce Reville who is now a premiership player, so there is absolutely some potential positives to your point. From memory he was driving 4 hours to and from training while holding down a full time job etc before he was given a chance as a cat B rookie and he has grabbed that opportunity with both hands and achieved every players dream.

Reville isn’t indigenous though, as far as I know

 

[Obeanie1]

In this situation, dedicated list spots don't make it a good thing. Having racial quotas to fill is more than often a negative for everyone involved except the execs who get to pat themselves on the back.
Upheaving a kids life for two years has next to no point and could struggle to have a positive benefit on the kid themselves and the communities involved.
The problem with mandating it is that clubs will have to pick kids that are on the borderline talentwise (or below the border) or are talented but don't have the attitude to be a full time professional footballer. There would no doubt be some great stories that come out of that. But for every good story you would likely have significantly more that have been negative (to different degrees and for different reasons) experiences for players that have had to make major life changes to play football for a year or two. It wouldn't really solve the problems faced by regional people or open up the pathways to them in general, it would just artificially boost the numbers in the AFL system.

The Lions have a great success story IMO with Bruce Reville who is now a premiership player, 1so there is absolutely some potential positives to your point. From memory he was driving 4 hours to and from training while holding down a full time job etc before he was given a chance as a cat B rookie and he has grabbed that opportunity with both hands and achieved every players dream.

Fair points.

On the other side there are some very talented indigenous players who dont get a shot because clubs only have so many list spots.

Then they start looking at non football factors, for example choose between a skilled kid in Melbourne or a skilled kid from Hall Creek who might struggle to relocate.

Which way do you think it goes?

 

[p4p1]

Reville isn’t indigenous though, as far as I know

No, he was born in PNG but my point was more about how the Cat B rookie spots can be used to give someone who due to their circumstances was unable to go down the traditional development pathways. In a similar vein to what hurdles an indigenous kid from rural Australia faces.

 

[p4p1]

Fair points.

On the other side there are some very talented indigenous players who dont get a shot because clubs only have so many list spots.

Then they start looking at non football factors, for example choose between a skilled kid in Melbourne or a skilled kid from Hall Creek who might struggle to relocate.

Which way do you think it goes?

I don't disagree with you on who they would choose in that situation. A truly elite talented kid is always going to get picked up. The line ball decisions of whether they may be talented enough but could have trouble relocating are often cases for late picks, pre season selection or rookie spots. There is great stories of some of those picks becoming elite players, but the vast majority go on to not play a game and get delisted once their initial contract is over.
The extra list spots won't go to elite talents because they'll be picked up in the national draft. Which means that far more often than not the picks we are discussing will only see out their initial contract and never play a game. So I do question what the balance of good vs bad experiences would be for those players.

At the moment there is still an overrepresentation compared to the general population, so I don't think it is panic stations. There are elite school programs in WA specifically for indigenous kids, that may or may not be aimed at football but does make it easier for regional kids who are lucky enough to get into these programs also get into traditional development pathways.