Developing potential FSR players

[Niximus]

I think the AFC should set up a program to specifically target male children of players who would be eligible to be drafted under the father son rule.

While the sons might grop up the be champion footballers anyway, imagine if from the age of 5 onwards if they were involved in the football club and received all the training and support from a professional club right from the beginning how good they could be.

It would be worth it as we could be guaranteed of picking up these kids when they grew older.

Thoughts?

 

[bus24]

Bit unethical isn't it.

 

[Niximus]

Bit unethical isn't it.

How so? All we would be doing is providing the children of our champions with every opportunity to reach their potential.

 

[WaynesWorld19]

Think it's a great idea ....an acedamy for father /sons.

It's almost like the old zone system where you could develop your own knowing that you could claim them.

Sadly the only flaw in the idea is that the AFL keep changing eligibility meaning there would be no gurantee of a return for the work put in.

 

[RoosterLad]

I think we should start even sooner. When the wife of a past/current player is pregnant, we should get her on the training track and this doesn't only include skills training but she should also be flogged in pre-season training. Get them doing time trials at 8 months.

 

[betterthanu]

Would be great for the kids who don't make afl. They spend their whole life training for it only to be rejected. If they have the talent then great but if they don't then we shouldn't try to turn them into something they're not.

 

[- PC -]

While I think the idea has some merit, I also think most good sons of fathers are dragged along or go willingly to the club from an early age

I recall Ben Cousins talking about how at 7-8 he would go with his dad to the change rooms and be handballing with a Geelong or Perth player group. As he got older he would also use the gym etc. This immersed him in the culture of the club and he made the transition easier.

 

[Niximus]

While I think the idea has some merit, I also think most good sons of fathers are dragged along or go willingly to the club from an early age

I recall Ben Cousins talking about how at 7-8 he would go with his dad to the change rooms and be handballing with a Geelong or Perth player group. As he got older he would also use the gym etc. This immersed him in the culture of the club and he made the transition easier.

This is precisely what I am talking about. Obviously I don't mean forcing kids who don't want it but just allowing them this opportunity. A vast number would drop out and lose interest through their teen years but if this could produce one player of the talent of Mcleod or Rucciuto every 15 or so years then it would be worth every cent.

As for some not making the grade, there are many many kids who devote their lives to playing AFL and not make it. Sure it would suck for them but you can bet with the contacts and discipline they would learn in that environment they would be really well set up for a non football life.

 

[- PC -]

As long as the culture of the club is such that the doors are always open for kids then you wont have a problem

I guess there may well be a legal duty of care and insurance issues ie kids in workplaces, but that can be overcome

 

[Geoffa32]

Didnt Leighton Hewitt train with the Crows in early days when Cornes was coach??

 

[BlackDouglas]

Didnt Leighton Hewitt train with the Crows in early days when Cornes was coach??

Na – he would have been too young. Born in 1981 he would have only been about 10 to 14 during the Cornes years.

 

[Sanguinarius]

I think I remember hearing that gary abblett junior was alway taken to training by his dad. I cant remember anything specific about it though

 

[Asgardian]

I think the AFC should set up a program to specifically target male children of players who would be eligible to be drafted under the father son rule.

Thoughts?

An idea worth consideration.

However if you target specific children, and exclude others because they were not eligible under father/son regulations, I can imagine a possible legal problem occurring.

Imagine some parents of excluded children making some kind of discrimination law suit against the Crows.

I'm no lawyer, so that scenario may be just hot air, I dunno?

 

[Crowked]

Players already take their sons into the changerooms and some of those kids already live and breath football. Do you reckon James Hirds sons are going to play for Essendon? I reckon its just a matter of time passing myself.

Frankly the idea of parents suing the club or any kind of legal action for allowing some kids to players to follow in their fathers footsteps is ridiculous. The club might not be able to have an official development program exclusively for FS kids, they can do it unofficially with no problem IMO.

 

[NikkiNoo]

Frankly the idea of parents suing the club or any kind of legal action for allowing some kids to players to follow in their fathers footsteps is ridiculous. The club might not be able to have an official development program exclusively for FS kids, they can do it unofficially with no problem IMO.

It may not have legal ramifications but it will have ramifications amongst team moral - the other parents would be rightfully annoyed that their kid isn't invited unofficially to take part.

Junior development of children in sport is a very tricky situation - some will benefit from being around the same club where as others may be turned off the club if they feel they are being treated poorly. Then you also have the issue that you may develop someone in this type of system and then decide that they are not worth picking them later down the track - this could create bad blood between ex-players and the clubs.

Oh and Connor is always with Macca in the circle at the end of the games singing the song.

 

[noddy]

Good idea, "but"


If you have an academy type program for young kids then it should be open to all promising juniors to partake in.

"NO' discrimination what-so-ever.

 

[Stiffy_18]

It may not have legal ramifications but it will have ramifications amongst team moral - the other parents would be rightfully annoyed that their kid isn't invited unofficially to take part.

Junior development of children in sport is a very tricky situation - some will benefit from being around the same club where as others may be turned off the club if they feel they are being treated poorly. Then you also have the issue that you may develop someone in this type of system and then decide that they are not worth picking them later down the track - this could create bad blood between ex-players and the clubs.

Oh and Connor is always with Macca in the circle at the end of the games singing the song.

Exactly right!

Its not a matter of legal action from other parents but there are a lot of other traps around the place. People forget that player is the one that decides whether or not he wants to be a FS selection. What if you had invested a lot of time and resources into a kid and he says, nah, sorry, I want to go into the draft?!

This would also break all sort of rules set in place by the AFL. The clubs are prevented from having any contact with these draftees in certain periods of the year and the only way they would be allowed to train with the club is via a special permission. We had Griffin in for a workout for one day and got a please explain from the AFL. Imagine having 10 kids for an extended period of time?! NOT GOING TO HAPPEN! The AFL would NEVER allow it. NEVER!

It would be great for us though but the AFL is all about "equity" and the recommended approach would be seen by the AFL as something that greatly disadvantages other clubs. If we did this I can bet my life the AFL would scrap the father son rule all together.

 

[Campbell's Chunky]

Apparently a certain coach from the other side of Port road was overheard saying 'If I could, I would sign Darren Jarman's kid up to a contract right now'.

.

 

[KUNG FU]

I think it should remain informal. I think its a very good thing to keep the whole family of AFC involved in the club well after retirement. Only during their teen years, if the kids are showing something special should be begin to involve them with the club more and more on a casual basis, being mindful not to scare them off, but also injecting some enthusiasm for the AFC into the kid. We don't want a Marc Murphy situation happening to us (although, quite different circumstances I'm sure).

 

[ams4crows]

I think it should remain informal. I think its a very good thing to keep the whole family of AFC involved in the club well after retirement. Only during their teen years, if the kids are showing something special should be begin to involve them with the club more and more on a casual basis, being mindful not to scare them off, but also injecting some enthusiasm for the AFC into the kid. We don't want a Marc Murphy situation happening to us (although, quite different circumstances I'm sure).

If I was Brisbane I'd be pretty pissed about that We certainly don't want it to happen to us!

 

[ams4crows]

Apparently a certain coach from the other side of Port road was overheard saying 'If I could, I would sign Darren Jarman's kid up to a contract right now'.

.

Erm Can't Darren Jarman's kid also go to hawthorn under the father son rule? What happens there how do the decide who gets to take him under the rule?

 

[KUNG FU]

Erm Can't Darren Jarman's kid also go to hawthorn under the father son rule? What happens there how do the decide who gets to take him under the rule?

The kid and the club both have to agree. However, the bidding system might complicate things. Maybe if Adelaide doesn't want to go against the highest bid, Hawthorn might, say if Adelaide needs to give up a much higher pick than Hawthorn would. Also presuming that the kid would prefer Hawthorn over the highest bidding club. I guess this would be just one of the many complexities of this rule. Maybe he can only choose one and must stick with the decision.

But considering he's an Adelaide boy, I'm sure he'll choose Adelaide. Presuming that no opposition takes a punt by driving the bid too high, you'd expect him to still go to Adelaide.

 

[Gets!]

How old is Darren's lad?

 

[Campbell's Chunky]

Erm Can't Darren Jarman's kid also go to hawthorn under the father son rule? What happens there how do the decide who gets to take him under the rule?

The kid decides.

If, for example, he chooses Adelaide (which I assume he would since he always waltzes around in a Crows guernsey), Hawthorn can offer say...their first round pick (just like any of the other 14 clubs), Adelaide just has to match it.

How old is Darren's lad?

I think 11 or 12.

Just at the age where you can start to tell if someone will be a player.

 

[Crowked]

I think most clubs are already doing it in an unofficial sense. If a 100 game player has a son with interest in Football, why wouldnt they let them get as much exposure to the club, players, coaches and the game as they can?

The only thing they arent going to be doing is signing contracts and training with the main group. They are certainly developing them though, and there is nothing wrong with that.