From what I saw he was a silky type of defender....did some good things without shining BUT there's talent there for sure. Will only improve with the right coaching.
Academy: Gold Coast SUNS Gun Factory
- Thread starter Sunny_
- Start date
- Tagged users None
SUN OF A GUN
Senior List
- Dec 1, 2019
- 261
- 358
- AFL Club
- Gold Coast
Jarrod Cotton confirmed as U18 Academy Head Coach today.
en.m.wikipedia.org
Sent from my iPhone using BigFooty.com
Jarrod Cotton - Wikipedia
Sent from my iPhone using BigFooty.com
Jen2310
Moderator
- Moderator
- #2,378
Looks like he coached Norwood in the SANFL (senior) and also the Port SANFL team (Midfield)Jarrod Cotton confirmed as U18 Academy Head Coach today.
Jarrod Cotton - Wikipedia
Sent from my iPhone using BigFooty.com
From what I've been told Andrew Raines will coach the U16 but also oversee the Coaches as well. Not sure what that means though.Jarrod Cotton confirmed as U18 Academy Head Coach today.
Jarrod Cotton - Wikipedia
Sent from my iPhone using BigFooty.com
SUN OF A GUN
Senior List
- Dec 1, 2019
- 261
- 358
- AFL Club
- Gold Coast
Hearing Will Bella and Bailey Reeves have offers from Central Districts in the SANFL, should they not get picked up in the Draft.
Sent from my iPhone using BigFooty.com
Sent from my iPhone using BigFooty.com
Last edited:
- Mar 14, 2014
- 39,325
- 72,384
- AFL Club
- Gold Coast
- Other Teams
- Las Vegas Bears
Id say they both will end up there then.
- Mar 14, 2014
- 39,325
- 72,384
- AFL Club
- Gold Coast
- Other Teams
- Las Vegas Bears
I don't think he has much upside at all, he is almost already fully developed so there won't be much physical growth left in him, he isn't very gifted athletically either. Has a nice jump but still not enough to be worth an AFL list spot, low ceiling sorta prospect.
DCSuns
Debutant
- Aug 3, 2021
- 60
- 79
- AFL Club
- Gold Coast
Reeves has already been announced as a signing on their Instagram account. Bella has not yet.
Can't see Reeves getting pic
Can't see Reeves getting picked up but Bella should hold off until draft is over. He might get lucky.
I suppose we can say goodbye to Will Bella now. Would like to keep him in our academy system for another year as an overage 2022 draft prospect but rumours are he's heading to the SANFL. Hopefully the decision not to draft him doesn't come back to bite us.
In other potential academy news, Lleyton Hewitt and his family have just recently moved to the Gold Coast and his 12 year old son Cruz is a passionate footy fan as well as being an outstanding junior tennis prodigy like his old man. We know Lleyton is a huge Crows fan and Cruz is also a fan of the Crows but, importantly for us, he played a fair amount of junior footy while the family lived in Melbourne over the last five years, with his most recent junior footy match coming this year in the South Metro Junior Football League. Lleyton played junior footy until the age of 13 so we may only have a small window to strike but I'd like to think our academy staff at least reach out to the Hewitts and try to set up an arrangement where Cruz plays some junior footy matches on the Gold Coast next year.
It's been stated many times by AFL personalities like Mark 'Choco' Williams that Lleyton Hewitt definitely could have played in the AFL if he had chosen that pathway and his father Glynn was a prominent footballer in the 70s and 80s who played for Richmond as well as numerous teams in the SANFL and even the South Australian state team. It goes deeper than that, Glynn's father Max was also a footballer for West Adelaide in the 50s and 60s and was a SANFL Life Member. Just trying to make it clear that although Lleyton was a famous tennis player, he and his son Cruz actually come from a footballing family so we should at least ask the question if there is any chance he might want to pursue a career in footy instead. The rumours are that the Hewitts have moved to Burleigh and the local Burleigh Bombers footy club just so happens to be directly adjacent to one of the better tennis clubs on the Coast. I say let's get Cruz in there to start playing with the likes of other famous sports names like Mark Minichello's son Luca or even at the Broady Cats with the likes of our first ever father-son pick Kai Rischitelli.
It's good to have so many talented junior athletes running around on the Gold Coast. We just have to find ways to get them to play footy and stick to it!
In other potential academy news, Lleyton Hewitt and his family have just recently moved to the Gold Coast and his 12 year old son Cruz is a passionate footy fan as well as being an outstanding junior tennis prodigy like his old man. We know Lleyton is a huge Crows fan and Cruz is also a fan of the Crows but, importantly for us, he played a fair amount of junior footy while the family lived in Melbourne over the last five years, with his most recent junior footy match coming this year in the South Metro Junior Football League. Lleyton played junior footy until the age of 13 so we may only have a small window to strike but I'd like to think our academy staff at least reach out to the Hewitts and try to set up an arrangement where Cruz plays some junior footy matches on the Gold Coast next year.
It's been stated many times by AFL personalities like Mark 'Choco' Williams that Lleyton Hewitt definitely could have played in the AFL if he had chosen that pathway and his father Glynn was a prominent footballer in the 70s and 80s who played for Richmond as well as numerous teams in the SANFL and even the South Australian state team. It goes deeper than that, Glynn's father Max was also a footballer for West Adelaide in the 50s and 60s and was a SANFL Life Member. Just trying to make it clear that although Lleyton was a famous tennis player, he and his son Cruz actually come from a footballing family so we should at least ask the question if there is any chance he might want to pursue a career in footy instead. The rumours are that the Hewitts have moved to Burleigh and the local Burleigh Bombers footy club just so happens to be directly adjacent to one of the better tennis clubs on the Coast. I say let's get Cruz in there to start playing with the likes of other famous sports names like Mark Minichello's son Luca or even at the Broady Cats with the likes of our first ever father-son pick Kai Rischitelli.
It's good to have so many talented junior athletes running around on the Gold Coast. We just have to find ways to get them to play footy and stick to it!
SUN OF A GUN
Senior List
- Dec 1, 2019
- 261
- 358
- AFL Club
- Gold Coast
Andrew Raines has left the Academy.
Sent from my iPhone using BigFooty.com
Sent from my iPhone using BigFooty.com
Last edited:
Torney and Raines gone in a matter of two months. It sounds like both have been pushed. Perhaps the AFL have stepped in because our academy has been underperforming for a while now in terms of producing AFL talent?Andrew Raines has left the Academy.
Sent from my iPhone using BigFooty.com
Sad to see Raines go. He is a Gold Coast junior from PBC who went to Marymount College and was passionate about GC footy. I hope his dismissal doesn't come back to bite us in any way like it will with Ashcroft next year when his son is draft eligible.
Saw this in another thread and thought it would be good to post here. I can see multiple players listed twice so I'm not entirely sure how it's ordered but this seems to be the most up to date list at the moment. Nice to see Bella, Harris and Stevens have all been retained. As we know, Eckersley and Harrington are the current 2022 standouts and look most likely to be drafted at this stage. Good to see Bella and Stevens have been retained. There's a few siblings of our players coming through with Jez's brother, Louie McLennan, Caleb's brother, Will Graham, and Rhys' brother, Ky Nicholls, all listed below.
No Rivers of Gold from our Academy That’s for sure
Project players at best
Sent from my iPhone using BigFooty.com
Project players at best
Sent from my iPhone using BigFooty.com
The Kings Ransom
Premiership Player
- Aug 30, 2021
- 3,421
- 4,138
- AFL Club
- Gold Coast
Think it's ridiculous to suggest the academy isn't performing in producing AFL level talent
Weller (2014 draft), Bowes (2016), Budarick (2019), Davies (2020) will all be best 22 in the next year or two.
Uwland has a chance to make it
4-5 others on the list although seem unlikely to become established best 22 AFL players.
Also NT boys, although they probably had less to do with the academy.
Another bunch of youngsters are decent 2nd division players.
I think we could have certainly capitalised more.. but don't think we've done too badly, finding a best 22 player from the academy every second year is about the mark I think. If that trend continues we will have a sustainable ~5-6 players, or 25% of our best 22 team who started in the academy year on year.
Isn't Jed Foggo from the Northern Rivers? My understanding is he was one of our better academy prospects this year. I believe Jared Ellis (Lismore) and Jesse Joyce (Tweed Heads) are the only players we've drafted out of the Northern Rivers region to date.
I take your point that the Northern Rivers doesn't have a lot of Aussie rules history and is generally considered more of a rugby league heartland area but I wouldn't give up on that area just yet. A lot of southerners are moving north to south east Queensland AND north east NSW so we should have many more football prospects coming through the region over the next decade.
I don't want to sound harsh here but I think it's fair to say our academy is performing the worst of the four northern academies when you compare the quality of the best players each academy is producing. Brisbane have a multi time AA key defender in Harris Andrews and one of the better key forwards in the league in Eric Hipwood, Sydney have top 10 picks Isaac Heeney, Callum Mills, Nick Blakey and Braeden Campbell who are all guns and GWS have some gun academy graduates as well like Jacob Hopper, Harry Himmelberg, Harry Perryman and Tom Green, not to mention guns from their academy at other clubs like Jack Steele and Zac Williams. The AFL would be aware of this and it probably explains their decision to hand us the Darwin zone a few years ago but there's more to it than just getting an extra zone added into your academy. Perhaps they feel the academy coaching needs to improve?
I love Bowesy and Budders but they really aren't comparable to players like Harris Andrews, Isaac Heeney or Jacob Hopper (not yet anyway).
SUN OF A GUN
Senior List
- Dec 1, 2019
- 261
- 358
- AFL Club
- Gold Coast
Saw this in another thread and thought it would be good to post here. I can see multiple players listed twice so I'm not entirely sure how it's ordered but this seems to be the most up to date list at the moment. Nice to see Bella, Harris and Stevens have all been retained. As we know, Eckersley and Harrington are the current 2022 standouts and look most likely to be drafted at this stage. Good to see Bella and Stevens have been retained. There's a few siblings of our players coming through with Jez's brother, Louie McLennan, Caleb's brother, Will Graham, and Rhys' brother, Ky Nicholls, all listed below.
This list will be cut to 50 before the Christmas break. After a 6 week training block in the new year, the 35 man U18 squad will be named. Proposed 2022 U18 Academy games below:
Would I be correct in saying this will be the first time our academy has faced a senior QAFL team in the Surfers Demons?
The Kings Ransom
Premiership Player
- Aug 30, 2021
- 3,421
- 4,138
- AFL Club
- Gold Coast
Agree we have had the worst production of players. Until the NT we clearly had the worst zone to recruit from.
And keeping in mind the academy is there to produce players that are 18 years old and drafted. Not responsible for their development after.
Brisbane have had
- hipwood (first round)
- blake Coleman (2nd round)
- Andrew’s. Payne, keidan, Cumberland, ballenden etc.. who were third rounders.
We’ve had
- Bowes and Davies (top 10 rated)
- Weller (first 15)
- budarick 2nd-3rd round
- others at rookie draft level.
so arguably we’ve had better top end talent at draft time coming out of the academy than the lions. That hasn’t translated to better players on field though.
Brisbane also had Ben Keays come through their academy and he was highly rated as a junior (two-time U18 AA) despite being bid on with pick 24. I believe Conor McFadyen was also highly rated as a junior and was another second round pick that came through their academy. I should also point out that Blake Coleman is actually considered a first round pick due to the high level of NGA & first round compensation picks in the 2020 draft, meanwhile Keidean Coleman was a second round pick. So Brisbane have had two first round picks in Hipwood and B.Coleman, five second round picks in Keays, McFadyen, K.Coleman, Cumberland and Martyn as well as a few late pick gems like Andrews.
We didn't have access to Weller so I don't consider that an indication of the strength of our academy. What use is a player in our academy if we can't actually draft them? Josh Fahey also played for our academy team but I don't consider him ours, especially considering GWS just academy drafted him. Bailey Scott is one you could lay claim to because we had access to him but even he was pick 49 overall so that's nothing to rave about. I know analysts had suggested Davies was potentially a top 10 pick early last year but he was injured for most of the 2020 season and I think that would have seen him slip outside of the top 10 if he was available on the open market (potentially even into the second round). Jack Bowes is the only true first round pick that's come through our academy in my mind because Joel Jeffrey really had very little to do with our academy and he was also not guaranteed to be taken with a first round pick on the open market.
Although we've had the only true top 10 pick come out of a Queensland academy, I don't think it's a stretch to say Brisbane's academy is outperforming ours in terms of talent coming through and they are definitely streets ahead in how they develop those academy players once they've been drafted. Yes we have a challenging situation with the smallest population spread amongst the most amount of land but this is an area we absolutely HAVE TO improve in. We can't be so reliant on drafting talents from interstate who inevitably end up leaving.
There's a huge difference between our Academy Zone and Sydney Brisbane GWS
GWS get the Riverina FFS- it's like a Petrie Dish for microbial AFL talent
We get a City divided between NRL and AFL and some sparsely populated Northern regions
Can't wait for all those future Suns champions rolling in from Boonah and Warwick
GWS get the Riverina FFS- it's like a Petrie Dish for microbial AFL talent
We get a City divided between NRL and AFL and some sparsely populated Northern regions
Can't wait for all those future Suns champions rolling in from Boonah and Warwick
Similar threads
