SUN OF A GUN
Senior List
- Dec 1, 2019
- 263
- 358
- AFL Club
- Gold Coast
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.
I imagine that all of the above, and more, is the reason for the review and subsequent clean out, of Academy coaches and staff for 2022.
The difference professionalism between the Suns and Lions Academies over the last few years has been glaringly obvious. However, the results from Academy games v the Lions over the last few years are mostly in the favour of the GC.
Hoping to see some strong results from the new Academy coaching staff, that is supposedly highly credentialed in developing young talent.