News Indigenous and Multicultural Zones Announced

[G Mus]

I think the Kimberley has more potential than the Pilbara to produce indigenous talent if we can harness it properly.

But I might be biased since I grew up there.

Possibly, where I feel the difference is the south west should have been split a bit too, lot of talent from there

 

[Van_Dyke]

I think the Kimberley has more potential than the Pilbara to produce indigenous talent if we can harness it properly.

But I might be biased since I grew up there.

Will depend on how we approach it, with the success we get as a result.


Pilbara>Kimberley

 

[Docker82]

Reasonably happy tbh but was more happy with it before I was aware that indigenous kids from the metro area weren't involved. Most of the best indigenous WA kids are actually from the metro area going off their junior clubs. The two names that I really noticed for us were Paddy Ryder and Jack Martin. The Eagles have one or two more but apart from Lewis Jetta and Nathan Krakeour not many could be co side red in their teams best 22.

 

[basashi]

What is classified as multicultural?

There are a lot of 6'6" Serbians.

Multicultural means that the thing or person is derived from multiple cultures. My wife is 100% Japanese and therefore not multicultural. Our son is multicultural.

It is a difficult thing to guess sometimes. Majak Daw (100% Sudanese) is not multicultural but a player with one British parent is.

 

[basashi]

Looking at past recruiting from WA it seems whoever gets the majority of the south west is the winner.

 

[FreoMonocle]

Developing talent is one thing. Getting the kids to transition from somewhere like Broome or Bunbury to AFL is a different thing to getting someone from One Arm Point or Warburton. So any recruitment we get from the academy is nice, but I won't be holding my breath. I think the broader picture of skills transfer from the AFL clubs down to grassroots across Australia means better skills - and better footy, so that of itself makes the academies worthwhile.

I'm hoping that it give the kids more access to their hero's. It's hard to aspire to be a god, but when you find that your hero is a mortal like you, you can aspire and try to be a hero too.

 

[Alfonz]

I actually have a feeling it might be poorly written and we really only get access to multicultural talent from both the metro and regional zones, with indigenous talent only allowed to come from the two most remote zones (Kimberley and Pilbara).

a) otherwise it seems weird to specify that we get access to indigenous players from the Kimberley (and the eagles the Pilbara) in a separate little section rather than adding them as part of the regional zone. If we have access to all indigenous talent in the regional zones why have the Pilbara and Kimberley been separated?

b) access to the entire state's rural indigenous talent seem disproportionately generous and would turn the two WA clubs into perennial powerhouses.

c) it's the only reason I can think of where we would agree to hand the eagles 90% of the South West. 90% of the South West indigenous talent is too lopsided in their favour considering how well developed the pathways are already in that area

Have to agree with you, was thinking the same thing. Though not sure on the last point ... the wheatbelt and midwest are the first two zones I would take, happy to let WC have the South West. Though if it's just "multi-cultural", I doubt much would come out of any zone.

Doing a bit of digging and found this article for the 2010 season which listed 64 country WA footballers, of which about 25 were indigenous. From the 2010 list, indigenous players in Freo's zones include Buddy Franklin, Leon Davis, Daniel Wells, Roger Hayden, Chance Bateman, Josh Hill, Leroy Jetta, Paddy Ryder, Jeffery Garlett. The Eagles haul was much less, but can't see the Sydney-loving AFL allowing WA clubs to accumulate talent like that.

Interestingly, there were quite a few from Kimberley who have since been delisted and never really came close to making it ... Sibosado, Weedon, Broome, Peterson, Benjamin, Gilligan, Jacky. I wonder if they had this academy whether it would have made much difference. Even if the indigenous quota is restricted to the Kimberley and not our other regions, could be something to work with up there.

The AFL website mentions multi-cultural being the player (or parent) being born in Asia or Africa. What about Europe and the Americas?

 

[UFO Tatsu]

Multicultural means that the thing or person is derived from multiple cultures. My wife is 100% Japanese and therefore not multicultural. Our son is multicultural.

It is a difficult thing to guess sometimes. Majak Daw (100% Sudanese) is not multicultural but a player with one British parent is.

That classification seems rather restrictive.

 

[Freo Dr]

Really disappointed it excludes metro indigenous kids. Kimberley area has some significant potential but will take time working with the locals. Derby, Wyndham, Broome and Kunnanurra programs could be very good if you link the programs with attending school.

The upside for 'multicultural' is probably the West Perth area but for that we have to get them away from soccer which dominates in that area. Edit - if the Poms and Irish don't count as 'multicultural' you lose most of that potential for West Perth.

I coach at junior level at it is all about skills and also decision making in game style training - but this is only since about 2013. Kicking in particular takes years to learn (general rule is 10 years or 10,000 hours of practice) and by about 15 it is really hard to improve their kicking. The preference (as told to me by the development squad coach) is to be elite on one side over about 25 m versus average on both sides although dual sided elite is obviously ideal. By the time kids get into development squads you are only tweaking their technique to improve consistency. Many kids also grow up always practicing long kicks but if you ask them to kick short (about 20 m)they struggle and that is where the game is at now with Hawthorns one step short kicks.

 

[Miltz]

Maybe we should be looking at the elite juniors in the 14-16 yo category currently outside our zone and offer one of their parents a job with Woodside based in our zone. BOOM!!!

 

[PapaJ]

Ah, but the chicken and the egg is that you have players with good skills who get overlooked because they can't fit within a tactical system.

What's more important to our gameplan, skills or tactical discipline?

They're all important, but when it comes to early development, it's all about skills and general athletic motor coordination as the priority IMHO. Skills are taught with a tactical dimension in the background, but I don't think it would be the focus.

On top of that, maybe more than that, it's also teaching life skills/habits/disciplines to aid these young kids to get the best out of their lives in sport and more broadly too. Even with supper academy systems, only a handful will make the big time. It needs to be about more than learning to kick a football.

 

[sij1981]

Possibly, where I feel the difference is the south west should have been split a bit too, lot of talent from there

Thats what confused me - how it was fair WCE get 90% of a large population and we get 100% of a small population.

 

[estibador]

Pilbara>Kimberley

The only thing the Pilbara has going for it is it's narrow enough that you can drive through it in under a day and avoid having to stay there!

 

[Van_Dyke]

The only thing the Pilbara has going for it is it's narrow enough that you can drive through it in under a day and avoid having to stay there!

 

[estibador]

Thats what confused me - how it was fair WCE get 90% of a large population and we get 100% of a small population.

Do we know what the split looks like yet?

Maybe the figures are land area and our 10% contains some high population centres?

 

[Freo88]

I don't understand the disappointment in metro indigenous kids not being included in the academies. If they were, we would pick up a jet every year and build an all star team before the decade was through. In a dream world, yeah sure, that would be fantastic if we had an opportunity to draft a Stephen Hill every year for peanuts, but realistically that's just not fair to the Vics and South Australians. In saying that, the northern clubs seem to have their own rules...

The idea of the academies is to give kids with less of a pathway an opportunity. Metro indigenous kids have that pathway through WAFL clubs (not taking into account personal circumstances of course), hence the exclusion. You can see why the kids from the bush are included - that WAFL pathway is a less of a realistic option if they 1400km away from the setups.

 

[Alfonz]

Looking at past recruiting from WA it seems whoever gets the majority of the south west is the winner.

Not sure about that. I would take the Wheatbelt in a heartbeat. I sorted a list I found of WA country players from 2010 into regions. Granted that is old and things could have changed, but it clearly shows that the South West is not guaranteed to be the best region. I included Peel into the equation. I wouldn't underestimate giving Freo that region. If we have Peel and the Wheatbelt, then it is only fair for WC to have the South West.


2010 WA country players

WHEATBELT: Scott Stevens (Kellerberrin/Tammin), Leon Davis (Northam), Chance Bateman (York), Lance Franklin (Dowerin), Paul Duffield (Darkan), Roger Hayden (Brookton), Brennan Stack (Northam), Alistair Smith (Northam), Cruise Garlett (Northam), Mitch Morton (Lake Grace), Cale Morton (Lake Grace), Jarryd Morton (Lake Grace), Darren Glass (Northam), Nathan Fyfe (Lake Grace), Mark LeCras (Cervantes), Max Bailey (Narembeen), Sharrod Wellingham (Northam), Jeffrey Garlett (Burracoppin), Leroy Jetta (Pingelly), Josh Carr (Goomalling), Mark Seaby (Mukinbudin)

MIDWEST: Harry Taylor (Geraldton), Liam Anthony (Geraldton), Graham Polak (Geraldton), Josh Kennedy (Northampton), Paul Hasleby (Northampton), Paddy Ryder (Geraldton), Brad Dick (Chapman Valley)

PEEL: Scott Gumbleton (Mandurah), Hayden Ballantyne (Mandurah), Daniel Wells (Mandurah), Farren Ray (Mandurah), Brock O’Brien (Pinjarra)

KIMBERLEY: Jarryn Jacky (Kimberley), Carl Peterson (Kimberley), Alroy Gilligan (Kimberley), Warren Benjamin (Kimberley), Gerrick Weedon (Kimberley), Lewis Broome (Kimberley), Josh Hill (Kimberley), Casey Sibasado (Kimberley)

SOUTHWEST: Jamie Bennell (Bunbury), Neville Jetta (Bunbury), Kyle Reimers (Bunbury), Ben Stratton (Margaret River), Lewis Jetta (Bunbury), Kristrin Thorton (Bunbury), Ashton Hams (Busselton), Hamish Shepheard (Margaret River), Ben Howlett (Donnybrook), Anthony Morabito (Harvey), Tayte Pears (Deanmill)

GREAT SOUTH: Aaron Sandilands (Mt Barker), Michael Gardiner (Albany), Nathan Krakouer (Mount Barker), Tarkyn Lockyer (Albany), Beau Wilkes (Albany), Kyle Hardingham (Kojonup), Mark Williams (Tambellup), Ashley McGrath (Katanning), Alan Toovey (Cranbrook), Quinten Lynch (Boxwood Hills)

GOLDFIELDS: Eddie Betts (Kalgoorlie)

PILBARA: Dean Cox (Dampier)

 

[estibador]

PILBARA: Dean Cox (Dampier)

Haha Van_Dyke, only one player and he's not even black. And he's a flappy-armed, free kick hunting w@nker.

 

[Van_Dyke]

Haha Van_Dyke, only one player and he's not even black. And he's a flappy-armed, free kick hunting w@nker.

I can gladly say I was never a Dampier boy, I was up the road instead.

 

[basashi]

Not sure about that. I would take the Wheatbelt in a heartbeat. I sorted a list I found of WA country players from 2010 into regions. Granted that is old and things could have changed, but it clearly shows that the South West is not guaranteed to be the best region. I included Peel into the equation. I wouldn't underestimate giving Freo that region. If we have Peel and the Wheatbelt, then it is only fair for WC to have the South West.


2010 WA country players

WHEATBELT: Scott Stevens (Kellerberrin/Tammin), Leon Davis (Northam), Chance Bateman (York), Lance Franklin (Dowerin), Paul Duffield (Darkan), Roger Hayden (Brookton), Brennan Stack (Northam), Alistair Smith (Northam), Cruise Garlett (Northam), Mitch Morton (Lake Grace), Cale Morton (Lake Grace), Jarryd Morton (Lake Grace), Darren Glass (Northam), Nathan Fyfe (Lake Grace), Mark LeCras (Cervantes), Max Bailey (Narembeen), Sharrod Wellingham (Northam), Jeffrey Garlett (Burracoppin), Leroy Jetta (Pingelly), Josh Carr (Goomalling), Mark Seaby (Mukinbudin)


SOUTHWEST: Jamie Bennell (Bunbury), Neville Jetta (Bunbury), Kyle Reimers (Bunbury), Ben Stratton (Margaret River), Lewis Jetta (Bunbury), Kristrin Thorton (Bunbury), Ashton Hams (Busselton), Hamish Shepheard (Margaret River), Ben Howlett (Donnybrook), Anthony Morabito (Harvey), Tayte Pears (Deanmill)

Going by your (much more thorough) list I definitely agree with you.

I was using the cultural grouping list and assuming players were south west when they werent

 

[FreoMonocle]

Thats what confused me - how it was fair WCE get 90% of a large population and we get 100% of a small population.

I thought the split was area, not population. So taking out metro zoned towns (Mandurah etc), from the new club headquarters to bunbury via the coast and the highway via Harvey. That would be about half the population and a small area (10% or something) - but this is just conjecture on my behalf. If that was the case, being close to club HQ would be handy.