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Prediction Just give Gold Coast the next 5 flags and be done with it

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With what?

More requests for help?

Smart arse supporters?

Another welfare flag?

We donated you Dev Robertson for free. He is a walk up start into the mighty wce midfield. But do we get any thanks for our generosity? No.
 
And, here they are currently double dipping with Ashcroft brothers, Fletcher, Annabelle for bag of twisties then topping up with interstate talent like Allen, Draper, Neale, Daniher, etc. Amazing system, makes complete sense

There is no bigger sign of desperation than lumping father/son, free agency, trades and academies together to try and paint a picture of a club being unfairly advantaged.

Father-son rules: Apply to Brisbane and St Kilda equally.

Ability to trade: Applies to Brisbane and St Kilda equally

Free Agency rules: Apply to Brisbane and St Kilda equally.

Academies: both clubs have academies, Brisbane’s more fruitful at this stage but was implemented with the consent of all clubs to address a systemic disadvantage.

Salary cap: applies to both clubs equally to prevent teams from accumulating/retaining too much talent.

“Bags of twisties”: example of a bad faith argument to disguise the fact that in order to get those twisties (2nd and 3rd round picks) we usually have to cough up first round picks.

What else you got?
 
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And your opinion is nothing is broken because your club is receiving all the assistance and winning back to back flags with it.

Who would have thought that hey?

Facts are Lions have never won a premiership without significant assistance and allowances other teams at the time did
not get bar their expansion cousins the Swans.

Without the extra AFL support and assistance .......no flags. That's the truth of it.

So

Don’t make me tap the Big Lebowski gif again.
 

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Facts are Lions have never won a premiership without significant assistance and allowances other teams at the time did
not get bar their expansion cousins the Swans.

Interesting fact for you: When Brisbane won the threepeat, every club was eligible for the 10 percent retention allowance.

All it required was having a certain minimum percentage of your playing list drafted from interstate.

So, my question to you is this… why didn’t West Coast stack their list with players from Victoria, SA, NSW, Qld and Tassie in order to take advantage of the retention allowance?

I can only see two possible answers.

- West Coast (and every other club bar Sydney and Brisbane) were absolute idiots that all failed to cash in on what you seem to think is a free ride to a premiership.

Or…

- having such a large number of players from interstate posed a retention/cap space challenge that was greater than a 10 percent allowance could fix.

So which is it? Were 14 clubs (including yours) simultaneously stupid? Or did Brisbane win three flags despite a disadvantage?

I’ll wait.
 
There is no bigger sign of desperation than lumping father/son, free agency, trades and academies together to try and paint a picture of a club being unfairly advantaged.

Father-son rules: Apply to Brisbane and St Kilda equally.

Ability to trade: Applies to Brisbane and St Kilda equally

Free Agency rules: Apply to Brisbane and St Kilda equally.

Academies: both clubs have academies, Brisbane’s more fruitful at this stage but was implemented with the consent of all clubs to address a systemic disadvantage.

Salary cap: applies to both clubs equally to prevent teams from accumulating/retaining too much talent.

What else you got?
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Remember OP also gave us this hilarity. They have a long history of painfully stupid takes.

Goodness. A percentage of Carlton fans really are a special kind of delusional. They are their own worst enemines a lot of the time because they (and the Carlton fans in the media) just enable each other to get completely carried away. Carlton fan Sam McClure summed up their fanbase perfectly with this pearl of delusion back in 2024:

 
There is no bigger sign of desperation than lumping father/son, free agency, trades and academies together to try and paint a picture of a club being unfairly advantaged.

Father-son rules: Apply to Brisbane and St Kilda equally.

Ability to trade: Applies to Brisbane and St Kilda equally

Free Agency rules: Apply to Brisbane and St Kilda equally.

Academies: both clubs have academies, Brisbane’s more fruitful at this stage but was implemented with the consent of all clubs to address a systemic disadvantage.

Salary cap: applies to both clubs equally to prevent teams from accumulating/retaining too much talent.

“Bags of twisties”: example of a bad faith argument to disguise the fact that in order to get those twisties (2nd and 3rd round picks) we usually have to cough up first round picks.

What else you got?
You’ve missed the point a bit, but that’s understandable and expected. You’re treating each mechanism in isolation and saying “the rule applies equally”. That’s not really the point nor does it stack up.

The issue is the cumulative access to talent pathways, and those absolutely aren’t applied equally.

If each of these talent pathways are applied equally, noting you’ve brought up the notion of “bad faith argument”, care to explain how the cap was applied equally when fathers to Ashcroft brothers and Fletcher accumulated their games to hit the threshold for father son eligibility?

Then in terms of academies as an example - Northern academies can recruit any player within very large geographic zones across QLD and northern NSW with rising talent pools that are no longer proportionate to when these academies were established.

NGA academies, by contrast, are restricted to players from Indigenous or multicultural (CALD) backgrounds within much smaller catchments across comparatively much more competitive markets.

So even before you get to draft mechanics, the eligible talent pool itself isn’t comparable. The AFL itself acknowledged these systems serve different purposes – Northern academies were created to build elite talent pipelines in non-traditional markets, whereas NGAs were designed primarily as diversity and participation pathways.

Then we get to the notion that if academy rorts have indeed been applied equally, how by contrast NGA players like Mackenzie (Hawthorn - St Kilda NGA), Andrew (Gold Coast - Melbourne NGA), etc weren’t able to be accessed by their NGA clubs? This is clearly contradicting in itself.

None of this means Brisbane have done anything wrong. They’ve simply operated within the rules. But it’s hard to argue it hasn’t benefited them at the expense of the wider competition - it’s administrative and governance failure.

If these pathways are applied equally across clubs, then the eligibility criteria and talent pools would be structurally and consistently the same, which they aren’t.
 
Man, I wish my team could've given up three firsts to get Tim Kelly then instantly get back four picks in the top 20 from the Academy. What a complete and total rort, I'm just glad my team's rubbish right now and doesn't have its run at a flag ruined by this manufactured Queensland era.
GCS and Brisbane will still be good in a few years when we expect to be competing btw, GCS especially wont have an average age in their best 23 over 24 even by that stage...
 

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AFL Nepo Babies are looking unstoppable in season 2026.
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Just let GC/Bris/Syd/GWS fight it out for the next 10 years. No other team is coming close.
 
There is no bigger sign of desperation than lumping father/son, free agency, trades and academies together to try and paint a picture of a club being unfairly advantaged.

Father-son rules: Apply to Brisbane and St Kilda equally.

Ability to trade: Applies to Brisbane and St Kilda equally

Free Agency rules: Apply to Brisbane and St Kilda equally.

Academies: both clubs have academies, Brisbane’s more fruitful at this stage but was implemented with the consent of all clubs to address a systemic disadvantage.

Salary cap: applies to both clubs equally to prevent teams from accumulating/retaining too much talent.

“Bags of twisties”: example of a bad faith argument to disguise the fact that in order to get those twisties (2nd and 3rd round picks) we usually have to cough up first round picks.

What else you got?
Youre beyond gifted
 
I think Sydney can reach the top 4 and who knows from there, but I do think in terms of quality Brisbane and Gold Coast are a step above us this year. Doesn't mean we can't beat them, but they are, I feel, better sides.

Not sure they are top four material myself.
I think you underestimate just how bloody woeful Carlton are going to be this year and in the next few years.
They're a bottom six club. A few pea hearts on huge money (most notably McKay)

I think Sydney are still very suspect in defense and you have a soft underbelly which is going to be there for teams who enjoy a physical scrap to expose.

Gold Coast on the other hand, they have absolutely everything in place to dominate. Only self-belief is holding them back. Rowell, Miller, Humphrey, Anderson, Petracca is a lot more potent than Sydney's. Not to mention their tall forward targets and backs are on another level.
Sydney will be around Geelong's level in 2026. Simply making up the numbers.
 

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Any melb clubs complaining about the Gold coast academy access is ridiculous and quite frankly embarrassing. Melbourne clubs have father son (gold coast don't get), nga access (a bigger rort than the northern states academy) and the bigger draw for free agents.

Seen this?
 

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Look give them 20 years of top 5 picks and then allow them to get patracca add pep guardiola you really can’t lose

With pep in charge the suns and Brisbane with share 8 of the next 10 flags

While us in Melbourne subsidize the comp

What could go wrong ?

Seen this..
 

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You mean bow down to the Northern clubs in the eastern states who need help? Nah no thanks. Don't forget that COLA paymentz was only phased out a few years ago wasn't it.

Isn’t it Schweppes?
 
And your opinion is nothing is broken because your club is receiving all the assistance and winning back to back flags with it.

Who would have thought that hey?

Facts are Lions have never won a premiership without significant assistance and allowances other teams at the time did
not get bar their expansion cousins the Swans.

Without the extra AFL support and assistance .......no flags. That's the truth of it.

So

Yep. More assistance than Donald Trump with his election campaign. It's a farce honestly with what BRIS, SYD, GC & GWS have received over the years.

I'm just glad my team knocked off GWS in that 2019 Grand Final. Brilliant.
 

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