Lack of quality players for expansion

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Oct 17, 2000
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The "dilution of talent" argument against expansion is inane.

You'd think with Australia's population projected to have an extra 14 million people by 2050 there would be surely be at least another 80 players of a talent commensurate with that of current existing AFL talent to fill at least two extra teams.

There would be commensurate AFL talent in 2021 to that of 1996, even though we have two extra teams. Australia's population in 1996 was about 18.3 million. By the end of 2021 Australia's population will reach approximately 26 million. That's an extra 7.7 million people...about 3.8 million males making up a larger talent pool to draw from. Adding two further teams between 1996-2020 has meant the addition of another 80-84 players from that pool into the AFL system.

50-70 million population in the second half of the 21st century will definitely mean that the talent will be commensurate to the talent now available with about 25-26 million population, if say two-four extra teams are added.
 
Aug 14, 2011
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The "dilution of talent" argument against expansion is inane.

You'd think with Australia's population projected to have an extra 14 million people by 2050 there would be surely be at least another 80 players of a talent commensurate with that of current existing AFL talent to fill at least two extra teams.

There would be commensurate AFL talent in 2021 to that of 1996, even though we have two extra teams. Australia's population in 1996 was about 18.3 million. By the end of 2021 Australia's population will reach approximately 26 million. That's an extra 7.7 million people...about 3.8 million males making up a larger talent pool to draw from. Adding two further teams between 1996-2020 has meant the addition of another 80-84 players from that pool into the AFL system.

50-70 million population in the second half of the 21st century will definitely mean that the talent will be commensurate to the talent now available with about 25-26 million population, if say two-four extra teams are added.

Inane indeed - the national comp was to be elite, it is not.

Origin became the elite comp of the State league era, the comp where the best competed.
 

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Inane indeed - the national comp was to be elite, it is not.

Origin became the elite comp of the State league era, the comp where the best competed.
State of Origin existed because WA and SA wanted to prove themselves against Victoria. As so many old-timers from interstate like to tell us, the WA(N)FL and SANFL used to be every bit as good as (if not better than!) the VFL.

From the newspaper clippings and archived telegrams I've read, everybody seemed to really like football when most of the country's best talent was split across a whopping 30 teams.

50 years later, it seems to me a league that takes all the country's best talent and splits it across far fewer teams (whether it be 18 or 20) would have no sensible person questioning its status as an elite competition.
 

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Bite the bullet and drop 2 onfield starting positions, 1 forward and 1 back. Help the congestion issue and help the talent spread required for a new side.
 
Oct 17, 2000
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Aug 14, 2011
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The national comp is elite. The best footballers in the country play in it.

Look at the churn, players not up to AFL footy at the highest level.
I've previously offered Kyal Horsley as an example of a champion 2nd tier footy, not up to AFL.


We have lowered the bar to entry & many are keen to keep dropping that level by denying reality.
 
Oct 17, 2000
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Look at the churn, players not up to AFL footy at the highest level.
I've previously offered Kyal Horsley as an example of a champion 2nd tier footy, not up to AFL.

Kyal Horsley did his knee mid 2013 and was subsequently delisted because Gold Coast needed to reduce its list from an original size of 48 in 2011 and had to reduce it further from 42 to 40 by the start of the 2014 season. So it was the lack of list spaces (coupled with injury) that saw him delisted. Not because of his lack of ability to play at AFL level.

There's a limited amount of places a salaey cap and clubs have to make a minimum of three draft picks per year. If there were more places the likes of Horsley would have likely had a longer AFL career. Every year hard decisions have to be made by every club because of AFL list and cap restrictions.

Nick Robertson of Brisbane for example plays in a preliminary final in 2019 (and does a pretty good job keeping Lachie Whitfield very quiet) and is shortly after delisted due to AFL list requirements and list balance. Hard decisions needed to be made because of salary cap and list space, as well as list makeup within those limits. Clearly, as Robertson's last AFL game showed, he still had the ability to play at the highest level. If there were more list spaces on say two more teams, he would still be on an AFL list. There's plenty of AFL standard talent outside the current AFL.

"Diluting the talent" is an absolutely ridiculous argument for opposing further AFL expansion.

The article posted by Ducky Tie demonstrates why its a myth.
 
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Oct 3, 2007
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I don't get how you can argue there's not enough talent. All the old fuddy duddys want to continue lowering interchange so that players get tired and make mistakes. So whats the problem with having more players that just make mistakes anyway?

What do you call talent? Fyfe and Dangerfield are both seen as out and out champions of the modern sport, yet neither of them could hit a barn door in front of them by foot that is 30M away.
The most simple and basic skill of the game our champions can't kick. Yet we still call them champs.
While we do that then I don't think we can call any of us judges of talent.
 

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Oct 3, 2007
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Quite the exact opposite.
Today's footballers have to pass the most rigorist of testing.
It's been stated many times that some champions of old wouldn't have passed today]s scrutiny.

Rubbish, you had to be a good footballer to of been selected decades ago. Now if you can run fast and jump high you are an AFL player.
What testing do these young blokes have to pass?
 
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Quite the exact opposite.
Today's footballers have to pass the most rigorist of testing.
It's been stated many times that some champions of old wouldn't have passed today]s scrutiny.
Watching old footage its obvious that todays absolute s**t trucks in skill are still better than at least half the blokes who played in the 80s. Anyone who says otherwise is just looking through 'things were better in the olden days' Rose tinted glasses. Half the blokes from then were lucky if the ball even rotated properly let alone hit a target.
 

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Dec 14, 2015
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Watching old footage its obvious that todays absolute sh*t trucks in skill are still better than at least half the blokes who played in the 80s. Anyone who says otherwise is just looking through 'things were better in the olden days' Rose tinted glasses. Half the blokes from then were lucky if the ball even rotated properly let alone hit a target.

I don't know if I'd go that far but today players routinely chip the ball around and switch across the goal face.
A fair while ago now, but is was an absolute sin to kick across goals because of the high risk of stuffing things up.
 
Oct 3, 2007
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I don't know if I'd go that far but today players routinely chip the ball around and switch across the goal face.
A fair while ago now, but is was an absolute sin to kick across goals because of the high risk of stuffing things up.

They are kicking to players who don’t have an opponent within 25m of them, you didn’t do it decades ago because teams never allowed players to stand around on their own. The game was almost a totally contested game back then. Now it’s almost 50% or more uncontested. It doesn’t make it better or worse, just different in how they play now.
 
Aug 14, 2011
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State of Origin existed because WA and SA wanted to prove themselves against Victoria. As so many old-timers from interstate like to tell us, the WA(N)FL and SANFL used to be every bit as good as (if not better than!) the VFL.

From the newspaper clippings and archived telegrams I've read, everybody seemed to really like football when most of the country's best talent was split across a whopping 30 teams.

50 years later, it seems to me a league that takes all the country's best talent and splits it across far fewer teams (whether it be 18 or 20) would have no sensible person questioning its status as an elite competition.

See the Olympics 100m, 8 finalists, elite.
 

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