Opinion Why are the interstate teams so bad? How do we fix them?

Nov 20, 2007
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Well this year he beat Melbourne at the MCG so it can’t be the venue. 2016 lost a home qualify final, probably crumbles under the pressure I’d say.

Football is a weird thing to grasp especially AFL especially the wild performance swings in such a short period of time.

Cats lost by 80 odd a mere 12 months ago, 12 months later they flog us by 81.
 
May 3, 2007
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No said only draft WA players, but Freo have a history of drafting players like Adam Cerra out of Victoria at pick 5 while WA players like Aaron Naughton are still on the board. Freo’s drafting strategy is why they don’t have a large percentage of WA players.
Well I'm gonna talk about the Harley Balic situation.

Freo drafted Harley Balic, who is a Victorian. We chose him despite his parents were not willing to see him go to a non Victorian side.

Missed the whole 2016 season with injury. Played 3-5 dockers games in 2017 and is traded to your mob. Lasted 1 season at the demons. Sad what happened to him.

I hope we never see a repeat of the Cam McCarthy fiasco.

I remember at the time, many Carlton fans wanted us to take up with our first pick in the 2013 draft.

We took an little known WA bolter by the name of Patrick Cripps instead :)
Actually.... Here's a bit of an interesting story about the 2013 draft.....

Freo wanted to get cam McCarthy in that 2013 AFL draft. Sadly we had pick 17, because Freo made a grand final.

So the dockers scouts were patient... Then GWS used pick 12 or 13 on him.

Freo then used pick 17 to get Michael Apeness. A 200 cm 100 kg KPF ruck. I thought that made sense at the time. Sadly Apeness had multiple injuries.
 
Football is a weird thing to grasp especially AFL especially the wild performance swings in such a short period of time.

Cats lost by 80 odd a mere 12 months ago, 12 months later they flog us by 81.
Form changes, Geelong changed their game plan this year. For what it’s worth I agree and have said before (pretty sure in this thread last year) that Grand Final should be in the the higher ranking teams home state (as long as 60000 can attend). Geelong clear top team this year deserved the Grand Final in their home state.
 
Nov 20, 2007
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Form changes, Geelong changed their game plan this year. For what it’s worth I agree and have said before (pretty sure in this thread last year) that Grand Final should be in the the higher ranking teams home state (as long as 60000 can attend). Geelong clear top team this year deserved the Grand Final in their home state.

Its never going to happen unless there is a major cleanout of the boys club in the AFL.
 

Rich01

Brownlow Medallist
Oct 5, 2004
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Nah, I'm comfortable with my opinion, if you think its not valid prove it.
Fair enough.

I’ve left the fringe and irrelevant players out.

The big moves from free agency over the last 5 years have been…


Carl - Williams, Hewitt
Richmond - Lynch
Melbourne - Tomlinson

GC - Chol, Ellis
Bris - Daniher
Port - Rockliff, Motlop, Lycett.

Did I miss anyone in your view?
 
Well I'm gonna talk about the Harley Balic situation.

Freo drafted Harley Balic, who is a Victorian. We chose him despite his parents were not willing to see him go to a non Victorian side.

Missed the whole 2016 season with injury. Played 3-5 dockers games in 2017 and is traded to your mob. Lasted 1 season at the demons. Sad what happened to him.
Sad what happened but plenty of players move interstate. Not sure how that relates to Naughton though who’s parents were living in WA.
 
Its never going to happen unless there is a major cleanout of the boys club in the AFL.
Agree it’s unlikely to happen soon but I’m just stating that it should be in higher ranked teams home state
 
Mar 4, 2015
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Fair enough.

I’ve left the fringe and irrelevant players out.

The big moves from free agency over the last 5 years have been…


Carl - Williams, Hewitt
Richmond - Lynch
Melbourne - Tomlinson

GC - Chol, Ellis
Bris - Daniher
Port - Rockliff, Motlop, Lycett.

Did I miss anyone in your view?
Cameron? He's worthy of mention too yeah?
So the 2 biggest key forwards have moved to 2 Vic clubs and won premierships and non Vics got superstars like Daniher, Chol and Rockliff.
 

Sinnthesis

Hinkleyball
Nov 26, 2021
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well Port could surely Sack Hinkley to fix their gameplay!
Interstate clubs also need to have member elected boards to even things up
 
May 3, 2007
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Sad what happened but plenty of players move interstate. Not sure how that relates to Naughton though who’s parents were living in WA.
Surprised you didn't answer the common theme here.

Naughton didn't want to join Freo, he wanted to go to Victoria. Harley Balic parents didn't want their son to travel to a non Victorian side and wanted him to stay in Victoria
 
Mar 4, 2015
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Cameron was traded.
Are we moving the goal posts now?
Trade, lol, he accepted a FA offer from Geelong that GWS matched and then played the mental health card which saw GWS agree to trade.
Point is, he wanted out to Geelong and got there, the rest is symantics.
 
Surprised you didn't answer the common theme here.

Naughton didn't want to join Freo, he wanted to go to Victoria. Harley Balic parents didn't want their son to travel to a non Victorian side and wanted him to stay in Victoria
This is the first I’ve heard of Naughton not wanting to join Freo, not sure what was going on at the club at the time. Adam Cerra also wanted to remain in Victoria and Freo selected him before Naughton
 
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