List Mgmt. 2024 Father Son watch MKIII. Operation Ashcroft jnr. Featuring various academy boys.

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Great that he is pushing for equality but that is never gonna happen.
But I do think a push for all VIC teams to play atleast one home game outside of Victoria or (Tassie for North and Hawks) would be more reachable.
Melbourne play a game in Darwin which is great. But all other VIC teams should do the same as a show of good faith.

Maybe a team like Geelong come to GC to play a home game against us as an example.

Wasn't Collingwood considering playing a home game on the Gold Coast?
 
Wasn't Collingwood considering playing a home game on the Gold Coast?

Collingwood want to play one of their marvel games (which would be against Norf or the Dogs) at GC but only in the week following the round they play GCS up there (so theres no extra travel and they stay up in Qld). So its actually a leg up to Collingwood. They wouldn't be asking for something like that if it wasn't an advantage.
 

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VaFL is scared Gold Coast is about dominate the next decade after some very generous draft concession, and an apparent convey belt of top end academy talent, that will see them avoid the cycle of competing for a flag, then dropping back to the bottom of the draft, before rebuilding and competing again.

Suns have spent 14 years at the bottom of the ladder getting smashed and letting other teams feel good about themselves.

They deserve a decade of performance IF it happens. I'm not convinced it will though. Lack of history and fan support does have an impact.
 
C&P from the Suns board.

Their boss has certainly come out all guns blazing about potential academy rules changes.

This is from Tuesday.

Michael Voss warns the AFL its recruitment strategy is at risk, Suns want loosened restrictions on drafting academy players​

Michael Voss admits he’s confused that the AFL are making changes to this year’s draft that will put their recruitment strategy at risk. Plus more on the Suns’ stance to make it easier to draft academy players.

Gold Coast will tell the AFL it should lessen its restrictions on heartland clubs bidding for next generation academy talent rather than make it harder for northern-states clubs to secure its future wave of stars.
And Carlton coach Michael Voss has warned the AFL its recruitment of the Camporeale twins is at risk if the league makes the “confusing” decision to change its points system ahead of the 2024 national draft.

The Herald Sun on Saturday reported AFL clubs were bracing for the league to make changes to its bidding system for November’s national draft.

AFL football boss Laura Kane confirmed on Saturday that was a live prospect as club chiefs await an AFL briefing on Tuesday ahead of a June 25 official feedback session.

Gold Coast has top 15 pick Leo Lombard available this year but next year could have the No.1 pick in Zeke Uwland, with 200cm NGA pick Kalani White available as the son of Melbourne’s Jeff White but also a Demons father-son.

As Brisbane and Richmond made clear their objections with any change this season, Gold Coast’s Mark Evans said the league should considering changing tack.

He told the Herald Sun the AFL should abandon restrictions that mean Victorian clubs cannot bid for their next generation academy talent within the first 40 selections of the draft.

At present Sydney, GWS, Brisbane and the Suns can take their northern states academy talent as early as pick 1.

But there are restrictions that mean a club which plays finals can only take two academy picks, with the Suns able to take four last year because they missed finals.

Evans told this masthead the league should instead be incentivising all academy talent after changing its rules when the Dogs secured academy talent Jamarra Ugle as the No.1 overall pick.

“Our view on academies is we think the easier solution (than changing the draft) is for the AFL to widen and improve what it does for access to NGA academies rather than make it more difficult for northern academies. There is a fair argument to treat father sons and NGAs the same,” he said.

“Our primary position is this can be solved by opening up NGA player acquisition rather than diminishing the chances for northern academy players to be drafted to their hometown.

“The whole idea was to incentivise clubs. You have to understand why the academies were there in the first place. The next generation academies are there to promote indigenous and multicultural talent. The northern academies are there to grow the game in those markets and service the players and families to promote a higher level of involvement in the code. We shouldn’t do anything to diminish that.

“There are already protections in terms of the number of players who can be matched as academy talent.”

Carlton coach Michael Voss told AFL 360 on Monday night the club had specific plans to secure the Camporeale father-sons and any changes to the points value of the draft picks would be disastrous for the Blues.

“There will be some conversations over the coming weeks but our position will be emphatic,” he said.

“We are all in theory behind the change that needs to happen. The timing of it is somewhat confusing. The expediency of it to get it in this year when planning has been done over 12 months or two years in many instances is confusing.

“We have got some prominent names there we would like to respect and we would like some assurances about them being involved at our football club. If we look at decisions made 12 months ago there are some decisions we would make differently. We would have positioned ourselves differently to how we have.

“Right now we are really comfortable with the points system and do we have enough points to execute that strategy. But if the proposed changes are made we fall short and we have to put our thinking caps on about what we do. Absolutely they shouldn’t be able to do that (with changes for the 2024 national draft).

Brisbane football boss Danny Daly said ahead of the clash against St Kilda the Lions _ with potential No.1 pick Levi Ashcroft and first-round academy mid Sam Marshall _ were against hasty changes to the system.

“Until we find out more about what the AFL is proposing it’s hard to know what will happen but clubs have done a lot of work in the last year in planning and strategizing and we would hope it would be taken into account.”

Richmond president John O’Rourke told ABC Radio on Monday the Tigers, with a swag of late picks they assembled last year to maximise their draft hand, should not be disadvantaged.

“Blair Hartley, our Richmond list manager is aware of the conversations but you plan for list management over three, four or five years at a time. Our view is there needs to be a transition if there is going to be change.”

 
Great that he is pushing for equality but that is never gonna happen.
But I do think a push for all VIC teams to play atleast one home game outside of Victoria or (Tassie for North and Hawks) would be more reachable.
Melbourne play a game in Darwin which is great. But all other VIC teams should do the same as a show of good faith.

Maybe a team like Geelong come to GC to play a home game against us as an example.
I think it's good to throw an idea like that out even if there's no chance of it actually happening. If all the ideas on the table are nerf-the-interstates-ensure-Vic-supremacy, then everything the AFL do will be about that.

Putting something else on the table - something with a bit of logic to it even if the AFL's never seriously going to consider it creates a happy situation where the AFL can successfully compromise on doing nothing.
 
First of all, I haven't lived in Victoria for more than a decade. But I suppose I do support a vic club, so I'm not sure if that's a point against your argument or not.

I'm a supporter of the Northern Academies, I just think the argument that its necessary due to player retention issues is a weak one. Its a tent pole of the AFL's expansion into NSW and QLD, and in QLD in particular its been a huge success in expanding adoption of the game. That should be enough in and of itself.

You didn't address my original point. How many players have the Lions lost in the last 10 years due to relocation back to a home state? Schache... I'll give you Yeo in 2014. Unless I'm mistaken that's the entire list. So overall, when it comes to recruitment you're a fair way ahead of the game.

Perhaps unfairly I'm not counting players leaving GWS and GCS. I feel as though (and the record seems to support this point) that established clubs with a strong culture and history such as the Lions and the Swans don't have anywhere near the same issues with player retention. The list of Swans players is pretty skinny. Most clubs will have had a lot more than that leave them over a 10 year period for a variety of reasons.

Super weak that you're including guys like Peter Wright who was pushed out of the Suns and didnt get a game there his entire final season, Duursma who wasn't happy with the role he was being asked to play at Port and wanted a fresh start, and Shiel who was "encouraged" by the GWS to explore his options due to salary cap constraints. None of those moves came due to a desire to move back home. Kelly as far as I'm aware moved due to essendon offering him a longer contract than the crows were willing to offer. So from the list of "gotchya" players you've provided only Caldwell really counts as a go home.
Docherty to Carlton
 
Very selective stats there mate, 2006 was clearly an anomaly for QLD AFL draftees, was a shocking draft as well so have to imagine many of those guys were missing out in a normal year. 2010 for example had no national draftees from QLD at all and other years between had a usual 2-3 per year, many of which didn’t do much in the AFL.

In fact your own post should illustrate why more focus on development is needed, you went from arguing players like Voss and Aker to bloody Dan Dzufer. QLD footy was being left behind by the early 2000’s and if it wasn’t for some generational talent coming along with Lethal as coach then the game would have been in seriously poor shape, fortunately this was realised and they now have a grass roots strategy which is far more sustainable than waiting for all time greats to fall in the lap of a park footy league. We are so far beyond being able to rely on that given the standard of professionalism and I honestly don’t know how anyone could argue otherwise, aside from possibly Winston Grange no club has the staff, money or time to pump into their youngsters the way the academies do.

Don't think thats accurate. Point is, there is no hard data that says more kids are getting drafted thanks to the advent of the academies. What it does do, is weaken the local competition in 2 tangible ways.

1. The best kids play almost no club footy
2. The kids that go into the academy at 12-13 and get chewed up and spat out, are giving the game away in record number (with hard data to support it)

So the best kids, and the next best - are not playing local footy beyond their 18th birthday, or certainly not past their 20th

Apart from now having Hahn in the u18s, the Lions Academy as an example, is just a series of failed club coaches looking for a pay day, or club volunteers looking for a nice polo shirt. The best coaches are in club land.

It would be better if they picked an actual QLD u18 side, rather than having 2 academies. Funnels the talent, clubs still get access based on zoning, it would be a stronger team and would take less talent out of the local comp.

Think Wilston Grange have made 1 finals series in a decade, so not sure why they would be the pinnacle of local footy resources?

Think you will find other than a Lions logo, many local clubs (not just QAFL ones) are just as well resourced as the Academy and have better coaches and better player development


Going back 40 years to produce 7 names is not a great argument for the standard of the league. Didn’t Voss kick 15 goals in a game as a 17 year old in the QAFL?

He kicked 14 for QLD in a teal Cup game.

I don't know what connection you have with any QAFL clubs, but most of the QAFL guys on the QLD Footy board here would disagree with you here.

Not about the resources, because it's mostly human resources at underage footy, but about the resources the Lions academy puts up.

A lot of these guys have seen their colts kids go through our academy, and in their opinion, the training programs aren't any different between their colts programs or Lions academy programs. And the Lions academy still apparently relies on a lot of parent volunteers, so these people are being pulled away from volunteering at the kids club.

What do you consider a young age?

The academy isn't getting a hold of kids until they're 12/13. I have no idea how things operate at that level with the academy. Are the kids training one or two nights a week with academy coaches or volunteer parents? Are the playing in zoned academy teams against other zoned, i.e Lions southern suburbs, Lions northern suburbs, Lions western suburbs, Lions Ipswich, Lions Sunshine Coast, i.e do we have half a dozen academy teams at U13 level, and as the kids age up, the number of teams reduce and the level of talent rises?
They get them in there at 13 or thereabouts, and in the hundreds. In the u14 (Level 1) they then play a meaningless carnival with no scoreboard operating at the games, nothing on the line and nothing really to play for (but themselves, which really makes for great development...)

Often, simply by chance, one or 2 zones across the 2 academies will have a team that is way stronger than the others, they will win 3 days in a row by 20 goals, get nothing out of it and nobody will use their 'abundant resources' to maybe identify this and try and change opponents or mix kids between teams (none of them know each other anyway and there is no scoreboard or trophy, so it shouldn't matter) - but they just sit around and hen it finishes and they find out a few months later if they get invited back

Level 2 (u16) they invite them down, still probably over 100. They play maybe 1 or 2 random intraclub games, then cut the squad to a smaller group. Nobody knows when it will happen and how they choose, cause they just do aimless sessions for 5 weeks and some kids by this stage have probably tuned out, cause they are training and/or playing 7 days a week with club and school commitments. The level 2 program is probably the biggest disaster of the 3, as it achieves almost nothing but disillusionment and footy fatigue. Some kids will be injured, not train at all and still make the final team, and nobody will know why, other kids will come down from u18s, some years no bottom agers, the next year - 30% bottom age - the only real guide anyone could use to predict how it plays out might be looking at the schoolboys u15 team from the year before, which is even more of a keystone cops setup than the academies!

Level 3 (u18, sometimes u19 for reasons more guarded than KFC secret herbs and spices) is when it really actually gets serious and really matters. Since getting Mitch Hahn in, its reportedly a much better program.

Or, do the kids have to balance time between academy teams and their junior club?

From the outside, our academy isn't even run at a level comparable to the Victorian Talent League teams. That's not their fault. Distance and human and funding resources make it near impossible for our academy to be run at CTL levels.

QAFL doesn't need to be at a level similar to GFL or O+M. It only needs to be at a comparable level to the Coates Talent League teams, for our kids to develop at the same level as the Victorian kids playing U16 and U18 CTL.

If a kid at 16 or 17 is up to playing QAFL every week, just like Jasper Fletcher did, then he's playing at a high enough standard to develop for the AFL, when he's drafted at 18.

The QAFL is superior to the O&M, anyone suggesting otherwise hasn't been paying attention. Many might say Jasper wasn't up to it when he started playing QAFL, but his old man kicked him anyway! Certainly helped his development.

I was speaking of the standard of the QAFL in general, pretty difficult to compare an open aged comp to the CTL but you would have to think it is close enough to a good enough standard either way, QAFL colts is not even in the same universe though to be honest.

Interesting, I haven’t spent much time on the QLD footy board on here, of course there will be gripes with a representative type program and it is far from perfect, really there is no practical way for it to be so when you are working with large numbers of kids 13-18, what I would say is the GC based kids who do suns academy seem to really relish it and get a lot out of it in me experience, maybe the academies are run fairly differently between the GC and Bris?

The Suns Academy is far superior in terms of professionalism and process, and almost no quality talent gets missed or mistreated.

Our academy and the Gold Coast's give Queensland kids a platform to be seen and now as those academies play the kids are on a national platform not hidden away. The academies also give Queensland kids proximity to the best players, the most professional players and they get to see first hand what is required from training, pre-game and post game management.

Thats what the QLD u18 side achieves. Not sure what you mean about proximity to best players etc, they just get to hang around with other 18 year olds trying to make a rep team.

Reckon if you went to Aspley, you might find more professional players, more resources, better coaching, better pre and post game management and most importantly - a decent medical crew.

A kid playing for 18 year old kid playing for Sherwood would be site unseen - well unless of course there was another Covid outbreak and the AFL teams were re-located to Qld again.

yes, thats correct. But we're not talking about Colts. However, that comp would improve infinitely if more kids were in footy and playing club footy.

Kids being judged 'because they are just playing Colts' is so short sighted. Kids develop at different rates and are ready for different things. A kid playing u18 for Lions Academy thats plays QAFL Colts can still be a better draft prospect, and even a better footballer than his clubmate who is the same age and playing Seniors - however the Senior coach is trying to win games and the other kid might be mroe physically ready to play against men, might play a position where there is less depth, there are so many factors
 
Don't think thats accurate. Point is, there is no hard data that says more kids are getting drafted thanks to the advent of the academies. What it does do, is weaken the local competition in 2 tangible ways.

1. The best kids play almost no club footy
2. The kids that go into the academy at 12-13 and get chewed up and spat out, are giving the game away in record number (with hard data to support it)

So the best kids, and the next best - are not playing local footy beyond their 18th birthday, or certainly not past their 20th

Apart from now having Hahn in the u18s, the Lions Academy as an example, is just a series of failed club coaches looking for a pay day, or club volunteers looking for a nice polo shirt. The best coaches are in club land.

It would be better if they picked an actual QLD u18 side, rather than having 2 academies. Funnels the talent, clubs still get access based on zoning, it would be a stronger team and would take less talent out of the local comp.

Think Wilston Grange have made 1 finals series in a decade, so not sure why they would be the pinnacle of local footy resources?

Think you will find other than a Lions logo, many local clubs (not just QAFL ones) are just as well resourced as the Academy and have better coaches and better player development




He kicked 14 for QLD in a teal Cup game.


They get them in there at 13 or thereabouts, and in the hundreds. In the u14 (Level 1) they then play a meaningless carnival with no scoreboard operating at the games, nothing on the line and nothing really to play for (but themselves, which really makes for great development...)

Often, simply by chance, one or 2 zones across the 2 academies will have a team that is way stronger than the others, they will win 3 days in a row by 20 goals, get nothing out of it and nobody will use their 'abundant resources' to maybe identify this and try and change opponents or mix kids between teams (none of them know each other anyway and there is no scoreboard or trophy, so it shouldn't matter) - but they just sit around and hen it finishes and they find out a few months later if they get invited back

Level 2 (u16) they invite them down, still probably over 100. They play maybe 1 or 2 random intraclub games, then cut the squad to a smaller group. Nobody knows when it will happen and how they choose, cause they just do aimless sessions for 5 weeks and some kids by this stage have probably tuned out, cause they are training and/or playing 7 days a week with club and school commitments. The level 2 program is probably the biggest disaster of the 3, as it achieves almost nothing but disillusionment and footy fatigue. Some kids will be injured, not train at all and still make the final team, and nobody will know why, other kids will come down from u18s, some years no bottom agers, the next year - 30% bottom age - the only real guide anyone could use to predict how it plays out might be looking at the schoolboys u15 team from the year before, which is even more of a keystone cops setup than the academies!

Level 3 (u18, sometimes u19 for reasons more guarded than KFC secret herbs and spices) is when it really actually gets serious and really matters. Since getting Mitch Hahn in, its reportedly a much better program.



The QAFL is superior to the O&M, anyone suggesting otherwise hasn't been paying attention. Many might say Jasper wasn't up to it when he started playing QAFL, but his old man kicked him anyway! Certainly helped his development.



The Suns Academy is far superior in terms of professionalism and process, and almost no quality talent gets missed or mistreated.



Thats what the QLD u18 side achieves. Not sure what you mean about proximity to best players etc, they just get to hang around with other 18 year olds trying to make a rep team.

Reckon if you went to Aspley, you might find more professional players, more resources, better coaching, better pre and post game management and most importantly - a decent medical crew.



yes, thats correct. But we're not talking about Colts. However, that comp would improve infinitely if more kids were in footy and playing club footy.

Kids being judged 'because they are just playing Colts' is so short sighted. Kids develop at different rates and are ready for different things. A kid playing u18 for Lions Academy thats plays QAFL Colts can still be a better draft prospect, and even a better footballer than his clubmate who is the same age and playing Seniors - however the Senior coach is trying to win games and the other kid might be mroe physically ready to play against men, might play a position where there is less depth, there are so many factors

What’s O&M?


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it's nowhere near the strength is was as recently as 10 years ago, still a strong league.

Would suggest the best O&M players at each club would be better than the best QAFL players, but players 16-22 in most O&M sides are local battlers.
 
Showing my age but remember this guy playing for Myrtleford in the Ovens and Murray

GARY ABLETT: Myrtleford's playing coach Greg Nicholls was working at the local Railway hotel one crisp April morning when a fit, tanned young man walked in, said his uncle had recommended him and could he have a game of footy with the local team? Could he! He sure could! One thousand VFL/AFL goals later, Gary snr. is in a rare stratosphere.
 
Don't think thats accurate. Point is, there is no hard data that says more kids are getting drafted thanks to the advent of the academies. What it does do, is weaken the local competition in 2 tangible ways.

1. The best kids play almost no club footy
2. The kids that go into the academy at 12-13 and get chewed up and spat out, are giving the game away in record number (with hard data to support it)

So the best kids, and the next best - are not playing local footy beyond their 18th birthday, or certainly not past their 20th

Apart from now having Hahn in the u18s, the Lions Academy as an example, is just a series of failed club coaches looking for a pay day, or club volunteers looking for a nice polo shirt. The best coaches are in club land.

It would be better if they picked an actual QLD u18 side, rather than having 2 academies. Funnels the talent, clubs still get access based on zoning, it would be a stronger team and would take less talent out of the local comp.

Think Wilston Grange have made 1 finals series in a decade, so not sure why they would be the pinnacle of local footy resources?

Think you will find other than a Lions logo, many local clubs (not just QAFL ones) are just as well resourced as the Academy and have better coaches and better player development




He kicked 14 for QLD in a teal Cup game.


They get them in there at 13 or thereabouts, and in the hundreds. In the u14 (Level 1) they then play a meaningless carnival with no scoreboard operating at the games, nothing on the line and nothing really to play for (but themselves, which really makes for great development...)

Often, simply by chance, one or 2 zones across the 2 academies will have a team that is way stronger than the others, they will win 3 days in a row by 20 goals, get nothing out of it and nobody will use their 'abundant resources' to maybe identify this and try and change opponents or mix kids between teams (none of them know each other anyway and there is no scoreboard or trophy, so it shouldn't matter) - but they just sit around and hen it finishes and they find out a few months later if they get invited back

Level 2 (u16) they invite them down, still probably over 100. They play maybe 1 or 2 random intraclub games, then cut the squad to a smaller group. Nobody knows when it will happen and how they choose, cause they just do aimless sessions for 5 weeks and some kids by this stage have probably tuned out, cause they are training and/or playing 7 days a week with club and school commitments. The level 2 program is probably the biggest disaster of the 3, as it achieves almost nothing but disillusionment and footy fatigue. Some kids will be injured, not train at all and still make the final team, and nobody will know why, other kids will come down from u18s, some years no bottom agers, the next year - 30% bottom age - the only real guide anyone could use to predict how it plays out might be looking at the schoolboys u15 team from the year before, which is even more of a keystone cops setup than the academies!

Level 3 (u18, sometimes u19 for reasons more guarded than KFC secret herbs and spices) is when it really actually gets serious and really matters. Since getting Mitch Hahn in, its reportedly a much better program.



The QAFL is superior to the O&M, anyone suggesting otherwise hasn't been paying attention. Many might say Jasper wasn't up to it when he started playing QAFL, but his old man kicked him anyway! Certainly helped his development.



The Suns Academy is far superior in terms of professionalism and process, and almost no quality talent gets missed or mistreated.



Thats what the QLD u18 side achieves. Not sure what you mean about proximity to best players etc, they just get to hang around with other 18 year olds trying to make a rep team.

Reckon if you went to Aspley, you might find more professional players, more resources, better coaching, better pre and post game management and most importantly - a decent medical crew.



yes, thats correct. But we're not talking about Colts. However, that comp would improve infinitely if more kids were in footy and playing club footy.

Kids being judged 'because they are just playing Colts' is so short sighted. Kids develop at different rates and are ready for different things. A kid playing u18 for Lions Academy thats plays QAFL Colts can still be a better draft prospect, and even a better footballer than his clubmate who is the same age and playing Seniors - however the Senior coach is trying to win games and the other kid might be mroe physically ready to play against men, might play a position where there is less depth, there are so many factors

Thanks for the analysis. Sounds like you are well involved in junior footy here.
 
So its a 4-5 year process to be linked to the Swans Academy.
But Ryley Sanders 6 weeks before the draft last year can check his heritage and confirm he is indigenous
Then he is automatically alligned with North Melbourne considering he is from Tasmania.

NGA's are basically a birth certificate, home address check and they are eligible. Ridiculous to compare to the Northern academy's.

The GC president is only saying that as a negotiation tactic. Tighten the rules on points, limits on # drafted, instead of opening up a complete can of worms.

GC strategy is bargaining with the AFL/Vic clubs. They have a cash cow, expecting probably 6-7 top 1-2 round picks in the next 3 years and want them all. They don't care if a North Melbourne or WB get a top 5 pick from their NGA. Only focused on their academy picks.

Strict rules for bidding and # taken is the path to take.
 
So its a 4-5 year process to be linked to the Swans Academy.
But Ryley Sanders 6 weeks before the draft last year can check his heritage and confirm he is indigenous
Then he is automatically alligned with North Melbourne considering he is from Tasmania.

NGA's are basically a birth certificate, home address check and they are eligible. Ridiculous to compare to the Northern academy's.

The GC president is only saying that as a negotiation tactic. Tighten the rules on points, limits on # drafted, instead of opening up a complete can of worms.

GC strategy is bargaining with the AFL/Vic clubs. They have a cash cow, expecting probably 6-7 top 1-2 round picks in the next 3 years and want them all. They don't care if a North Melbourne or WB get a top 5 pick from their NGA. Only focused on their academy picks.

Strict rules for bidding and # taken is the path to take.
I know I have a habit of offending and here I’m genuinely trying to be sensitive but surely if indigenous players qualify for NGA they’ve got to have at least 50% heritage if that’s what you call it. I mean some of the people that are claiming to be indigenous (and I don’t mean solely in relation to AFL) is a bit sus. No jokes we had an applicant for a job where I work and the guy looked Irish with red hair and he claimed indigenous status with citing like 5%.

Outside of AFL, but does anyone know at what point one can claim indigenous heritage?
 
I know I have a habit of offending and here I’m genuinely trying to be sensitive but surely if indigenous players qualify for NGA they’ve got to have at least 50% heritage if that’s what you call it. I mean some of the people that are claiming to be indigenous (and I don’t mean solely in relation to AFL) is a bit sus. No jokes we had an applicant for a job where I work and the guy looked Irish with red hair and he claimed indigenous status with citing like 5%.

Outside of AFL, but does anyone know at what point one can claim indigenous heritage?
.00001%
 
I know I have a habit of offending and here I’m genuinely trying to be sensitive but surely if indigenous players qualify for NGA they’ve got to have at least 50% heritage if that’s what you call it. I mean some of the people that are claiming to be indigenous (and I don’t mean solely in relation to AFL) is a bit sus. No jokes we had an applicant for a job where I work and the guy looked Irish with red hair and he claimed indigenous status with citing like 5%.

Outside of AFL, but does anyone know at what point one can claim indigenous heritage?
I did a search on Ancestry.com a number of years ago and eventually sent away a swab sample to get my lineage done, turned out my lineage wasn't all that exciting... although I can lay claim to being very minorly of Viking decent, just to be clear I have not been involved in any pillaging.
 
So its a 4-5 year process to be linked to the Swans Academy.
But Ryley Sanders 6 weeks before the draft last year can check his heritage and confirm he is indigenous
Then he is automatically alligned with North Melbourne considering he is from Tasmania.

NGA's are basically a birth certificate, home address check and they are eligible. Ridiculous to compare to the Northern academy's.

The GC president is only saying that as a negotiation tactic. Tighten the rules on points, limits on # drafted, instead of opening up a complete can of worms.

GC strategy is bargaining with the AFL/Vic clubs. They have a cash cow, expecting probably 6-7 top 1-2 round picks in the next 3 years and want them all. They don't care if a North Melbourne or WB get a top 5 pick from their NGA. Only focused on their academy picks.

Strict rules for bidding and # taken is the path to take.
Sanders had been in Norths academy since he was 12. Had been in the Boomerang’s (junior U15/U16 indigenous team).

What North were trying to do was get access to him as a free hit, via their nga academy, doing away with the AFL’s rule about clubs not being able to match bids inside pick 40.

Similar to how the Suns were allowed to automatically list academy kids outside the draft for 3 years.
 
I know I have a habit of offending and here I’m genuinely trying to be sensitive but surely if indigenous players qualify for NGA they’ve got to have at least 50% heritage if that’s what you call it. I mean some of the people that are claiming to be indigenous (and I don’t mean solely in relation to AFL) is a bit sus. No jokes we had an applicant for a job where I work and the guy looked Irish with red hair and he claimed indigenous status with citing like 5%.

Outside of AFL, but does anyone know at what point one can claim indigenous heritage?

To be fair there’s probably no restriction because of Australia’s history of trying to ‘breed out the colour’ so to speak. It’s valid to look at how disadvantaged someone like Sanders would be as ‘white-passing’ (race is complicated) who found out they were indigenous very late. There’s flaws in the NGAs like our own academy, in that they get dibs on the talent but don’t always contribute a lot of development.

In my opinion, the NGAs are as beneficial as our academy. Majority of the talent coming through were going to successful anyway.

I think each club needs to be doing a lot more work at getting the target group involved at a much younger age. Obviously not professional training but like how the Suns have done a lot more work getting basic footy programs into local Gold Coast schools.
 

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