Academy Watch

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irel said:
Agree. I have very low tolerance for racism and bigotry borne out of personal experience. So when this sort of nebulous, unproven, rumour mongering seems to happen on this thread I get really annoyed. No doubt disaffected parents come on here and scatter some crap without actually saying directly what it is they are discontented with. Somehow it is up to me to read between the lines. Now if there is some evidence that selection is based on something other than skill, ability or potential then come out and provide some evidence. Otherwise STFU.
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You are right. Needs a bigger platform.
 
Billyclub said:
You are right. Needs a bigger platform.
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Yes, there's appropriate platforms for that kind of allegations and complaining about it on a social media forum has literally zero impact or credibility.
 
Billyclub said:
How many times do you need to be told? Can you NOT read? The academy has been completely re staffed THIS YEAR. They take NO CREDIT for PAST draftees. You right now? 3 times.. good enough? You need it again?
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yep, we just threw out everything we established and built our academy on in terms of fundamentals, values etc. We also hired a bunch of racists who have their own say on how the academy will be run and kids will be identified going forward. Bravo !

And you keep your snide remarks and innuendo going around here saying "oh, I know something which others don't" and "oh, I can't talk about it as it'll create a major controversy" but "I'll continue to big note myself by keeping my insinuating remarks going".. just STFU man and F you and your agenda.

Hey Lions_Insider_2, could you please let the academy staff know that they've become a bunch of racists now according this clown? thanks very much.
 

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mpal6 said:
yep, we just threw out everything we established and built our academy on in terms of fundamentals, values etc. We also hired a bunch of racists who have their own say on how the academy will be run and kids will be identified going forward. Bravo !

And you keep your snide remarks and innuendo going around here saying "oh, I know something which others don't" and "oh, I can't talk about it as it'll create a major controversy" but "I'll continue to big note myself by keeping my insinuating remarks going".. just STFU man and F you and your agenda.

Hey Lions_Insider_2, could you please let the academy staff know that they've become a bunch of racists now according this clown? thanks very much.
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I dont know if they are racist per se. I will ask the non white academy staff members... oh, wait.
 
Alright, time to shelve this because it's not going to go anywhere.

Extraordinary claims require extraordinary proof. There's obviously no intention for that to be provided. That's fine, there is no requirement for that but you can't get your knickers in a knot when people point out you're just rumour mongering.

Similarly, as I already pointed out, absolutely nothing is going to happen about from being posted on BF, so I'm not sure how serious the OP is really taking it.

Report these kind of allegations to the club, the AFL, or the media if you expect action. They will also expect a detailed description of the event(s) though.
 
Bit hard to take much out of that. The Lions were comprehensively outplayed. Skills were ordinary and there was a lack of run to space which made hitting targets difficult.

Lambert looked like a decent prospect playing both inside and out. Seemed to read the ball off hands well and his hands seemed cleaned enough. Skills looked solid although a bit hard to judge given his teammates were not really in space much.

Did not get much of a look at others from the one quarter given I didn't really know who to look out for. Two who I wouldn't mind getting a bit more of a look at were numbers 17 and 32 who are not listed above. 17 looked like a decent sized flanker whose skills were good in the limited times he had it. I liked his pace to although he needs to work much much harder if he is going to make it. He spent a lot of time barely getting up a trot when he should be been working to the play or to get free. 32 was a forward and saw very little of it but he was good sized key position type who looked strong and quick and didn't mind throwing his weight around.
 

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I went back and watched an under 17 game from earlier in the year and I thought I would throw up another couple of guys to watch next year. Both are around the 200cm mark if I am any judge and are ruck / KP types and with some improvement next year I could definitely see as draftable.

Izak Gejas - started in the ruck against the GC academy but play KPF more often including basically the whole second half and kicked 3 goals in the game I watched. He is a bit of a Oscar type in that his lateral movement is a bit slow but in a straight line he seems pretty good. He judges the ball very well in the air for a ruck and seems to have pretty good hands above his head. In a pack he will stand up and although he doesn't mark everything he provides a contest. He can lead and when he leads at the ball he seems very dangerous and hard to contain (he needs to do that more often). I like that he is also not afraid to throw his weight around and will muck in when the ball is in dispute. His skills are decent for a ruck but probably not that much more than that from what I saw. By hand he was okay and on the few field kicks he had a couple were decent and a couple less so. In the ruck he has a decent jump and is a bit more of a push ruck rather than a finesse one. There is potential there in the ruck but work needs to be done. Overall I quite liked him and thought he could combine nicely in a two ruck system given he might be able to play effective minutes up forward.

Liam McNeill - the opposite to Gejas in that he started up forward but ended up playing more ruck than forward. He is more of a fluid athlete than Gejas and moves nicely for such a big guy. In the ruck contest he jumps well and has good little wrist flicks to direct the ball. He has a lot more finesse in his ruck work than Gejas. He is not the physical presence that Gejas is but he is not afraid of contact either and does get involved when the ball is in dispute. Up forward he lead at the ball a couple of times that I noticed and although he didn't clunk anything he did provide a contest. I would need to see more games to truly give an opinion on his effectiveness as a forward. Overall I thought he has quite a bit of talent in the ruck but it would not shock me if he was tried in defense next year.
 
Quigley said:
I went back and watched an under 17 game from earlier in the year and I thought I would throw up another couple of guys to watch next year. Both are around the 200cm mark if I am any judge and are ruck / KP types and with some improvement next year I could definitely see as draftable.

Izak Gejas - started in the ruck against the GC academy but play KPF more often including basically the whole second half and kicked 3 goals in the game I watched. He is a bit of a Oscar type in that his lateral movement is a bit slow but in a straight line he seems pretty good. He judges the ball very well in the air for a ruck and seems to have pretty good hands above his head. In a pack he will stand up and although he doesn't mark everything he provides a contest. He can lead and when he leads at the ball he seems very dangerous and hard to contain (he needs to do that more often). I like that he is also not afraid to throw his weight around and will muck in when the ball is in dispute. His skills are decent for a ruck but probably not that much more than that from what I saw. By hand he was okay and on the few field kicks he had a couple were decent and a couple less so. In the ruck he has a decent jump and is a bit more of a push ruck rather than a finesse one. There is potential there in the ruck but work needs to be done. Overall I quite liked him and thought he could combine nicely in a two ruck system given he might be able to play effective minutes up forward.

Liam McNeill - the opposite to Gejas in that he started up forward but ended up playing more ruck than forward. He is more of a fluid athlete than Gejas and moves nicely for such a big guy. In the ruck contest he jumps well and has good little wrist flicks to direct the ball. He has a lot more finesse in his ruck work than Gejas. He is not the physical presence that Gejas is but he is not afraid of contact either and does get involved when the ball is in dispute. Up forward he lead at the ball a couple of times that I noticed and although he didn't clunk anything he did provide a contest. I would need to see more games to truly give an opinion on his effectiveness as a forward. Overall I thought he has quite a bit of talent in the ruck but it would not shock me if he was tried in defense next year.
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There was a bit of discussion on the draft board about the talent in the northern academies for next year.

For the Lions, three kids got a mention; Jaspa Fletcher, Ravi Schofield and Riley McMillan.

Would like your opinion of the three next time you rewatch some academy games.
 
Quigley said:
I went back and watched an under 17 game from earlier in the year and I thought I would throw up another couple of guys to watch next year. Both are around the 200cm mark if I am any judge and are ruck / KP types and with some improvement next year I could definitely see as draftable.

Izak Gejas - started in the ruck against the GC academy but play KPF more often including basically the whole second half and kicked 3 goals in the game I watched. He is a bit of a Oscar type in that his lateral movement is a bit slow but in a straight line he seems pretty good. He judges the ball very well in the air for a ruck and seems to have pretty good hands above his head. In a pack he will stand up and although he doesn't mark everything he provides a contest. He can lead and when he leads at the ball he seems very dangerous and hard to contain (he needs to do that more often). I like that he is also not afraid to throw his weight around and will muck in when the ball is in dispute. His skills are decent for a ruck but probably not that much more than that from what I saw. By hand he was okay and on the few field kicks he had a couple were decent and a couple less so. In the ruck he has a decent jump and is a bit more of a push ruck rather than a finesse one. There is potential there in the ruck but work needs to be done. Overall I quite liked him and thought he could combine nicely in a two ruck system given he might be able to play effective minutes up forward.

Liam McNeill - the opposite to Gejas in that he started up forward but ended up playing more ruck than forward. He is more of a fluid athlete than Gejas and moves nicely for such a big guy. In the ruck contest he jumps well and has good little wrist flicks to direct the ball. He has a lot more finesse in his ruck work than Gejas. He is not the physical presence that Gejas is but he is not afraid of contact either and does get involved when the ball is in dispute. Up forward he lead at the ball a couple of times that I noticed and although he didn't clunk anything he did provide a contest. I would need to see more games to truly give an opinion on his effectiveness as a forward. Overall I thought he has quite a bit of talent in the ruck but it would not shock me if he was tried in defense next year.
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The same games I've been watching this week it seems haha. I was also really impressed with Harry Taylor in those 17s match ups, probably gets passed due to size but in terms of evasion through the contest and footy IQ I thought he looked considerably ahead of most other players. Have you seen much of Thalayn Ryschka? I've been impressed from my few viewings of him
EDIT: Also fairly sure the commentators mention Gejas as 192cm, I also thought that was off but McNeil was definitely taller than him
 
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Qld beaten pretty comprehensively by Tassie today. This was especially the case through the midfield. On a few of the guys mentioned above:

Gejas - played as the deep forward with only a couple of ruck contests on teh day that I saw. Got a goal early and took a nice mark late for a behind but he was not helped playing in a badly beaten side and with a midfield that was not really giving him good service. Still he did not lead particularly well either. To me he looked the tallest of the Qld players out there and has to be 200cm I think. I am still interested in him for next year.

McMillan - was the best Qld player by a fair margin imo. Flanker, outside type who went into the middle a fair bit in the second half and won more than his share of the ball. Good mobility, tidy skills and a a very willing tackler. A fair bit to work with here and one to keep an eye on next year.

Schofield - did very little in this match playing on a forward flank mostly I thought. Was okay when he got it but needed to get more involved in teh game.

Ryschka - was the number 1 ruck for Qld and was badly beaten by his opposite number who outplayed him in all aspects. Not an impressive game from him.

Others:

Langan - was amongst the Qld best and showed some draftable qualities. Played on a forward flank and moved up the field on occasions. Kicked a couple of goals and looked composed when he was near it. Skills looked good.

Tome - did not get a heap of it but had some quality moments.
 
A couple of guys from the under 17s I didn't realise were ours:

Silva - solid bodied, medium defender who I thought was the best of the defensive unit. Judged the ball in the air well and threw his body around nicely. Solid coming out of defense. Just looked solid all around.

Hude - medium lead up forward who presents a lot. Can get up on the wing to provide a target and has nice hands above his head. Did not get much of it but there were a few eye catching moments from him.
 
Fletcher played in the under 19s game last week so played against guys up to a couple of years older than himself. He played on a wing and was generally very outside. The only time he went near a ruck contest was in defense where he set up behind the contest to receive or contest the ball spilling that way. He did get a couple of balls fall his way in those situations and he did okay in them.

He held his shape very well on the wing to give his team options and space but he was rarely used and probably only got 10 or so disposals for the game. When he did get the ball though he looked great. He is a smooth mover who covers the ground very nicely and is an excellent user of the ball. His running and kicking reminds me a fair bit of Gaff. So he is definitely class with significant hurt factor. I just want to see him get more of the ball even if it is to loop around the back a bit for some cheap balls more to get his hands on it. He did that a bit last week but was rarely used.

I would have pegged him to be pushing 185, so not tall but not short either. Athletically he seemed fine and he got up and down the field well from what I could see in the vision. He made a couple of tackles but he really does need to straight line the ball and the opposition player more than he currently does. It seems a bit of a theme with the under 17 group (other than McMillan) to come in to the side of the ball or man and this often results in them being easily stepped or not coming away with the ball. That happened to Fletcher a few times on the weekend and it just looked fairly weak.

I would probably have him in the second round mix based on what I saw. His upside though is very high if he can tidy up a few things and gets more of the pill.
 
Quigley said:
He made a couple of tackles but he really does need to straight line the ball and the opposition player more than he currently does. It seems a bit of a theme with the under 17 group (other than McMillan) to come in to the side of the ball or man and this often results in them being easily stepped or not coming away with the ball. That happened to Fletcher a few times on the weekend and it just looked fairly weak.
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If it's happening to multiple players, is it a coaching issue?
 
Quigley said:
Probably although in the commentary the Qld talent manager was not impressed with a few of them in the under 17 game.
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Quigley I’m not sure how to phrase this question, or your connections, so you might not be able to answer, but do you believe we have a coaching “issue” in the academy, both boys and girls?

From an untrained eye, it appears GC’s academy teams are much better coached.

I don’t know if it’s purely a talent issue, in that they have more talent in their academy, or if they are genuinely better coached, both from a skills perspective and tactical perspective.
 
I must say that U17 performance was pretty poor all things considered. On that showing probably four or five Tassie boys you would look at before the Lions. McMillan the possible exception. Apart from Fletcher, it would seem not a lot of promise in next year's Academy prospects.
 

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