Official Club Stuff Carlton Academy - Next Gen & Father/Son/Daughter Discussion

[The Bighouse]

That is actually very debatable.

This season we have Jack Ison, Tyson Gresham and Harry Dean as real prospects. All are in their respective Metro and Country summer train on squads, so generally speaking are in the country’s top 100 prospects already. If all have prominent seasons, they could push in to second round calculations (at worst). With no first rounder, we could (hopefully) have the last pick in the second round to match THREE bids.

As for those who would casually suggest trading in future picks. Assuming Cody Walker attracts a top three pick, it will take SIGNIFICANTLY MORE than a late first rounder to match at the ‘26 draft.

Yes, we will be able to trade picks two years in advance, but that will not necessarily be a cure all. The rule changes will (potentially) affect us much more than people expect. The northern academy numbers at the pointy end will also dry up. One top 10 bid will virtually wipe out a club’s draft hand with the exception of late picks.

The changes have not been “minimal” the reduction from 20% to 10% discount and significant changes to the draft index will make considerable changes to the landscape.

I suspect Nick Austin will have a couple of candidates in each coming year to trade out for draft capital. Kennedy and Owies level trades may become a common thing (which I find sad, but inevitable)

Play well but not too well…
See what they can do up until the Champs and then cotton wool for the remainder of the year.

 

[BigFrizz36]

Yep - new rules - just when we are about to bank some. AFL really wanted to make the change this year……..wonder why??

Wouldn't actually have hurt us much this year as it turned out. Would have made it harder for the Lions to get Ashcroft Mach 2 though.

 

[Arr0w]

Every club will need to pay more, the main bonus is having first access

 

[coryne]

My biggest pet pieve with the Northern Academies is that they were, to some extent, intriduced to offset the lack of f/s selections available to them but that access has never decreased.

I think the access to Academy players should be limited to a rolling 5 over a 5 year period, so they can take the best of the best but they can't get a CONSTANT influx of top 5-10 picks for effectively very little. It would also mean that their recruiters would need to take into consideration upcoming draft pools from their academies and possibly pass on GOOD prospects if GREAT ones are comming through they they would otherwise miss if they have met their limit.

 

[Coops93]

My biggest pet pieve with the Northern Academies is that they were, to some extent, intriduced to offset the lack of f/s selections available to them but that access has never decreased.

I think the access to Academy players should be limited to a rolling 5 over a 5 year period, so they can take the best of the best but they can't get a CONSTANT influx of top 5-10 picks for effectively very little. It would also mean that their recruiters would need to take into consideration upcoming draft pools from their academies and possibly pass on GOOD prospects if GREAT ones are comming through they they would otherwise miss if they have met their limit.

They're about more than F/S matching. If that was the case, Adelaide, Port, Freo & WC would also have Academies. It is about developing local talent as they're in non-footy areas so getting local, and easily retainable, talent is part of it. As is growing the game, which I understand seems somewhat abstract to natural footy areas because you don't see the changes or benefits first hand and just get told "it's growing the game" and have to take others words for it.

As someone who has grown up on the Gold Coast and played footy here, I can say that the participation levels are way up, but so is the standard. The academies are doing their job in growing the participation and standard of talent on the Gold Coast at least. I have 2 cousins in the Suns academy and have of course followed their junior careers and the kids playing here now are 10x better than in my day. (Except for me, naturally ). Some schools even have footy programs now, which was never the case before.

I think if academy picks like what the Suns have had the last few years keep happening tweaks will certainly come - they are outside the norm, though. Academies have never provided the amount of picks the Suns have lately, so we'll see if that continues or if it's just been an anomalous couple of seasons. If it does, changes will certainly be coming.