Speculation Harley Reid [OOC 2026]

[GoEaglesGoSGIO]

The system is working fine.

Its greedy fans who are far too invested in an entertainment sport that are willing to turn peoples / families lives upside down just to get a slightly better draft pick / trade result.

Lets just stop and think about that for a moment shall we.

Players include partners, wives, children, schools, friends and families.

The team that finished 1st just got the best young player in the country. The system is as broken as a system can be. Can you imagine if in 2023 The Nuggets got pick 1 and drafted Victor Wembanyama after winning the title?

We have the worst draft/trade system in world sport and not even a close 2nd

 

[eastfreo75]

The team that finished 1st just got the best young player in the country. The system is as broken as a system can be. We have the worst draft/trade system in world sport and not even a close 2nd

The draft is about equalization. NGA, Northern academies and F/S is the opposite to that and much into the old club zones.

Points system was a total joke, and the new points is just a little less of a bad joke. Massive discount already.

Everybody talks about the romantic nature of the father/son but shouldn't be up to the club to trade up to keep the tradition going. Getting a discount is rubbish.

NGA is a joke when one of the parents is Australian and would have played footy anyway.

NBL doesn't have a draft, and the competition is pretty close. NRL has a very similar ladder to us with no draft.

Time to get rid of the draft, it's not working.

 

[Big_Birdy]

The draft is about equalization. NGA, Northern academies and F/S is the opposite to that and much into the old club zones.

Points system was a total joke, and the new points is just a little less of a bad joke. Massive discount already.

Everybody talks about the romantic nature of the father/son but shouldn't be up to the club to trade up to keep the tradition going. Getting a discount is rubbish.

NGA is a joke when one of the parents is Australian and would have played footy anyway.

NBL doesn't have a draft, and the competition is pretty close. NRL has a very similar ladder to us with no draft.

Time to get rid of the draft, it's not working.

Eventually someone with enough money and determination to get to where they want may challenge it in court, and the AFL hand will be forced as the NRL's was.

.

 

[GoEaglesGoSGIO]

The draft is about equalization. NGA, Northern academies and F/S is the opposite to that and much into the old club zones.

Points system was a total joke, and the new points is just a little less of a bad joke. Massive discount already.

Everybody talks about the romantic nature of the father/son but shouldn't be up to the club to trade up to keep the tradition going. Getting a discount is rubbish.

NGA is a joke when one of the parents is Australian and would have played footy anyway.

NBL doesn't have a draft, and the competition is pretty close. NRL has a very similar ladder to us with no draft.

Time to get rid of the draft, it's not working.

The draft is about manipulation. It has been ever since Eagles entered the competition. . I think it’s so far away from being an acceptable system we will never see it. We need a minimum of 6 rule changes and I don’t think we even have the courage to do 1 .

 

[eastfreo75]

The draft is about manipulation. It has been ever since Eagles entered the competition. . I think it’s so far away from being an acceptable system we will never see it. We need a minimum of 6 rule changes and I don’t think we even have the courage to do 1 .

At work I spoke to a player (won't mention their name). He said that Port was going to draft him, but his manager had a few tools to put them off. Port let him slide and a Victorian team selected him with the next pick.

Heppell used his injuries to get to Essendon. Source a good friend of his mother, they catch up most weeks. Heppell overplayed the injuries with other teams so he could go to the Bombers.

Bailey Smith's manager wrote to all of the interstate clubs saying that he had mental issues and couldn't live away from his family.

Time to get rid of the draft.

 

[eastfreo75]

Eventually someone with enough money and determination to get to where they want may challenge it in court, and the AFL hand will be forced as the NRL's was.

.

AFL are underhanded and threaten that player. Won't happen as too many are afraid of the AFL.

 

[sydney_gws]

The team that finished 1st just got the best young player in the country. The system is as broken as a system can be. Can you imagine if in 2023 The Nuggets got pick 1 and drafted Victor Wembanyama after winning the title?

We have the worst draft/trade system in world sport and not even a close 2nd

It exists to prop up the QLD/NSW clubs, no other country I know of has such regional variation in sport ( uk a bit with league in the north only, attempts to make a London league team viable has been a proven flop due to lack of support).

 

[Obeanie1]

The draft is about equalization. NGA, Northern academies and F/S is the opposite to that and much into the old club zones.

Points system was a total joke, and the new points is just a little less of a bad joke. Massive discount already.

Everybody talks about the romantic nature of the father/son but shouldn't be up to the club to trade up to keep the tradition going. Getting a discount is rubbish.

NGA is a joke when one of the parents is Australian and would have played footy anyway.

NBL doesn't have a draft, and the competition is pretty close. NRL has a very similar ladder to us with no draft.

Time to get rid of the draft, it's not working.

The compromised draft is doing exactly what the AFL wants.

Its expansion clubs are getting stronger, at least 3 out of 4 are making finals each season and one Northern club ismaking the grand final regularly. TV rights and viewership is trending up in expansion states with another team to come.

So why would they change anything?

 

[eastfreo75]

The compromised draft is doing exactly what the AFL wants.

Its expansion clubs are getting stronger, at least 3 out of 4 are making finals each season and one Northern club ismaking the grand final regularly. TV rights and viewership is trending up in expansion states with another team to come.

So why would they change anything?

100% the AFL won't change it.

The issue will be in the AFL heartland, where people will turn off and covert to soccer.

 

[bzparkes]

100% the AFL won't change it.

The issue will be in the AFL heartland, where people will turn off and covert to soccer.

You're assuming the average supporter follows the draft and finds the imbalance unpalatable.

Unfortunately, the average fan doesn't have a clue about how the draft works and has no idea it's biased towards certain clubs to begin with.

They only care about the W/L ledger for their team.

 

[eastfreo75]

You're assuming the average supporter follows the draft and finds the imbalance unpalatable.

Unfortunately, the average fan doesn't have a clue about how the draft works and has no idea it's biased towards certain clubs to begin with.

They only care about the W/L ledger for their team.

You make a great point about most people don't understand the draft, I would add they don't care.

Fans think more about wins and loses and making finals.

If they see their team not making finals, and certain other teams always making it, they will walk.

When the flag holders get the best in the draft for almost nothing, and that player destroys them they will be pissed off.

 

[bzparkes]

You make a great point about most people don't understand the draft, I would add they don't care.

Fans think more about wins and loses and making finals.

If they see their team not making finals, and certain other teams always making it, they will walk.

When the flag holders get the best in the draft for almost nothing, and that player destroys them they will be pissed off.

The issue is that most people won't even know who Levi Ashcroft is, or that he was rated as the best player.

Without public opinion growing for fairer equalisation, or clubs pay fair price for access, it'll never change.

 

[briztoon]

You make a great point about most people don't understand the draft, I would add they don't care.

Fans think more about wins and loses and making finals.

If they see their team not making finals, and certain other teams always making it, they will walk.

When the flag holders get the best in the draft for almost nothing, and that player destroys them they will be pissed off.

Except the casual fan will see that kid was a father son, and think that’s just a special part of the game. The same happened for Collingwood, and Geelong before that.

The casual fan might note that one Ashcroft went at pick 2, and the other at pick 5 and think good kids, but not the best kid in the draft, that kid went at pick 1.


Let’s face things, we’re all nuffies here, and wouldn’t even make up 1% of fans who watch the game.

Not just that, but go on most team boards, and most BigFooty regulars don’t even follow the kids at U18 level or have an interest in the draft, unless their club is at the bottom of the ladder.


Most fans couldn’t tell you if a kid at a northern club was an academy kid or from another part of the country.

Outside of Heeney and Mills, the average fan couldn’t name another northern academy kid. And they can only name Heeney and Mills because they’ve had those two players names shoved down their tv screen by commentators for a decade now.

 

[briztoon]

The issue is that most people won't even know who Levi Ashcroft is, or that he was rated as the best player.

Without public opinion growing for fairer equalisation, or clubs pay fair price for access, it'll never change.

Outside of Twomey, what other AFL media or draft publication consistently rated Levi as the best kid in the country?

Rookie Me, arguably the number 1 draft focused media never did. For the first half of the year Levi was always ranked 3rd or 4th. Then he climbed up to 2nd, behind Jagga Smith for the last 3 months.