The J Dog
Team Captain
Why isn't South Australia producing stars anymore?
Champion South Australians since the mid-80s – Kernahan, Bradley, Jarman, Platten, McGuinness, Rehn, Modra, Ricciuto, Goodwin, Edwards, Hart, Smart, Pickett, Tredrea, Wanganeen, Cornes, Burgoyne, Cooney, Enright, Pavlich. Includes four Brownlow medallists from the last 30 years.
Cooney, Enright and Pavlich have retired meaning the best South Australians in the AFL – its only genuine stars – are Wingard, Neale and Gibbs, not counting the soon to retire Burgoyne, Thompson and Griffen.
The majority of the premiership winning Crows and Power teams were South Australian. Now, only one of the Crows – Brodie Smith - and three of the Port B&F top 10 – Ebert, Broadbent and Westhoff - were locals.
Lots of solid contributors from SA including Jacobs, Vince, Mackie, Puopolo, Varcoe, Laird, Pearce, Thomas, Davis, Edwards and Grundy. But most of these are close to retirement too.
The real worry is when you look at the South Australians chosen in recent drafts, the situation is only getting worse. Excluding the 2015 draft because it's too early to judge, and accepting that 2009 draft potential stars Trengove and Menzel have suffered injury, apart from Wingard and Neale there's virtually no star potential since then in the early rounds of the draft from 2010.
My question is what's happening in SA? Is this the bad part of the cycle or this this the new normal? Do South Australians really want to watch local teams made up of Victorians?
Champion South Australians since the mid-80s – Kernahan, Bradley, Jarman, Platten, McGuinness, Rehn, Modra, Ricciuto, Goodwin, Edwards, Hart, Smart, Pickett, Tredrea, Wanganeen, Cornes, Burgoyne, Cooney, Enright, Pavlich. Includes four Brownlow medallists from the last 30 years.
Cooney, Enright and Pavlich have retired meaning the best South Australians in the AFL – its only genuine stars – are Wingard, Neale and Gibbs, not counting the soon to retire Burgoyne, Thompson and Griffen.
The majority of the premiership winning Crows and Power teams were South Australian. Now, only one of the Crows – Brodie Smith - and three of the Port B&F top 10 – Ebert, Broadbent and Westhoff - were locals.
Lots of solid contributors from SA including Jacobs, Vince, Mackie, Puopolo, Varcoe, Laird, Pearce, Thomas, Davis, Edwards and Grundy. But most of these are close to retirement too.
The real worry is when you look at the South Australians chosen in recent drafts, the situation is only getting worse. Excluding the 2015 draft because it's too early to judge, and accepting that 2009 draft potential stars Trengove and Menzel have suffered injury, apart from Wingard and Neale there's virtually no star potential since then in the early rounds of the draft from 2010.
- 2010 - Sam Day #3, Jared Polec #5, Daniel Gorringe #10, Seb Tape #13, Brodie Smith #14, Scott Lycett #29, Patrick McCarthy #34, George Horlin Smith #37
- 2011 - Brad McKenzie #18, Alex Forster #29, Mitch Grigg #41, Sam Rowe #44, Nicholas Joyce #46, Jordan Murdoch #48
- 2012 - Jimmy Toumpas #4, Sam Mayes #8, Troy Menzel #11, Brodie Grundy #18, Ben Kennedy #19, Tim Broomhead #20, Tim O’Brien #28, Brodie Murdoch #40, Matthew McDonough #42
- 2013 - Matt Scharenberg #6, James Aish #7, Luke Dunstan #18, Sean Lemmens #27, Trent Dumont #30, Malcolm Karpany #31, George Hewett #32
- 2014 - Sam Durdin #16, Harrison Wigg #35, James Rose #37, Declan Hamilton #39, Alex Neal-Bullen #40
My question is what's happening in SA? Is this the bad part of the cycle or this this the new normal? Do South Australians really want to watch local teams made up of Victorians?
