Likely the best South Australian footballers made the mistake of going fishing on the Murray a bit too close to the border ... and were all claimed as academy players by GWS ><
No stars left from South Australia
- Thread starter The J Dog
- Start date
-
- Tags
- draft south australia star
- Tagged users None
FirstAccount
Team Captain
- Oct 24, 2016
- 413
- 730
- AFL Club
- Fremantle
Brewed in SA now.
Not sure if their talenting has increased since 2014, when they moved.
WA's may have dropped though. Clearly something there, but we won't know for years.
Stratts4Norm
Team Captain
- Sep 19, 2015
- 386
- 320
- AFL Club
- Hawthorn
Maybe not yet but us Hawks faithful have big expectations on this kid
Cooney was better then any player currently on your list...
simba_
sucking a lemon
it feels like there's no 'normal' club for kids to care about in SA. there's a very established rivalry of an old club and a new one and it's hard for kids born in 95+ to get invested in this, especially if they don't have family who care. kids today don't give a shit what happened in 1990, if the crows are a franchise or built on something meaningful, if port adelaide has the best history or the worst. they probably haven't seen a nice narrative to follow in their lifetimes because the footy culture down here is poisonous, i mean most people either don't care about or want to see the SANFL die so their AFL club can prosper, that's not really contributing to a feel-good feeling in the state about footy.
CrimsonRaven
Vermillion Gunslinger
SANFL is a shit show of a development league
Crows4Eva
Club Legend
The SANFL spends all their time trying to be 'the second best league in the land' by recruiting all the AFL rejects rather than accepting that they're no less of a feeder league than any of the other state leagues and concentrating on younger talent and in doing so they do SA football a great disservice because so much of the opportunity is going to old AFL guys rather than the kids coming through the system.
- Nov 23, 2016
- 10,558
- 7,070
- AFL Club
- GWS
Fair enough
So how do you fix it?
I can see the AFL reserve sides underlines the status of the SANFL and not in a good way. With 2 well supported AFL clubs it's surely hopeless to expect to grow public interest in the SANFL.
Or do you actually need big crowds at SANFL games for it to be an effective development league?
- Nov 23, 2016
- 10,558
- 7,070
- AFL Club
- GWS
As the year draws to a close I think we have a clear winner in the " turn a completely unrelated thread into a whine about GWS" stakes.
Unfortunately your prize is to chew on your liver as we go from strength to strength.
Yeah, it's nothing to do with things like this. Kids who have footy talent aren't going to be turned away from the sport because there isn't a "nice narrative" about football. The problem is not with the two AFL sides.
I think the problem is a combination of being a cyclical thing, but also the lack of a proper junior development league. Something like the TAC Cup in Adelaide would do wonders for the talented kids here, instead of trying to force their way through the SANFL system. If nothing else, it would give them extra exposure in a condensed space so talent scouts across the country could actually make a point of watching the games and seeing lots of potential draftees at once, rather than hoping that they see even one kid worth a damn in a reserves game on some suburban oval.
Yeah, establishing the Maccas Cup was a good start, though obviously it has a long way to go before it could even be mentioned in the same breath as the TAC Cup. Junior development in SA needs more support in general.
I know this thread was about the absolute stars of the game, but I'm more concerned about the other end, those players in the 16-22 spots of your best 22. I have no doubt there are plenty of SA kids capable of developing into players who fill in the gaps of an AFL list but they just never get developed. Stars tend to become stars almost irrespective of how the system is set up but it's those kids who are almost there but not quite that are being badly let down by our current system.
3 players drafted shows either the talent has dried up or there is no effort being put in to get the best of the talent.
The academies show that if you put the effort in the talent is there, so I doubt talent is an issue. SANFL club are not set up and do not have the cash to through at kids where they kid almost no benefit should they turn out to be a gun.
You need coaches looking at players who at 12-15 and finding any weaknesses in skills etc and fixing them then before it is too late.
I think the answer is the AFL needs to put money into SA and WA.
The academies show that if you put the effort in the talent is there, so I doubt talent is an issue. SANFL club are not set up and do not have the cash to through at kids where they kid almost no benefit should they turn out to be a gun.
You need coaches looking at players who at 12-15 and finding any weaknesses in skills etc and fixing them then before it is too late.
I think the answer is the AFL needs to put money into SA and WA.
simba_
sucking a lemon
the two AFL sides abandoned moving SA footy forwards over 20 years ago now, surely a big reason why the SANFL sucks so bad is because we (the clubs and the supporters) all bailed. kids today barely know what the SANFL is, that comes from our attitude towards it yesteryear, there is no reason for a kid who's talented at footy but has no deeper connection to peruse it, they think the a league is cooler. it's just not surprising to me that footy in SA isn't what it once was, the local teams are port and the crows who just argue about nonsense every single year, what do they have to get on board with exactly, they didn't grow up with any positivity surrounding the sport so they're going to think it's pathetic and bogan. yes the problem is the lack of a league to develop juniors, surely this stems from then port and the SANFL creating AFL clubs to focus on.
Trent "The Difference" Dumont will realign all the perceived SA weakness on his own when he begins reeling off his string of consecutive AA seasons.
Will be a JET.
More money needs to be poured into junior development but the AFL doesn't see SA as a priority in this regard.
The SANFL has no incentive to make either of the two AFL teams stronger so that certainly doesn't help.
The SANFL has no incentive to make either of the two AFL teams stronger so that certainly doesn't help.
An academy should fix it 
So South Australia really are 30 years behind the rest of Australia?
Tas
Premium Platinum
Veteran
10k Posts
30k Posts
North Melbourne - 2022 Kaitlyn Ashmore and Aileen Gilroy Player Sponsor
North Melbourne - 2022 Aaron Hall and Flynn Perez Player Sponsor
North Melbourne AFLW - 2021 Aileen Gilroy and Kaitlyn Ashmore Player Sponsor
North Melbourne - 2021 Taylor Garner and Flynn Perez Player Sponsor
TheBrownDog
- Dec 23, 2002
- 62,712
- 62,442
- AFL Club
- North Melbourne
- Other Teams
- There can be only one...
SA kids were pretty good this year.
Gee, I remember when their state of origin side with likes of Sticks, Braddles, Naley, Platten, Motley, Bruce Lindner and Greg Anderson, Aish and Jarman brothers would give our side at Football Park a run for our money every year and win a few too. The cream was as good but the depth would trail off but now both seem gone for the moment.
Certainly hit a low with only 3 draftees in 2-16 and Victoria 44.
We do not have 14 times their population. They should be producing more talent.
We cannot keep giving them Dangerfield's, Robbie Gray's, Sloane's and Lever's to hide how bare the cupboard is there.
Half serious but it still is an issue that will need addressing.
We need talent from all parts of Australia.
45% from heartland in Vic, 15% from WA, 15% from SA, 15% from NSW and the other 10% from NT, Tassie and Queensland should be where it is at right now.
Could be onto something. Maybe delayed response in gene pool that took a few generations to kick in.
Kernahan, Bradley and Platten all born in the same year so in a modern draft pool system would have come through together and been top 10 picks in a draft.
Chris McDermott also born same year but consider him handy rather than genuine star like those 3.
A year later Peter Motley, Tony McGuiness and Tony Hall all born in same year.
I suspect this era produced the most amount of elite talent from South Australia in short period of time.
It was why their state of origin side was very good when those guys all in their twenties.
Chris McDermott also born same year but consider him handy rather than genuine star like those 3.
A year later Peter Motley, Tony McGuiness and Tony Hall all born in same year.
I suspect this era produced the most amount of elite talent from South Australia in short period of time.
It was why their state of origin side was very good when those guys all in their twenties.
Last edited:
looking forward to see this star in the making run around next season.
Similar threads
