2nds Official Swans Academy Thread (Player News and Discussion)

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Tedeski said:
Anyone having a look at this.
Our boys are very well developed physically.
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Thanks for the bump Ted, here's the link for any others (like me) who forgot it was on

 
In the spirit of comments that have been made from time top time about selection policy of rep teams, there is an interesting one that, although not our academy, illustrates some of the shenanigans.
The Eastern Ranges has a player named Zak Pretty who didn't go through the 'system' as a junior but who has blossomed fairly recently. He was placed on the Eastern Ranges roster mid-season last year after he had a stand-out trial match and having regularly played in his local club's senior side. This year he has been named in the bests for the Ranges on a couple of occasions and during a trial match was BOG while only playing for 2 and a half quarters.
The Eastern Ranges have had a number of players named in the Vic Metro squad, but not Zak (presumably because his name has not been in front of the selectors until now). I have been advised that there is at least one AFL recruiter who wishes Zac to remain on the quiet so that nobody else knows...
It goes to illustrate that it isn't talent alone that will get you into squads, so how many others like this are out there?
 

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Wow, if the Vics don’t want us in their league they should just say so, they don’t need to have the umpires acting as their cheerleaders! That was quite disgraceful.

Edit: No doubt that Geelong were better on the day though.
 
melbournehammer said:
I'm sure you've heard my theory that swans academy types are actually pretty close to fully developed as footballers so there is less room for improvement from them once they hit a list.
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That's a weird theory!
They train together as often as any team, Tuesdays and Thursdays, but are able to develop their players phsically too.
Put them into a senior program and watch them improve on every front!
Have you seen the lack of development in the drafted boys from other states on our NEAFL list?
By your reasoning someone who at 18 and trains twice a week that can run a 10min 3km is probably not going to improve once they start to train for it 4 or 5 times a week??
Then why do all those young players that "need to develop a tank over time" come from every draftable area in Australia?
Heeney and Mills not get better?
If Blakey isn't going to improve it's a waste of time being on a list. Throw the diminutive Stoddart in instead, because he will improve as he puts on size ..... in another 5 years!
Swans academy players, like any other player will improve with greater emphasis.
Seems like the Vic clubs just struggle to physically develop their players to cope with hard footy... maybe its the fact that the Swans boys are also surrounded by league and union players during their childhood, and the physical nature of those.
But when they physically took Geelong apart on Sunday, the umpires didn't even know how to react to their size, so a hard tackle or body to body defense became a free kick, gifting goals!
Most of the boys have played NEAFL, and if they don't play hard, they would get destroyed.
I think your theory is just behind the one that says the earth is flat!
 
Blood red said:
That's a weird theory!
They train together as often as any team, Tuesdays and Thursdays, but are able to develop their players phsically too.
Put them into a senior program and watch them improve on every front!
Have you seen the lack of development in the drafted boys from other states on our NEAFL list?
By your reasoning someone who at 18 and trains twice a week that can run a 10min 3km is probably not going to improve once they start to train for it 4 or 5 times a week??
Then why do all those young players that "need to develop a tank over time" come from every draftable area in Australia?
Heeney and Mills not get better?
If Blakey isn't going to improve it's a waste of time being on a list. Throw the diminutive Stoddart in instead, because he will improve as he puts on size ..... in another 5 years!
Swans academy players, like any other player will improve with greater emphasis.
Seems like the Vic clubs just struggle to physically develop their players to cope with hard footy... maybe its the fact that the Swans boys are also surrounded by league and union players during their childhood, and the physical nature of those.
But when they physically took Geelong apart on Sunday, the umpires didn't even know how to react to their size, so a hard tackle or body to body defense became a free kick, gifting goals!
Most of the boys have played NEAFL, and if they don't play hard, they would get destroyed.
I think your theory is just behind the one that says the earth is flat!
Click to expand...

I should say it's a very very small sample size. But...

The reason for my theory is simply I haven't seen any significant improvement from any of our ex academy players. I wonder whether part of that is that we already know the strengths and weaknesses of those coming through the club as opposed to those we really haven't seen much of. So they come in and play at the level we expect straight away because we know them.

As for the boys down here - that's what I've been pondering. The swans academy players are sort of already at the level they get to because they don't get much bigger physically and haven't really developed tanks that are more substantive.

Vic boys get scholarships to the schools if they'd look like they are going to make it as a footballer, or they get into the pathway through the tac club etc. often both. But they still seem to improve in the programs to a greater extent than our ones
 
Of course future physical potential is a factor in draft selections. However it is not the be all. Academy players who become full time athletes with everything that entails; more training, more strategy, more skills, diet, prep etc get better. Look at James Bell. He has got a bit bigger but it is his play that has developed.
It has always been argued that academy players, especially NDS who train with the seniors and play NEAFL are 1-2 years ahead of Tac cup kids in terms of development across a range of areas. For the swans it allows them to get a very close look at these players for rookie spots, well beyond just physical potential. They can also track how their performance is improving. For example Kyle McKellar who has been a fully developed big unit for a couple of years is starting to show some interesting signs at NEAFL level including a calm process out of defense and under pressure. He looks to be developing under the NDS system without a change in size.
You are both right
 
Blood red said:
Hahaha.
I hear ya
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Okay, this is a small example of where I get really frustrated with the quality of analysis we have to endure, both from inside the club and outside.

I want to stress that this is not a criticism of the boy himself because I rate him highly but there’s an Academy instagram post that’s just been added that talks about Parks being one of our best on Sunday and that “his intercept marking was a real highlight”. According to the stats he took three marks for the entire game!
 
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melbournehammer said:
I should say it's a very very small sample size. But...

The reason for my theory is simply I haven't seen any significant improvement from any of our ex academy players. I wonder whether part of that is that we already know the strengths and weaknesses of those coming through the club as opposed to those we really haven't seen much of. So they come in and play at the level we expect straight away because we know them.

As for the boys down here - that's what I've been pondering. The swans academy players are sort of already at the level they get to because they don't get much bigger physically and haven't really developed tanks that are more substantive.

Vic boys get scholarships to the schools if they'd look like they are going to make it as a footballer, or they get into the pathway through the tac club etc. often both. But they still seem to improve in the programs to a greater extent than our ones
Click to expand...
DavyRed said:
Okay, this is a small example of where I get really frustrated with the quality of analysis we have to endure, both from inside the club and outside.

I want to stress that this is not a criticism of the boy himself because I rate him highly but there’s an Academy instagram post that’s just been added that talks about Parks being one of our best on Sunday and that “his intercept marking was a real highlight”. According to the stats he took three marks for the entire game!
Click to expand...
He is a very good player, yes.
I have watched the game and compared the stats of a few players, and they are poor, especially for the marks.
So, maybe he had more, but his spoils were still very good.
The backline seemed off, and missed Dol.
The midfield was off too, and struggled to get any clean ball from the rucks or throw ins, and trying to add Dol and Gulden inside made no sense at all. Neither can close down their apponent and lay hard tackles. (Not that you were allowed to do that, just ask Parker, Wattling, McGrath, Thorne and Rayner, all penalised, some multiple times for their physicality).
Our fwd line also struggled to live up to their previous form. And the number of hero shots at goal, rather then the pass inside to unmarked players didn't help.
Parkes was probably the best of a group that seemed a bit lost.
Who was the green arm tape for?
 
Blood red said:
He is a very good player, yes.
I have watched the game and compared the stats of a few players, and they are poor, especially for the marks.
So, maybe he had more, but his spoils were still very good.
The backline seemed off, and missed Dol.
The midfield was off too, and struggled to get any clean ball from the rucks or throw ins, and trying to add Dol and Gulden inside made no sense at all. Neither can close down their apponent and lay hard tackles. (Not that you were allowed to do that, just ask Parker, Wattling, McGrath, Thorne and Rayner, all penalised, some multiple times for their physicality).
Our fwd line also struggled to live up to their previous form. And the number of hero shots at goal, rather then the pass inside to unmarked players didn't help.
Parkes was probably the best of a group that seemed a bit lost.
Who was the green arm tape for?
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The stats on the NAB League app are often fairly dodgy but in Parks case at least they match with what was shown in ‘Footy Live’, which I believe uses Champion Data and are generally considered to be fairly reliable.

The entire team seemed off. For me it seemed that the troubles started in the midfield with the Falcons dominating (and yes possibly partly due to the terrible umpiring). The backs seemed to struggle but mainly because the ball was flying in from all angles with monotonous regularity.

Sorry, I’ve no idea about the armband, I must admit I didn’t even register it watching on TV.

Edit: Team stats were interesting. Falcons had 186 kicks compared to 154 but only 89 handballs compared to our 108. We have regularly overused the handball in the past and usually gotten away with it. Sunday we got punished though.
 
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Well done Sam Thorme, midfielder
https://www.sydneyswans.com.au/news/2019-05-08/academy-thorne-takes-the-prize
Wollongong product Sam Thorne has been voted the QBE Sydney Swans Academy’s Most Valuable Player at the end of their five-game series in the elite under 18 interstate competition.
...
The AFL’s National Talent Manager, Kevin Sheehan, said he’d been very impressed with the Swans Academy during the series.
“This year we transitioned from the previous Series where the northern Academy teams just played amongst themselves, Tasmania and the Northern Territory, to also playing against the best Victorian sides,’’ Sheehan said.
“The Academy boys wanted to play against the very best young players in the country, and to beat the very best. They’ve shown they can compete on a level playing field against the Victorians so it’s been a wonderful step forward.
 
SwansProudly said:
Well done Sam Thorme, midfielder
https://www.sydneyswans.com.au/news/2019-05-08/academy-thorne-takes-the-prize
Wollongong product Sam Thorne has been voted the QBE Sydney Swans Academy’s Most Valuable Player at the end of their five-game series in the elite under 18 interstate competition.
...
The AFL’s National Talent Manager, Kevin Sheehan, said he’d been very impressed with the Swans Academy during the series.
“This year we transitioned from the previous Series where the northern Academy teams just played amongst themselves, Tasmania and the Northern Territory, to also playing against the best Victorian sides,’’ Sheehan said.
“The Academy boys wanted to play against the very best young players in the country, and to beat the very best. They’ve shown they can compete on a level playing field against the Victorians so it’s been a wonderful step forward.
Click to expand...

Thanks for putting this up Swans Proudly. Wish we had a flashing neon like button!
 
Any Allies selection news?
Will be interesting the breakdown.
I think there will be a few surprises, under the radar players picked to play a role or compensate for some of the smaller players.
Probably will mean that there will be some unlucky boys.
 
win 4 from 5 and get butchered by umpires in the only loss and only now the AFL national talent manager seems to be impressed at future prosjects of the swans academy! lol All those recent years where swans academy were PURPOSEFULLY denied selection in Allies even more under scrutiny IMO. Hard to deny that the standard in NSW is at least on par now. Will see how that filters into allies selections......or not.
 
puke said:
win 4 from 5 and get butchered by umpires in the only loss and only now the AFL national talent manager seems to be impressed at future prosjects of the swans academy! lol All those recent years where swans academy were PURPOSEFULLY denied selection in Allies even more under scrutiny IMO. Hard to deny that the standard in NSW is at least on par now. Will see how that filters into allies selections......or not.
Click to expand...
Yes, I am stoked for the Academy and the sydney kids that the victorians have just realised what we have already known.
 
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2nds Official Swans Academy Thread (Player News and Discussion)

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