Expansion Recruiting push starts on the Gold Coast | Herald Sun

[timmeh]

Recruiting push starts on the Gold Coast

Andrew Hamilton | February 19, 2008 12:00am




THE Gold Coast Football Club will have a coach and a squad of elite juniors by the end of the year to kickstart its push to establish an AFL team in the region by 2011.


AFL football operations staff and national talent manager Kevin Sheehan will sit down at a meeting at league headquarters today to thrash out the details of how the new side can begin recruiting this year.
It is understood the AFL is desperate to have former Brisbane Lions skipper Michael Voss in charge.


Most of the players will come from the Queensland side that won last year's national carnival as under-16s.


The AFL Commission yesterday endorsed the creation of a 17th licence and will release the framework for tenders in the coming weeks.



AFL chief executive Andrew Demetriou said last night the appointment of a coach and CEO were the first priorities so the new club could immediately start to build its playing list.



The only way the formation of the 17th team can now be blocked is if six of the 16 clubs submit objections.
That is unlikely to happen, but the league will face stiff opposition if the new club is given too many allowances to recruit star players.


Demetriou said the league had no intention of allowing the new club to go on an all-out poaching raid on the competition's biggest names.
Giving the side carte blanche to a group of 16-year-olds might be an easier sell.


Demetriou admitted the quality of last year's under-16s, tipped by many to be among the best bunch of juniors ever produced in the state, had been brought to the AFL's attention.





The AFL made Auskick a priority in Queensland in 2001, and the pick of that first intake has now matured into a crack under-16s team that will form the nucleus of the Gold Coast's initial squad.


Demetriou hinted that talk in local footy circles that the group had been earmarked for the Coast side was correct.


"I'm sure that issue will be in the mix," he said. "There are various sources to build a list from, and I don't subscribe to the theory that having an extra club will drain the talent. We need to be building this list over two years."
Most of the side will graduate to the under-18s this year. It is hoped they might rival the feats of ex-Lion Craig McRae's under-18 side of 2006, which won its division and had a record 11 Queensland kids drafted and a further seven taken as rookies.


Former Sydney Swans champion and Queensland junior development manager Mark Browning confirmed there was a lot of talent in Queensland's junior ranks.


"At the same age they were certainly very comparable," Browning said.
"We are pretty excited about the next two years. Of course, we can't be sure what the other states will produce, but we expect to see a fair number of these boys make their way into the AFL system.
"I think our under-16s will be pretty good, too."

Already?! Geez imagine if those boys in the QLD u/16s had a dream to play interstate or for Brissy!

 

[Funkalicous]

What luck for QLD juniors. Not are only are they likely to get drafted, they get to stay in QLD too.

 

[zero]

What luck for QLD juniors. Not are only are they likely to get drafted, they get to stay in QLD too.

ill say, how good would it be to know, as a 16 year old, that if you make the cut you are going to stay in QLD? should give those and any other kids of the same age a good incentive to stay in football and not go do something else.

 

[jimmy_clement#8]

I think for the issue of competitiveness, which is crucial to getting a team off to a good start, then the quicker these clubs are created the better. But with that, they should not enter the competition immediately after creation. So like what's been mooted, create the club, then go about drafting, recruiting, and such, then after a period, two years give or take, enter as the 17th team.

Play in the QAFL. I feel that's a must. If you can have half the AFL side playing in the QAFL the year before, under the coach who will ultimately coach the AFL side, then this gives the GCFC the best chance of being competitive. If the side is wholly constructed in one post-season, don't even bother.

Even if the Gold Coast isn't to enter the competition until 2011, I'd be more than happy for the Gold Coast to start drafting as soon as the next draft in 9 months time. By 2011, they'd have 3 drafts under the belt, plus other general recruiting from in and around the AFL, VFL, SANFL, etc. and I think, with the GC team playing in the QAFL until their step up to the AFL in 2011, the issue of competitiveness would be treated with in the best possible way.

 

[McCrann]

I think for the issue of competitiveness, which is crucial to getting a team off to a good start, then the quicker these clubs are created the better. But with that, they should not enter the competition immediately after creation. So like what's been mooted, create the club, then go about drafting, recruiting, and such, then after a period, two years give or take, enter as the 17th team.

Play in the QAFL. I feel that's a must. If you can have half the AFL side playing in the QAFL the year before, under the coach who will ultimately coach the AFL side, then this gives the GCFC the best chance of being competitive. If the side is wholly constructed in one post-season, don't even bother.

Even if the Gold Coast isn't to enter the competition until 2011, I'd be more than happy for the Gold Coast to start drafting as soon as the next draft in 9 months time. By 2011, they'd have 3 drafts under the belt, plus other general recruiting from in and around the AFL, VFL, SANFL, etc. and I think, with the GC team playing in the QAFL until their step up to the AFL in 2011, the issue of competitiveness would be treated with in the best possible way.

Yep, as long as the (young) players are payed the standard AFL rate. They should really go pretty well with a majority professional team in a competition like the QAFL.

 

[jimmy_clement#8]

They young kids may be. Perhaps those drafted in the years up to it can be on AFL rookie wages. It's a bit rich to expect a QAFL side, albeit a side soon to be an AFL side, to pay AFL wages whilst they still kick the ball around in the QAFL.

This GC side would resemble a AFL reserves team in the VFL this year (ie Geelong, Collingwood, etc.) Couple of highly regarded kids, plus a few ring-ins. Eventually, I think with this inital process of drafting well before entering the competition it self, they will be competitive. Worked for Port. It's a proven blueprint that the AFL has no choice but to implement again. So the sooner they get a club formed the better, as that will mean they can start drafting sooner. Probably not this year, but next year (even though this year would be ideal (3 drafts worth of kids by 2011)).

 

[zero]

it would be a bit rough for a top prospect, in the first round of the draft, to not have the slightest prospect of playing AFL in his first two years AT ALL.

its certainly an interesting idea, but i would think you wouldnt want it for more than one year. if they are in the 09 draft, then those players only sit out one season in the QAFL before they start in season 11

and you certainly wouldnt have any established AFL players signing on until their first year in the big league

say have the side play 09 and 10 in the QAFL and get things together. have them pick anyone they want from QLD in this time (that wants to play for them, anyway), running the QLD junior side like their personal training squad, and at the end of 09 and 10 get them to participate in the full draft, with extra picks at the top end that they can trade away for established talent. at 29 the saints would probably be happy to see the back of reivolt for a top 5 pick.

that way it will be a great mix of the best queenslanders, good picks and some established players that want to move north or go back home.

 

[jimmy_clement#8]

More or less, yeah, along those lines. Sure, Nick Riewoldt needs to be thrown everything, money, house, boats, whatever. They'll need a face - Roo has to be it.

 

[BLmatt_20]

ill say, how good would it be to know, as a 16 year old, that if you make the cut you are going to stay in QLD? should give those and any other kids of the same age a good incentive to stay in football and not go do something else.

it makes me want to move to qld....