St Kilda President Andrew Bassat tees off on the AFL draft system, specifically father/son and the Northern Academies

[Bostonian]

The AFL should run the academies.

Then all those players are accessible to all.

 

[Nvent]

Do you realise how difficult it is to trade for a top five draft pick?

Do you realize how hard it is for a club that isn't contending to make ground on a club thats handed Heeny Mills and Blakey.

 

[bergholt]

Understand the point you’re making completely but at what point are the saints responsible for having fewer 100 game players in that period than all bar two clubs?

Of course they're responsible, that's completely the point! We were unsuccessful in that period and so ended up with fewer 100 gamers. So are you saying that we should then be condemned to lack of success forever because that cycle will never end?

 

[Pistol Night]

That speech was a bit incoherent.

But I agree that the father son rule is a joke. I have still never heard a good argument for it to exist.

We wouldn’t have won a flag without it? Thats all I’ve got

 

[SeaOfFire]

Well, I'm sympathetic.

Because I can recall all the sympathy and well-wishers who inhabited this thread and gave wonderful advice.

I also recall all the gnashing after we went on the threepeat over our salary cap, which "Equalisation Eddie" successfully campaigned to remove.

Nah, **** yas....we did our time as the whipping boys after our golden era, took our medicine and have built something bigger and better.

I'm happy you all wish to pile on and tear us down now, because when we on the ground you ALSO sunk the boot in.

So GAGF.

 

[bergholt]

Do you realise how difficult it is to trade for a top five draft pick?

Of course it is! That's exactly the point. If you want a player like Naicos (who everyone could see was going to be at least very very good) then you pay through the nose. As it stands, he cost almost nothing relative to his likelihood of succeeding.

 

[Pakenhamsaint]

Billings instead of Bont
McCartin instead of Petracca

Any amount of woe is us isn't going to solve the above issues. Not to mention giving contracts to stop gaps like Hanneberry etc.

If you had of bothered to listen he did acknowledge St Kilda has shot itself in the foot in the past.

He has the weirdest accent I’ve ever heard. Wth is that

He's deaf in one ear.

 

[bergholt]

A bit different now. The teams have to have list spots for all the picks accumulated. So still requires a bit of management. Will no longer have a JUH situation where a team has 50 picks and no list spots

The Hawkins thing is what changed the old system

Yeah, they've gradually inched towards a less ****ed up system, but only slowly because clubs with great father sons coming down the pipe always scream if they propose changing it too much.

 

[Pistol Night]

Jon Brown?

Yeah apart from that triple premiership, All Australian, Coleman medal winner. And a Norm Smith winner 3 days again. Apart from that though, NONE!

 

[tombomb]

Do you realize how hard it is for a club that isn't contending to make ground on a club thats handed Heeny Mills and Blakey.

And this system will be much fairer for players like that from next season. It should have changed for this draft.

 

[JPetro83]

well said by him. it's a joke. it's time to have a complete level playing field. AFL need to come out with a plan. for example, by 2030 all concessions go. no more academies, no more FS. the only concessions you get is if you lose someone to free agency.

 

[bergholt]

Do you realise how difficult it is to trade for a top five draft pick?

Luckily for you the Swans didn't need to for Heeney. Every knew he was going to be very good, Melbourne bid on him at pick 2, but in the system at the time the Swans were allowed to match with pick 18. Congrats on getting lucky, I guess?

 

[tombomb]

Of course it is! That's exactly the point. If you want a player like Naicos (who everyone could see was going to be at least very very good) then you pay through the nose. As it stands, he cost almost nothing relative to his likelihood of succeeding.

And that is the change that is coming in next year and should have come in this year if a majority of clubs, including multiple Victorian clubs, had agreed.

Brisbane would have to find another two 1st round draft picks to go with their current pick 15 to match a bid on Ashcroft if he goes pick 1.

Go and take it up with clubs like Richmond and Carlton who wanted the system left as is.

 

[Gavin Excell]

I understand the lottery of father son and how that effects equalisation but I don't get the claim of how this unfairly targets a club like St Kilda. Perhaps I'm missing something

 

[tombomb]

Luckily for you the Swans didn't need to for Heeney. Every knew he was going to be very good, Melbourne bid on him at pick 2, but in the system at the time the Swans were allowed to match with pick 18. Congrats on getting lucky, I guess?

Congrats on getting lucky when you were being handed priority draft picks every year. How far are we going back?

 

[bergholt]

I understand the lottery of father son and how that effects equalisation but I don't get the claim of how this unfairly targets a club like St Kilda. Perhaps I'm missing something

He's the St Kilda president but he's raising it on behalf of the whole comp.

But also, the more historically successful a club is, the more 100 gamers it has, the more chance it has at eligible sons, the more chance one of them will be good. The Saints have been historically unsuccessful so yeah, we're pushing shit uphill.

 

[Nvent]

I understand the lottery of father son and how that effects equalisation but I don't get the claim of how this unfairly targets a club like St Kilda. Perhaps I'm missing something

Well what do StKilda have as a drawing point? Geelong themselves have the go home factor and the uniqueness of living the Geelong lifestyle.

 

[bergholt]

Congrats on getting lucky when you were being handed priority draft picks every year. How far are we going back?

Priority draft picks were (and still should be) a core part of equalisation. Equalisation means if you're worse, you get given more chances to get better. Your pick of Heeney was a direct undermining of equalisation.

Again, if you're against equalisation feel free to just come out and say it. But you can't have it both ways.

 

[Bluelegs]

Every club has access to F/S selections.

It's the house rules Free Parking of the AFL.

I like the sentimentality of it but the draft has become so compromised in so many different ways.

Next year is looking like a total mess with the combination of academies, NGAs and F/S at the top end.

 

[JPetro83]

I understand the lottery of father son and how that effects equalisation but I don't get the claim of how this unfairly targets a club like St Kilda. Perhaps I'm missing something

It might come back to haunt him one day if Nick Reiwoldts boys or Lenny Hayes kids etc turn into guns and end up elsewhere.. but like you said its a lottery

 

[Bunk Moreland]

He's partially deaf.

Fair enough

It’s an incredible accent in that case!

 

[DT_35]

You realise Brisbane getting Levi Ashcroft is as a result of the father son rule available to all clubs though right? Like I can accept academies are random and can be unevenly distributed but you can’t use that argument for father sons, surely.

…..speaking of random

 

[joe444]

Bring back zones. Geelong would never lose a game again.

He's got a point. All this bundling of picks / points etc has got silly. Academies are important, but should be administered by the AFL on behalf of the game in general. And people suggesting hypocrisy don't get it. You don't have to be outside the system to disagree with it.

 

[Xtreme]

The St Kilda president needs to drink a nice tall glass of harden up juice.

 

[LordLucifer]

The Saints didn't complain when they benefitted from players wanting to return to Victoria. So no the system is not setup to keep you down St.Kilda, you guys do that yourself by poor list management & club management.

This is it in a nutshell !!

St.Blunda have been a cellar dweller club for all of its existence, they make mistake after mistake after mistake but lo & behold, its always someone elses fault.

Pointing the finger at the F/S rule because their players are all having daughters is utterly absurd, may as well ring up god and see if he can fix that for them.

They are always first in the queue for the welfare handouts, have no success to talk about and are perenially run by complete nuff-nuffs.

I've said it before and I'll say it again, its time the AFL shuffled this rabble off to another state permanently. Give them some draft assistance & a bit of COLA for doing so and then leave them to their own devices.

If they blow all of the welfare assistance given to them and find themselves back in the spiral of diminishing returns again, then just wind them up for good.

They are a blight on the competition and always have been to such an extent that non-Saints fans are growing extremnely sick & tired of these annual sook-up woe-is-me's.