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

[Teflon]

.and your club would **** up that top 10 pick or pick a jet and break them.

Yeah cause the point being made was just for “my club”
It’s like night of the walking zombies fck me ….get the point or get off the pot mate it ain’t that hard

 

[Teflon]

yeah yeah yeah....

But the comp has been cooked since post WW2, well into the 70's and 80's and so on.....during which time St Kilda have mostly been utter trash. Evenness, fairness etc are all wonderful traits that the VFL/AFL have repeatedly used as corporate buzzwords and little else.

Even if your president feels stridently about the issue, commenting about it publicly at the B&F is complete madness. At best it will divide opinion about validity, at worst it will be interpreted as a whinge.

I get it, I really do....I can recall feeling similarly aggrieved in or around 2014.....but we were simply forced to accept that complaining about fairness etc wasn't going to fix shit. The ONLY remedy was to swallow that bitterness and get on and build something that didn't rely on anybody else.

Carlton ALSO got heavily punished post-2000 and spent years as a basket case - they brought that on themselves. Privately, I'm sure they felt it was punitive and heavy-handed.....but they took their medicine and found a way to come out the other side.

Statements from the OP - "As a Saints supporter, of course it's unfair that I ended up supporting a shit team...." - reflect the victim mentality that envelops a supporter who is desperate for help.....but this is LIFE mate.....nobody is going to come to your assistance and hand you the keys to success. The reality is you have to do the work yourself.

And your chief should know. Agitating in the manner described at the GF is embarrassing, self-defeating and puerile.

Agitating in the manner the prez did is exactly what his job is - he’s done the behind closed doors stuff and has been all year
The rest is dribble btw and off topic
Want the top FS picks ???? Awesome … pay up or don’t get them it’s that simple
Academies? - AFL run, give us all access no more freebies you lot have had enough premiership handouts …time to stand up in QLD on your own

 

[Teflon]

If the Lions had finished last, this conversation doesn't happen.

So the issue IS NOT about the F/S selection and that player's talent and potential, it is about the fact we just won the flag......

And we won the flag because of all the work we started to do in 2016, which took 8 years to bear fruit.

It's really very simple - don't hide behind this "fairness" rubbish, because it is a fallacy you champion to satisfy and buttress the timeless litanies of failure that consign St Kilda to the shitheap.

Pay the price - same for Pies for anyone getting a top 5-10 draft pick for fck all
It ain’t that hard
You want him bad enough - you should cough up
Saints want Riewoldt kid in a few years - pay up Saints
On what brain dead planet is that hard to get??

 

[Teflon]

I like the Saints though and want them to do well and see success. But they continually let themselves down at every level of the organisation. When is the last time the Saints had serious people running and operating the joint? When is the last time the Saints were a serious organisation?

Your president is getting up at the B&F telling the players they're the scraps and telling anecdotes about going up to AFL Commissioners on grand final day.

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I think you’ll find (you love us so much you probably know this already..) our prez and the way the club is run right now is the best it has been in 10 years …
He’s not an unsuccessful fool Bassatt there is method to the approach
Now you don’t like it cause you’ve just won a flag so you’re all “come follow our strategic Lions path…” BS
I was ex Fitzroy so don’t give me Lions - the club shouldn’t even be in Brisbane you lot are an AFL fabrication borne out of the AFL deciding Fitzroy would be no more and a merge with Nth didn’t suit the “northern expansion agenda..”
The colours ain’t even right ….
But glad you like the Saints ….i always did too

 

[briztoon]

I think you’ll find (you love us so much you probably know this already..) our prez and the way the club is run right now is the best it has been in 10 years …

Boy oh boy you're in trouble then.

Stephen Silvagni as your list manager, supported by Gubby Allen. Two of the biggest frauds in the game.

Coached by Lyon who's teams strangle the life out of the game.

No amount of under the table brown paper bags from Allen is going to entice decent players down to St Kilda.

 

[Dogflogger]

Boy oh boy you're in trouble then.

Stephen Silvagni as your list manager, supported by Gubby Allen. Two of the biggest frauds in the game.

Coached by Lyon who's teams strangle the life out of the game.

No amount of under the table brown paper bags from Allen is going to entice decent players down to St Kilda.

we don't need trade targets we need unmatchable academy players if you want to be fair. how did Pappa Fagan work that magic???

 

[Hollow Knight]

Note to self: Remember to bump this thread when we match the bid on Cooper Hodge in a couple of years.

 

[Broken_Chairs]

Drafted Jake waterman through father son

Lmao the player that only just came good after 8 years on our list taken with pick 77 (that no one else bid on) and suddenly we've reamed the draft...

 

[Iceman!]

Father Son is such an odd thing to whinge about given the randomness of it.

Sometimes it works out (Daicos x 2, Ashcroft, Hawkins etc), other times sons don’t want to play for Dad’s club (Dunkley, Marc Murphy etc) and other times they are just low risk busts (at Lions, Shane Morrison, Josh Clayton) and other times they don’t make the grade (Casey Voss and no doubt many others) or you have a lot of players having girls.

Doubt you’d also find many northerners complaining about NGA’s either for legitimate kids that clubs put development into like Essendon have done with the kid they’ll pick up.

This is why it is a problem, clubs are getting random huge advantages based off no good planning or anything of that nature.

Academies have flaws and i think need to be adjusted but they also have a purpose.

Father son is a complete load of shit and are so out dated it is not funny.

 

[Biggy_Boy]

And if it is, why do they just want the good Father-Sons, and not the hopeless ones?

To be fair, while a lot gets made of Geelong's successes with F/S (Hawkins, Scarlett, Ablett), we've also taken the punt on a lot of father/sons that actually weren't very good. In fact, basically all of them since Hawkins have not been highly touted juniors, and we have picked them up more because of who their father was rather than because of the player the son is.

Guys like Bews, S. Simpson, Brownless, Riccardi were kids we picked up who probably wouldn't have been drafted by us, or maybe anyone, if not for who their dads were. We would have loved these players to come good (and Bews sort of did in his role) because of the story of it, and that's perhaps why they get picked. There are definitely some big advantages to it when you pick up the guns, but not every son of a superstar is also one, but it seems my club at least still feels a bit of an obligation to give them a go.

 

[Iceman!]

Keep crying loser.

Father Son is a great rule and unique to the code. No amount of your crying will change that.

Maybe stop taking everything so seriously. Some of you melts can't help yourselves haha.

Something being unique doesn't make it good, maybe it is worth asking why the AFL is the only league that thinks it makes sense?

It is a shit rule.

 

[Sir_Loin]

Bassatt just deflecting from his decision to sack an in contract coach, appoint Ross Lion and they’re no better off

 

[briztoon]

we don't need trade targets we need unmatchable academy players if you want to be fair. how did Pappa Fagan work that magic???

But you have an academy, and probably the best or second best zone to recruit from.

You’ve already got a couple of good kids from your academy. And you literally don’t have to put any effort or investment in to it for it to succeed.

I don’t understand the hypocritical whining about this.

 

[Lavender Bushranger]

To be fair, while a lot gets made of Geelong's successes with F/S (Hawkins, Scarlett, Ablett), we've also taken the punt on a lot of father/sons that actually weren't very good. In fact, basically all of them since Hawkins have not been highly touted juniors, and we have picked them up more because of who their father was rather than because of the player the son is.

Guys like Bews, S. Simpson, Brownless, Riccardi were kids we picked up who probably wouldn't have been drafted by us, or maybe anyone, if not for who their dads were. We would have loved these players to come good (and Bews sort of did in his role) because of the story of it, and that's perhaps why they get picked. There are definitely some big advantages to it when you pick up the guns, but not every son of a superstar is also one, but it seems my club at least still feels a bit of an obligation to give them a go.

Do you think clubs should be forced to Draft these guys?

 

[Lavender Bushranger]

No amount of under the table brown paper bags from Allen is going to entice decent players down to St Kilda.

But that's why the AFL introduced an uncompromised Draft and Salary Cap system to ensure the equalisation and integrity of the competition.

Oh wait...

 

[Sully111]

I like the Saints though and want them to do well and see success. But they continually let themselves down at every level of the organisation. When is the last time the Saints had serious people running and operating the joint? When is the last time the Saints were a serious organisation?

Your president is getting up at the B&F telling the players they're the scraps and telling anecdotes about going up to AFL Commissioners on grand final day.

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Yeah, if only we had a president that knew how to run a successful organisation.

 

[sydney_gws]

Correct
It ain’t hard pay full price
For anyone whingeing about St Kilda stuff ups - the prez stated we’ve been our own worst enemy
Doesn’t change the fact the system is cooked

It should have changed, at least on an interim basis for 2024. It didn't because of Richmond, Carlton and to a lesser degree Brisbane. Did it go to a vote?

 

[Pakenhamsaint]

The irony is so many responses to Bassat's comments are proving him very right.

It's clear quite a few think we should just shut up, cop it and keep making up the numbers in AFL.

Footy classisim rears it's head as usual

 

[Supersuns]

Either you have equalisation or you don't. You guys want an EPL style free-for-all where only a few clubs can win a flag? The more of this crap you put in, the more it moves towards that.

Every club bar Gold Coast has had a grand final appearance in the last 25 years. So you're right we need more equalisation for us!!

 

[SeaOfFire]

The irony is so many responses to Bassat's comments are proving him very right.

It's clear quite a few think we should just shut up, cop it and improve our organisation from within to achieve better on-field results.

Footy classisim rears it's head as usual

FTFY

 

[wannabewinner]

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.

You know everyone hates it when the other team gets it and loves it when one’s own team gets it.

I think there shouldn’t be any discount or the rule should not exist.

It would apply to all teams including my own.

 

[Pakenhamsaint]

FTFY

He actually addressed that.
You like so many clearly didn't listen to his entire speech and not the small grab.

 

[Elixuh]

your totally right, its just an attitude problem. not fairness or fixture issue. Once we have the right attitude the cheap F/S and preferential fixturing will come our way. it's gonna be glorious when we have such a good attitude that they stop sending us to Kardinia park

‘We can’t win a flag because of the fixturing’. Every excuse under the books being thrown out by the mighty sainters.

The lions had the worst fixture of any club this season - 3x SA and 2x WA - and won the flag. You play 17 odd games a season with no travel. Ffs how much more do you want?

 

[mpal6]

Agitating in the manner the prez did is exactly what his job is - he’s done the behind closed doors stuff and has been all year
The rest is dribble btw and off topic
Want the top FS picks ???? Awesome … pay up or don’t get them it’s that simple
Academies? - AFL run, give us all access no more freebies you lot have had enough premiership handouts …time to stand up in QLD on your own

Shows how much you understand about being an AFL club in NRL land. There is no grassroot level AFL establishment to create opportunities or jobs like coaching, training etc. Gold Coast is starting to change but in Brisbane and far north QLD there are private school boards who have blocked playing AFL as a sport in their school system. Until you see broader changes in the way AFL has penetrated into the state, the inequality will continue to exist and there will be a reliance for QLD based clubs to source talent from Victoria.

I'd say our academy - even though it's not doing a stellar job so far in terms of identifying good talent early like Gold Coast have done so far - has been helping us to level the playing field slowly and build our list out with more QLD focused talent like Andrews (pick 61), Hipwood (14), Coleman (undrafted 18 yo, anyone could've taken him in that draft), Reville (drafted as 22 yo), Payne (pick 54) and so on.

Gold Coast this year and possibly in the next 2 years have talent coming through their ranks where they can't draft all of them. That's how you change the system rather than having a mindless go at academy and rambling about "stand up on your own".

 

[BurnUp]

Something being unique doesn't make it good, maybe it is worth asking why the AFL is the only league that thinks it makes sense?

It is a shit rule.

Nah you're a whiney little sook.

The AFL isn't the uber serious competition you think it is. It's entertainment. Father/Son picks add to the spectacle and emotional investment. Cry about it you boring sook.