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

[The Nostradamus]

First thing that needs to change is Scrap top 30 academy matching of bids for all clubs

They can always request a trade home after their initial contract

 

[Mofra]

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!!

You joke but but you have the academy which is more about funneling kids into AFL and away from NRL, and nothing
Lions have the academy and a raft of FS picks. Suns are behind the 8 ball compared to their Queensland neighbour.

 

[mpal6]

First thing that needs to change is Scrap top 30 academy matching of bids for all clubs

They can always request a trade hope after their initial contract

And father son, NGA, everything. then we'll have a fair system.

In spite of benefiting more from Father Son than academy recently, I can get behind this change.

 

[Supersuns]

You joke but but you have the academy which is more about funneling kids into AFL and away from NRL, and nothing
Lions have the academy and a raft of FS picks. Suns are behind the 8 ball compared to their Queensland neighbour.

Our academy will pay off, the club has invested significantly into it. Having someone like Rhyce Shaw overseeing is making a huge difference. Football is the main sport played at schools on the GC, we are going to have a lot of young kids being introduced to elite pathways that up until 6 years ago didn't exist on the Coast.

 

[GoEaglesGoSGIO]

Im surprised also people arnt smart enough to read between the lines

Bassat teeing off trying to get pick 8 in for Battle. The conversation is back and forth on it id say at this stage so Bassat gone nuclear to let the AFL know that unless he gets pick 8, he is going to begin a crusade

Its smart posturing

 

[The Nostradamus]

And father son, NGA, everything. then we'll have a fair system.

In spite of benefiting more from Father Son than academy recently, I can get behind this change.

I don’t mind this

No top 30 matching of any players (academy/father sons etc)

Anything after that is fair game but bids inside that can’t match and you just have to wait for a trade

 

[PenAndPaper]

I don’t mind this

No top 30 matching of any players (academy/father sons etc)

Anything after that is fair game but bids inside that can’t match and you just have to wait for a trade

That essentials makes the academies useless. Why would a club invest any time or resources into a player that would clearly go top 30?
They just need to make it that if an academy player is bid on in the first round, the team matching has to use a pick from that same round, none of this using 4 picks in the 30s to match a top 10 pick.

 

[The Nostradamus]

That essentials makes the academies useless. Why would a club invest any time or resources into a player that would clearly go top 30?
They just need to make it that if an academy player is bid on in the first round, the team matching has to use a pick from that same round, none of this using 4 picks in the 30s to match a top 10 pick.

Afl to run the academies

 

[Elixuh]

First thing that needs to change is Scrap top 30 academy matching of bids for all clubs

They can always request a trade home after their initial contract

So we should fund and run our academy but not receive the intended benefit?

 

[Elixuh]

Afl to run the academies

The AFL doesn’t want to run the academies and when they did it was a disaster.

 

[Sector 7G]

Im surprised also people arnt smart enough to read between the lines

Bassat teeing off trying to get pick 8 in for Battle. The conversation is back and forth on it id say at this stage so Bassat gone nuclear to let the AFL know that unless he gets pick 8, he is going to begin a crusade

Its smart posturing

I think it is a diversion from how poor the Saints season was after making finals last year, rather than admit to the members the club has been poor at list management over the last decade.

 

[nineteen eighty]

Afl to run the academies

The AFL doesn’t want to run the academies and when they did it was a disaster.

And that's the thing...the only fair approach is for the AFL to run the academies and yet if they are given them, it will be a fleck up.

If a club is developing and running the academies, then absolutely they need to be rewarded. They need to pay a little more than a bag of chips though for what are top 5 (if not #1) draft picks. And yet the AFL is asleep at the wheel.

Same goes for father / son picks.

 

[Saint believer]

The issue isn’t the access. It’s the cost.

Imagine actually needing to pay the equivalent cost for Libba West JUH Darcy & Croft etc

And what did Geelong pay for drafting Hawkins and Ablett jr?

A long standing fort that has suited the AFL.


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[Elixuh]

And that's the thing...the only fair approach is for the AFL to run the academies and yet if they are given them, it will be a fleck up.

If a club is developing and running the academies, then absolutely they need to be rewarded. They need to pay a little more than a bag of chips though for what are top 5 (if not #1) draft picks. And yet the AFL is asleep at the wheel.

Same goes for father / son picks.

Yeah it’s why we have the club run system. Because when the AFL ran them it failed and was a disaster.

Agree that we need to get rewarded by access but also pay a reasonable cost. Which is where we are headed with the changes next year - which is why the St Kilda B&F outburst is so bizarre.

 

[Toump Ass]

The irony of course is that the league first introduced the father son rule to help Melbourne get Ron Barrassi.

Who cares what the league did as an amateur competiton 100 years ago? It's a professional sport now.

 

[The Nostradamus]

And that's the thing...the only fair approach is for the AFL to run the academies and yet if they are given them, it will be a fleck up.

If a club is developing and running the academies, then absolutely they need to be rewarded. They need to pay a little more than a bag of chips though for what are top 5 (if not #1) draft picks. And yet the AFL is asleep at the wheel.

Same goes for father / son picks.

I’d like to think the afl should be better prepared to run it again now

Give it back to them to trial it so the draft is less compromised for a few years

 

[paulige]

Clubs don’t get a discount for academy or F/S .

In order to match in the first two rounds you need to be within 10 picks of the selection. Easy

Do this, pretty much. Though maybe keep a small discount for Academy picks as incentive for clubs to continue to invest heavily in their development.

“Access” to a F/S player should be the only benefit though - the discount makes no sense IMO.

Some combination of 0% discount, and needing to use at least one pick within some arbitrary distance of the bid (let’s say 10) as part of the payment. E.g. if Ashcroft attracts a bid at 1, we need to come up with Pick 10 + others, at a minimum.

Maintains the beauty of the cross-generational family connections within clubs, which I think is a beautiful thing unique to our game, while not compromising the draft.


While we’re equalising things though, perhaps we can talk about which state gets to host the GF each year…

Daresay if the Lions were first seed and playing the Saints, Bassat wouldn’t be campaigning for it to be at the Gabba.

 

[Elixuh]

If I were Bassat I’d be more concerned about the clubs in my direct market who rort the salary cap every year through sponsorships and make the Melbourne market uncompetitive for clubs like St Kilda. Eddie was about to tell us all about it two years ago before Lloyd went full Essendon nuff. I guarantee the St Kilda players aren’t being topped up and made whole by these types of deals on the large part.

But maybe Bassat hasn’t Cotton-on’d to this reality.

 

[Lavender Bushranger]

I would have a lot more respect for him if he came out guns blazing about Daicos after Pies won the premiership last year.

He's picking and choosing when to channel his moral outrage too. Brisbane is a much easier target compared to taking on Collingwood.

I think he's been on this campaign for a while now.


I completely understand that the fixture cannot be fair. I understand the commercial significance of giving handouts to the 'big clubs' in terms of their fixturing. I get it.

I even get that finals must be played at the MCG due to the contract they have in place.

There's plenty of stuff that is shit in terms of the damage it causes to the integrity of the competition - but if you take a step back, you can almost always see why they do it. Even if you don't agree, you can see why. 5 day breaks, travel, Friday night timeslots, home ground advantages, etc. whilst horribly unfair and advantage certain clubs significantly - the commercial gain for the game justifies it. I get it.

But when you have so much stuff that rips apart the integrity and fairness of the comp that you can't avoid, why choose to add another nonsensical one that offers absolutely zero net gain to the sport?

It's borderline offensive in terms of its stupidity.

 

[bergholt]

Five different flag winners in the past five years.

Climate and weather are different tho

 

[Lavender Bushranger]

Access” to a F/S player should be the only benefit though - the discount makes no sense IMO.

I ask again, why should there be any benefit?

 

[Dewyyyyy]

Andrew Bassat isn’t necessarily wrong with the point he makes in regards to how cheap it is for academy, next gen and father sons. Especially if they’re talented, to clubs, whom may be top 8 sides.

But the way he’s gone about this and his presentation of his point was very poorly spoken.

Came across like blaming all of St Kildas problems on this system, even coupling it with it benefiting wealthy clubs, which is at the fault of no one’s bar his and his clubs.

Financially strong clubs don’t get a benefit that isn’t of their own merit, so instead of complaining, build success and make a change to become that, plenty have done it before and many more will do it.

To mention all of this as if they didn’t mess up many first round picks which have cost them in the past and present, is a laughable stand point. Their own recruiting and development has been a big factor.

Then you have the outstanding club culture, of not inviting a player to the B&F who is departing the club, despite finishing third and being a massive part of St Kilda for the last 5 years.

Sounded so much of a victim mindset, you don’t hear this from other clubs, even if they agree with his point. Poorly spoken and with many holes.

Absolutely laughable the way it’s been portrayed, could’ve been done way better, if you wanted to go down that route.

 

[bergholt]

I think it is a diversion from how poor the Saints season was after making finals last year, rather than admit to the members the club has been poor at list management over the last decade.

The members don't need the club to admit that publicly, we can recite the **** ups in way more detail than you can

 

[Sentinel]

And what did Geelong pay for drafting Hawkins and Ablett jr?

A long standing fort that has suited the AFL.


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I don't think it's particularly relevant to point towards Hawkins or Ablett jnr given they were part of the system which has changed twice since. They were however absolute freebies (particularly Hawkins who some rated as the best of his draft and they got him at 41).

On the post you're responding to, Libba was matched at 40 (using pick 41 to get him) and West at pick 26 (using pick 30 to get him). Slightly cheaper but certainly not howlers - later bid matching in the 2nd round onwards aren't the issue at hand.

It's more complicated for JUH and Croft, but to acquire the picks used to land Darcy at pick 2, the Bulldogs gave up pick 17, pick 75, a future 3rd plus Pat Lipinski and Lewis Young. Clearly not free but definitely cheap and exactly what Bassat refers to - effectively a late first rounder plus 4 late round 3+ picks (or equivalent to) for pick 2. This is similar to Collingwood for Daicos, Brisbane for Ashcroft etc (again all more complicated to work out exactly, but along these lines).

And the biggest impact with such high picks is that often in recent times they allow higher placed clubs to jump into the draft earlier than clubs finishing towards the bottom of the ladder, whilst not giving up huge draft capital to do so.

 

[Elixuh]

Andrew Bassat isn’t necessarily wrong with the point he makes in regards to how cheap it is for academy, next gen and father sons. Especially if they’re talented, to clubs, whom may be top 8 sides.

But the way he’s gone about this and his presentation of his point was very poorly spoken.

Came across like blaming all of St Kildas problems on this system, even coupling it with it benefiting wealthy clubs, which is at the fault of no one’s bar his and his clubs.

Financially strong clubs don’t get a benefit that isn’t of their own merit, so instead of complaining, build success and make a change to become that, plenty have done it before and many more will do it.

To mention all of this as if they didn’t mess up many first round picks which have cost them in the past and present, is a laughable stand point. Their own recruiting and development has been a big factor.

Then you have the outstanding club culture, of not inviting a player to the B&F who is departing the club, despite finishing third and being a massive part of St Kilda for the last 5 years.

Sounded so much of a victim mindset, you don’t hear this from other clubs, even if they agree with his point. Poorly spoken and with many holes.

Absolutely laughable the way it’s been portrayed, could’ve been done way better, if you wanted to go down that route.

He doesn’t actually raise NGAs because that is something St Kilda can benefit from.