Opinion Sydney Swans Academy and Rebuild

Academies, friend or foe


  • Total voters
    393

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I think it’s fair as long as the Vic clubs get all the access to Vic kids. And that’s considerably diluted by the fact they have to be shared by 10 clubs.

I think the upshot of all of this is state-based drafts would be best. There’d be little measures required to even it up but think it’d work if done the right way.
It's not rocket science, just force every academy player into the draft and there is no bidding process
 

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If somoene bid on Gulden at pick 10 then the Swans were not taking him. Couldn't get both Gulden and Campbell if they both went in the top 10 as the Swans would have had nowhere near the points for it.

So if my club wants a player rated as pick 32 we have to use pick 10, but if yours wants a player rated at pick 10 you can use 34, 39 and 40?

I think I can see an issue with that.
 
It feels like this needs to be discussed again. While most other teams in the AFL hard yards in their rebuilds, Sydney are given dibs on Isaac Heeney, Callum Mills, Nick Blakey, Braeden Campbell, Errol Gulden, on top of their already early picks in Logan McDonald and Dylan Stephens.

This advantage was partially mitigated by the Nextgen Academies, but the AFL got rid of that because the NSW/QLD clubs didn't like it.

Where to from here?
Strong NSW teams are pretty vital to growing the game.

Only two interstate teams have won a grand final in 15 years, what's the issue? God forbid an academy system gives a team outside of Vic the potential to be competitive.
 
So if my club wants a player rated as pick 32 we have to use pick 10, but if yours wants a player rated at pick 10 you can use 34, 39 and 40?

I think I can see an issue with that.

People talk about those bad picks, but the only reason they are bad picks is because the Swans traded out one good pick for 2 or so worse picks that have more points. We still needed to use the good pick though, it just got disguised as two bad picks.
 
MCG home teams getting to play the Grand Final on their home ground is unfair.... Tassie not having its own AFL side is unfair.... Plenty about the fixturing is unfair.... Etc, etc, etc.... Maybe we should have a generic, all in one, "the AFL is unfair" thread. It'd be a whopper.
This is a separate topic to fixtures, MCG Grand Finals and a Tassie expansion team.

We already have MASSIVE 100 page threads on those other topics

I didn't see anyone in those threads trying to justify the unfairness of those issues by saying "there are many things that are unfair in the AFL"
 
You know Sydney fired up their Academy funded by their sponsor QBE, not the AFL. Your lot sat on it , did nothing until the AFL GAVE you a leg up & the funding to DO SOMETHING.
This post is just like Essendon and Collingwood fans defending their Anzac Day bonanza and telling the whingers from other clubs to "piss off and start your own traditions and leave ours alone!"

This is pretty much where our game is at - fans try to justify the advantages their own clubs receive and they tell everyone else "Go and negotiate your own rorts with the AFL and leave our rorts alone!"

Imagine an AFL competition where all 18 clubs played by the same rules and received equal treatment from the AFL and its complicit media.
"You may say I'm a dreamer... But I'm not the only one..."

edit: I've got a great idea! Hawthorn should go to the AFL and ask if we can start our own Academy with all kids who attend the private schools in Melbourne's leafy eastern suburbs and give us exclusive draft rights. (Not just sons of immigrants.) We'll pay for it. We also demand a Friday night home game vs Collingwood in Round 2 every year. Battle of the Birds! That will be our new tradition.

Geez, I'm full of genius ideas!
 
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Both well established players in the NRL. You stated that the players in these academies were unlikely to be lost to the NRL.


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The idea behind the Swans academy is turning 8 years olds onto AFL - but most of their accademy recruits needed no such help.

Because none of the Swans players were going anyhwere else than AFL.

Poaching players is different - the AFL Swans can try poach gun NRL juniors at age 16 all they want.
 

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It feels like this needs to be discussed again. While most other teams in the AFL hard yards in their rebuilds, Sydney are given dibs on Isaac Heeney, Callum Mills, Nick Blakey, Braeden Campbell, Errol Gulden, on top of their already early picks in Logan McDonald and Dylan Stephens.

This advantage was partially mitigated by the Nextgen Academies, but the AFL got rid of that because the NSW/QLD clubs didn't like it.

Where to from here?
Sydney kick on and have a good start to the season and you cry foul? It's okay, I'm nervous about playing them too.
 
Only the mills, heeney, ugle haven, rioli types who were destined for the afl anyway are unfair. You cant complain about pick 30+ types who have been passed almost twice already anyway.

The only unfair thing with those types was the stupid stacking of 10 pick 70+ to get points to equal a high pick, but that loophole is dead and even the discount will be too. But that's not a Sydney specific thing.
 
This is a separate topic to fixtures, MCG Grand Finals and a Tassie expansion team.

We already have MASSIVE 100 page threads on those other topics

I didn't see anyone in those threads trying to justify the unfairness of those issues by saying "there are many things that are unfair in the AFL"
Consider me a groundbreaker then. :)
 
This is a separate topic to fixtures, MCG Grand Finals and a Tassie expansion team.

We already have MASSIVE 100 page threads on those other topics

I didn't see anyone in those threads trying to justify the unfairness of those issues by saying "there are many things that are unfair in the AFL"

It is relevant to this thread.
 
If the game needs promoting, then the game (the AFL that is) should run the academies. Grab the best kids in NSW & Qld young, give them the best of everything and ready them for the draft. Don’t lose them to other codes. Give them the best and get them draft ready.
The aim should be to promote the game of AFL and to provide a clear pathway to professional careers.
It should not be about promoting certain clubs.
If Rowell can be drafted to Qld or McDonald to NSW, then vice versa.
And Collingwood should not get father sons and should share the MCG with Western Bulldogs
 
Yeah the bidding system needs tweaking (for F/S too).

F/S is such a red herring. 257 players have played for West Coast. Talent pool is the draft aged sons of players. Since the club has been around long enough to have actual father sons (i.e. not 'this guy played 250 games in the WAFL and probably would've played for WC if they existed in 1975') we've had 3. Geelong had a good run in the early to mid 2000s. Why aren't they finding Abletts and Hawkins and Scarletts every other year?
 
Not sure why I'm bothering but here goes for the short version:

Of course investing in junior development in Sydney is a fantastic idea. The issue is any zone system is totally unfair and against the point of the draft.

So far the Swans have got:

Blakey - would've gone father son
Mills - grandpa was a state level footballer in WA
Gulden - grandpa and mum love the game, older brother and sister both play locally

Heeney has a strong league background and I do believe the reports that without the academy he would've been playing rugby league.

Otherwise it's not like there hasn't been great players come out of Sydney before - Lenny Hayes, Jack, the McVeigh's.

If it was branded the AFL Academy and all players weren't tied to the Swans OR if it was the Swans academy but top 40 picks were in the open draft would the talent coming through be any different?
Then it would not be so good at producing players. Then we draft players from VIC instead and they go home.
 
Yep. These NGA academies are nothing more than (mildly racist) lip service to non-northern clubs so they shut up and let the 4 northern clubs continue their amazing advantage.

Academies are fine, but the players coming from them should be available to all clubs. Its fairer.
And Hawthorn should play more games at the other stadium and give up father son.
 

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Opinion Sydney Swans Academy and Rebuild

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